Vista won't boot and won't recover

CJHook

New Member
I'm having problems booting Vista. I'll start by saying that there was a power cut last night so I don't know whether this is to blame. I apologise in advance for the length of this.

I believe I'm running Vista Home Premium 64. I forget the exact hardware specs, but it's a fairly new system, and is more than capable of handling anything I throw at it. I'm ok with most aspects of computers, but the more technical things escape me.

The problem started when my computer froze when ending the screensaver. I had to swich the machine off as I couldn't see anything on the screen.

Next time I turned the machine on, I (perhaps mistakenly) re-booted Vista normally.

The same problem happened again, but this time I tried booting in safe mode. This seemed to freeze mid-bootup, and after leaving it for a while, I couldn't think of anything to do but switch off the machine and start over.

This time Vista gave me some options to recover the system. I think I selected something that would try and repair any problems but after a few minutes of the system apparently doing nothing, I got a blue screen saying that windows had to be shut down to prevent an error (or something like that).

When I tried to boot again all I got was some text saying that I should select the correct boot location, or device, or something (I'm so sorry, I can't remember the wording), or insert some kind of boot media. There were no options to select that I could see so I dug out my recovery CD, put it in, pressed a key, and it started to load up some stuff.

I got to options for selecting the language vista would be installed in, etc., so I just selected the UK options, since I'm in the UK, and clicked OK. I was then taken to a screen with more options, one of which was for repairing the system. However, none of the options seem to work because it looks like it cannot find an operating system to recover.

I'm at a complete loss as to what to do. I don't know if this is a software issue or whether the hard disc has broken. Should I just re-install vista from scratch? Presumably all my files will be lost?

I would really appreicate any help anyone can give me.

Many thanks!
 

My Computer

CJHookCJHookHello CJHook,
Welcome to vista forums!

If you get a vista installation DVD and install vista again, there will be a vista.old folder containing all of your files from the previous installation (as long as you dont format your HD on the installation).
From here you can jsut click and drag and get all of your files back.

Let us know if you need and further help and good luck,
Ben
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell
    CPU
    Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 420 @1.60 GHz
    Motherboard
    Dell Inspion 530 Default
    Memory
    PNY 4GB 240-Pin SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Gateway PnP Monitor
    Screen Resolution
    1024x768 @ 75 Hz
    Hard Drives
    Seagate 250G ATA SATA-II
    Case
    Dell Inspiron 530
    Cooling
    None
    Keyboard
    Logitech EX100 Combo
    Mouse
    Logitech EX100 Combo
    Internet Speed
    100 MB/s
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