I am in an endless boot (?) loop

BDW2012

New Member
Dear All - I am new to this exchange and forum.

I am in an endless boot (?) loop (see details below). I thought of going to Geek Squad but the online reviews were not favorable. Could someone please help me or at least direct me to someone who can? I am SO over my head on this. I have been at this for days (took a break to enjoy Christmas). At this point I want to do the following:
1. Get out of the loop and be able to get my PC back. It is not formatted as it still is acting as my main PC where I have my wireless router/modem setup for all my PCs and MACs to access the Internet.
2. Be able to get my PC to be able to read SeaGate storage device.

Help!

Here is my saga, and thank you for your patience in reading my tale.

PC stopped recognizing SeaGate Free Agent and subsequent fixes (TestDisk) has put me in an endless loop at startup.

I have an external device (SeaGate Free Agent Desk 1.5 Terrabyte drive) where I backup my data. This device actually contains original data (as I removed it from my PC’s harddrive – so it really isn’t just a backup).

Seagate Free Agent stopped working with my PC (VISTA ). When I connect it to the PC it makes a loud ticking sound. Apparently this seems to be a common issue as many users have already documented this complaint.

In my attempts to resolve my issue I did the following and possibly made it more convoluted and now I am stuck.

1) I downloaded a software TestDisk from this site.
After I installed the software TestDisk and ran it, my PC is now in an endless loop. Others have also experienced this issue documented at the following link:

I used a program called TestDisk to help find the hard drive and now - Microsoft Community

2) I have tried booting my PC (VISTA) pressing F2, F4, F8 several times and none of them gets me to that old familiar menu that would allow me to start-up in Safemode.

I also don’t know what disk to insert to boot up.

I have the following CD/DVDs (#1 and #3 from my original purchase ) and inserted them into my drive while my PC was booting up and was not successful. Or I don’t know what I’m doing .
1. Operating System Reinstallation CD for Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
2. I also purchased a recovery disk from the following. I used my MAC Book Pro to create a DVD, but not sure I did that correctly. I burned the following to disk “EasyRE for Windows Vista.iso”. No luck – when I placed into my Vista CD/DVD drive.
3. Operating System Reinstallation DVD for Windows Vista Home Premium 32BIT

3) I tried changing how my system boots – but not sure what to do next.
Sincerely
BDW2012
 
Last edited:

My Computer

Hi BDW2012,

That sounds like quite a mess!

Before we continue, I just want to double check that you have everything backed up? Do you have your product key noted down just in case? If not, can you note it down? If not, then just make sure this file is in your backup:

C:\Windows\system32\config\SOFTWARE (it has no extension)

Now I would like you to make a bootable Vista USB: Dell Community

Don't do anything with it yet though :)

Tom
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Build #1
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 3770K @4.4GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77-V PRO
    Memory
    Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB DDR3 1600MHz Low Profile (White)
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte Radeon HD 7850 (2GB GDDR5)
    Sound Card
    Integrated on motherboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    23" LG LCD/LED IPS
    Screen Resolution
    1920*1080
    Hard Drives
    Samsung EVO 128GB SSD
    Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200rpm
    2x500GB Seagate FreeAgent 5400rpm
    PSU
    Corsair TX650W V2 (80+ Bronze)
    Case
    NZXT Phantom 410
    Cooling
    Corsair H100 Water Cooler, 1x140mm and 1x120mm stock fans
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Desktop 2000 Wireless Keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Desktop 2000 Wireless Mouse
    Internet Speed
    95 Mb/s Download 70 Mb/s Upload
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