I recently booted up my Gateway notebook only to find the "blue screen of death"
I rebooted and it came up to a windows boot manager screen which says windows failed to start..insert installation disc and click repair to fix...blah blah...i'm sure you know the story...
My question is, I booted the Vista disc and when I click repair it doesn't even find the C: drive...when I try and run the BCD fix from the command prompt screen, it says it found 0 Windows installations...would this indicate a faulty hard drive?? If so, I dont mind replacing the drive, I just wanna make sure this is the issue before I spend the money to replace it...
I'm not sure what BCD fix you tried, but see if it is this one and if not, try this one.
To run the Bootrec.exe tool, you must start Windows RE. To do this, follow these steps: (you need a Vista Installation Disk to do this)
1. Put the Windows Vista installation disc in the disc drive, and then start the computer. 2. Press a key when you are prompted. 3. Select a language, a time, a currency, a keyboard or an input method, and then click Next. 4. Click Repair your computer. 5. Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next. 6. In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Command Prompt. 7. Type Bootrec.exe, and then press ENTER.
Note If rebuilding the BCD does not resolve the startup issue, you can export and delete the BCD, and then run this option again. By doing this, you make sure that the BCD is completely rebuilt. To do this, type the following commands at the Windows RE command prompt: bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup c: cd boot attrib bcd -s -h -r ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old bootrec /RebuildBcd
See if that works.
If you don't have the disk (or that didn't work), try EasyBCD http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1 and see if that helps resolve the problem.
If that doesn't work, you probably have some type of hardware problem - but it's hard to tell. It may be as simple as the hard drive cable got disconnected and all you have to do is reconnect it and everything will be fine. While it may be the hard drive, it could also be other hardware components. If you have another PC in which you can slave this hard drive, do that and see if you can access the contents (not boot to it but just read what is there). If so, it possibly isn't the hard drive that's the problem. It would help to get a complete and exact word-for-word description of everything on the BSOD as that may help identify the true source of the problem - post it here so we can research it and see if it tells us anything useful (it may help or it may be too general to help - but we won't know until we see it).
If you do decide to replace the hard drive, then be sure you can return it and get your money back in case the new hard drive experiences the same problem when you try to install or when you try to run after installation if installation works. That would mean the problem most likely isn't the hard drive and there's no sense spending money on devices you don't need so you can return the one you purchased. I would try the following first, however, to possibly resolve the problem and save you the hassle of getting another drive.
Considering you were about to replace the hard drive, at this point I would try a clean install of the system (after backing up your data). You can use Knoppix http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html with a good ISO copier like: http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm along with a blank CD. This should give you enough access to the system (if you can't get in any other way) to backup your important data. If that doesn't work and you were able to access the slaved drive, then slave it again and do the backup from there. Once done, you can do a clean install either using the genuine Windows Vista Installation Disk or the Recovery Disk or the Recovery Partition (whatever process is dictated by your computer manufacturer – you may need to contact them for the procedure and perhaps to get recovery disks). To do a clean install proceed as follows: http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_install_03.asp (adapted as necessary by the procedures of your computer manufacturer). Then you will need to re-install all your programs, reset all your preferences, reconfigure your network and email settings, restore your backed up data, run Windows Update with possibly nearly 150 updates pending,...
See if it now works. If so, you're back in business. If not, at that point try the hard drive replacment if there is no financial risk. If that doesn't work, I would recommend a reputable computer repair shop for service, diagnosis, repair, and possibly replacment of defective components.
Thanks so much for all the information and the kwik reply! I reseated the hard drive last night and took the bottom panel off my laptop and just tighted up any chips or wires that I could find...today when I booted it up with the Vista disc, and I clicked on repair, it located the C: drive with the operating system...which it wasn't able to do before. This allowed me to search for errors on startup and reboot....after it rebooted it showed another error message with a missing registry file...I booted off the Vista disc again and choose repair and when it rebooted from the hard drive it was fixed! Maybe a loose connection as you suggested?? In any case, I appreciate the help you provided and thanks again for all your time...I had actually backed up my important files with a program called "Ubuntu"...it allows access to your hard drive when windows won't boot up...its a pretty awesome program..kinda like a seperate operating system! If you didnt know bout that you could check it out...just burn with a program like imgburn...probably very much like the program you had already suggested...
Excellent news. Congratulations! So it was something as simple as a loose connection after all (though you did have other problems but with access restored, startup repair fixed the other issues and got you back in good shape).
I'm glad my suggestion to check the cabling worked and that the other suggestions weren't really required - it was my pleasure to be able to help.
I appreciate the feedback and you letting us know that the problem is resolved.
We'll be here if you have any other problems or questions - so don't hesitate to ask anytime.
