Boot issue

lovejones · Oct 7, 2009

Hi All

Ok long and short of it,

A friend had issues with his laptop, the system (Vista Home Premium)came with lots of preinstalled acer software, he had tried getting rid of them but had no luck, anyhow, he ended up turning off all the startup programs in system config, upon rebooting, he had the error no os found, i have since managed to get passed htis, however i cannot get any further.
The HD is recognised in Bios
The repair from a disc was completed
Now it will boot into windows but nothing, no user, no task bar, nothing just an arrow on the screen with a background.
I have tried removing memory and starting up
repair for a second time
bootsect via cmd
nothing, i cant boot into safe mode, it just loops back to normal boot, it has no restore points.

I only have vista basic and vista business discs, and he does not have a disc, it came with a partition, i have tried recovery but it tells me there is not backup, yet i can get the task manager up and into cmd, this shows me all the files, so i know there is no issue there

I am assuming that the boot file in boot.ini is up the duff.

Is there any way i can get this thing to boot up with his user and all back to normal? i have scoured the net but nothing of help.

Thanks

lemur · Oct 7, 2009

lovejones said:
Hi All

Ok long and short of it,

A friend had issues with his laptop, the system (Vista Home Premium)came with lots of preinstalled acer software, he had tried getting rid of them but had no luck, anyhow, he ended up turning off all the startup programs in system config, upon rebooting, he had the error no os found, i have since managed to get passed htis, however i cannot get any further.
The HD is recognised in Bios
The repair from a disc was completed
Now it will boot into windows but nothing, no user, no task bar, nothing just an arrow on the screen with a background.
I have tried removing memory and starting up
repair for a second time
bootsect via cmd
nothing, i cant boot into safe mode, it just loops back to normal boot, it has no restore points.

I only have vista basic and vista business discs, and he does not have a disc, it came with a partition, i have tried recovery but it tells me there is not backup, yet i can get the task manager up and into cmd, this shows me all the files, so i know there is no issue there

I am assuming that the boot file in boot.ini is up the duff.

Is there any way i can get this thing to boot up with his user and all back to normal? i have scoured the net but nothing of help.

Thanks

Of course removing all the preinstalled junk (which is fine) with Acer was not causing his problems.

He might have ran msconfig and turned off all Microsoft startups. Bad, bad, bad.

Removing memory shouldn't help as that wasn't the issue to begin with (it was the startup change).

Remove and Recreate your partition, do a clean install.

Courtesy of Brink...
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/117366-clean-install-full-version-vista.html

stoneys-nutz · Oct 7, 2009

Hello lovejones,
You could also try F8 on boot up, and try "last known good configuration" if that option is there, on the boot screen there may be an option to reset it to Factory settings.
If i get this sort of problem on a desktop i remove the power lead for a few minutes, you could remove the battery and try that.
Hope some of this will be of use, good luck and post your results.

lovejones · Oct 7, 2009

Thanks for the help thus far,

Ok, yes appears he may have turned off microsoft startups, however, i would have thought in this day and age there would have been a way around this.

I cant log into safe mode, it attempts to, then loops back to booting up, i have tried repairing but gives me info that the bootlog is fine, i can run the system.

startup computer, windows loads, then i get a background and mouse arrow and thats it, i can pull up task manager, and open up cmd here, i can also open up the info and see the drives, have tried running admin tools, but then tells me the path is invalid, this i assume is because of msoft progs not running.

Tried last known config, tried safe mode, safe mode with networking, safe mode with cmd.

As for reinstalling, hmm how can i do this? i dont have a windows home premium disc.

This is one thing i hate, you buy your product, you have the serial key, yet no disc, so if it breaks your stuffed!

Frostmourne · Oct 7, 2009

Is the serial OEM with the PC, or a disk serial? If its OEM, it most likely won't work as OEM is tied to the laptop/pc. Windows 7 is coming in a fortnight or so, so you can wait for that if you can't reinstall Vista.

lovejones · Oct 7, 2009

Its an OEM, and from my history have never had an issue using other ppls disks so long as key is legit,

The point is, i dont see the need to pay for another os, it comes with one and a ob a key, so to pay for another is double dipping.

The only other thing i can think of is removing the HDD and plugging into my tower, and see if i can fix via being a slave drive, this allows me into all the areas, however, not having worked a great deal on vista, i dont know how or where to go to rectify the startup issues.

