Vista - Blue screen problem

Hi, I'm more tech savvy than most, but not a Vista expert. I'm in a state now where I can't get past the blue screen. I've done multiple chkdsks, where it says files are being repaired/deleted, indexes removed, etc., but when I reboot into Vista, things run for a bit, then the blue screen appears. I was able to get into repair mode using F8, and the startup repair says it found and fixed one error (can't remember now what it was), and was able to get into Vista again. I thought I had everything working, but the blue screen again. Now I can't even get to the repair mode. When I boot up, I get an error saying there was a disk read error. The more I try, the worse it seems to get. I've run sfc multiple times, and no errors are found, so that didn't help. I've run memory diagnostices multiple times, and no errors are found. I want to avoid a clean install if possible. How can I get back to repair mode so I can at least run a system restore or partial restore (if that's possible)? I'm at wits end!! Thanks very much.

Can you post the .dmp files?

No, because everytime I try to do anything, I get the blue screen. I was able to F8 to try to either run the repair or open into safe mode, but anything I do now is coming back with the blue screen.

Is there anyway to boot to a DOS prompt so I can run some of the utilities I've seen mentioned? Used to be you could do that in the old days. Or is there a way to boot up without loading any of the Vista system files? Thanks.

You can try safe mode with comman prompt and then rstrui.exe to access system restore. If not download SystemRescueCd the system rescue cd here and run the diagnostics. The site has more info.

Hi. It seems the system rescue cd is only for linux? At least that's what I'm seeing on that site.

No you burn it to cd then boot with it in the drive, then if you want a gui type wizard and then xorg. Read the guides for more detail. It has everything you need and it does work on windows. Again, read the introductory guide.

I'll try the system rescue then. FYI, when I try to boot to safe mode command prompt, the windows files stop loading when I get to:

\windows\system32\drivers\crcdisk.sys

After that, nothing happens; just sits there and never gets to the prompt. It's either failing on this file or the file that comes after it.

I'm also going to use what's in your Troubleshooting BSODs book, maybe that'll also help. Thanks.

After windows loading stalled on the crcdisk.sys file, it eventually went to the blue screen again. But I finally got sysrescuecd loaded. I didn't know what to start with, so I started with aida (diagnostic) tool. It's been running for awhile. What's your suggestion for what I should be running? This is all new territory for me, so any help you can pass this why I'd really appreciate. Thanks!

Try mounting your hard drive in the GUI envionment after diagnostics:

Sysresccd-manual-en Mounting an NTFS partition with full Read-Write support - SystemRescueCd

Then navigate to crcdisk.sys and rename it to crcdisk.sys.old and see if windows can boot into safe mode with that disabled. Some possible causes are:

Initial Boot after intall fails on crcdisk.sys