Frostmourne · Oct 7, 2009

OEM's are usually tied to a single pc. Try taking out the hard drive, if its SATA, you don't need slave or master settings. Thank SATA for that.

lovejones · Oct 7, 2009

your right an oem is, but the key isnt, anyway, its not a disc its just an image, and the bloody thing wont even let me boot from that image, even following acer's ins.

so if i can get into the drive via another computer, is there any way i can rectify the issue? it appears it has no restore points, but this maybe because of what he has done, maybe if i can get into the drive i can look, and if so manually create the restore, if this is possible, does anyone know how this is done?

Frostmourne · Oct 7, 2009

You can start checking the disk for errors, and backing up the data. OEM keys usually are linked to the laptop and its version of vista.

lovejones · Oct 7, 2009

i dont think the disk has errors, the problem came about because he turned off startup progs, i have run vista advanced progs, repair boot got me to the desktop but only gives me a arrow, no icons or anything, i can however run task manager.

what if i install another os if i create a partition, can i then fix the other and then remove the partition i made?

lemur · Oct 7, 2009

lovejones said:
i dont think the disk has errors, the problem came about because he turned off startup progs, i have run vista advanced progs, repair boot got me to the desktop but only gives me a arrow, no icons or anything, i can however run task manager.

what if i install another os if i create a partition, can i then fix the other and then remove the partition i made?

You can resize the partition, install a new os in the new partition, get your data from the old, the resize the new partition. np

Frostmourne · Oct 7, 2009

lemur said:
lovejones said:

i dont think the disk has errors, the problem came about because he turned off startup progs, i have run vista advanced progs, repair boot got me to the desktop but only gives me a arrow, no icons or anything, i can however run task manager.

what if i install another os if i create a partition, can i then fix the other and then remove the partition i made?

Click to expand...

You can resize the partition, install a new os in the new partition, get your data from the old, the resize the new partition. np

Resize as in extend.

lemur · Oct 7, 2009

Resize partition - Knoppix, Ubuntu, etc
How to Resize a Partition using Gparted on Linux? - The solution

lemur · Oct 7, 2009

Frostmourne said:
lemur said:

lovejones said:

i dont think the disk has errors, the problem came about because he turned off startup progs, i have run vista advanced progs, repair boot got me to the desktop but only gives me a arrow, no icons or anything, i can however run task manager.

what if i install another os if i create a partition, can i then fix the other and then remove the partition i made?

Click to expand...

You can resize the partition, install a new os in the new partition, get your data from the old, the resize the new partition. np

Click to expand...

Resize as in extend.

Yes, thanks Frost...

lovejones · Oct 8, 2009

ok i have managed to log in by running task manager and running explorer.exe
which logs me in with a temporary profile, from here is there anythig i can do?

i have tried msconfig and startup but hasnt changed a thing! it only has sp1 on it by the looks of it, i have tried updates but wouldnt let me.

would there be abything in regedit that may be array?

states no restore points, however now i am in is there anyway i can look?

with no disk and not allowing me to use the hidden this is becoming a sore sore point lol

theog · Oct 8, 2009

Hi lovejones

As you are in windows,

1) make a new user.

2) go to acer recovery,& burn your recovery DVD's.

lovejones · Oct 9, 2009

unfortunately it wont allow me to create a new user!

as for acer recovery,& burn your recovery DVD's, unsure how to do this!

I have tried the Alt+F10 however this gives me an error, so unable to do this,

what is the best way to burn the recovery, ie ewhat files do i burn, and how do i get it to boot from it?

hairs going greyer and balder by the hour lol

theog · Oct 9, 2009

Hi lovejones

Have a at this tutorial:

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/241565-custom-install-vista.html

1) With the above tutorial,only to STEP 20. DO NOT DELETE WINDOWS.OLD.

2) Find the windows.old folder.

3) Open up, look for the Acer recovery program.

4) Start the recovery program, make your recovery DVD's. DO NOT SHUT DOWN.

5) From the program reinstall the OS.

Tutorials If thing go bad.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/88236-repair-install-vista.html?ltr=R

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/237033-windows-old-folder-restore-into-new-installation.html?ltr=W

Boot issue

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