Vista repair

A

asekar

Member
I am trying to get my Dell Inspiron 1545 Vista Home Premium laptop boot after it began starting always on the memory check screen and going through a loop. This happened after I tried to recover the data from a WD external drive from this laptop using Testdisk software. The attempt was unsuccessful but I removed the WD drive and this problem occurred the next time I started my laptop. I used the recovery CD that I got when purchasing the laptop. After going through system repair a number of times and getting the message that OS not found and bootmanager missing. I used the Command prompt to explore the hard drive. Unfortunately I did partition the hard drive and put my data on the other partition. I found three drives X. C and D and the data files names read very garbled with strange characters. I tried various options like repairing the bootmanager as suggested but nothing worked.

I ran a program called Bootrepair downloaded from the web and booted from a CD and it showed successful repair. but now when I started the laptop the blank screen with the cursor blinking comes on after the DELL logo but nothing happens. Now when I ran the system repair from the recovery CD the OS was there and the message said the booting was successful. There was no error code but there was a message asking to remove any external device if connected and boot. I have already disconnected the external drive. The message said that if the problem persists check with the administrator or the manufacturer. I am the administrator and please advice how to proceed, Is it possible that the windows is looking for the external drive when booting?

When I checked on the hard drive from command prompt I saw that it was nicely partitioned with the data on E

Asekar
 

My Computer

System One

If you can get to Safe Mode with networking, you might download EaseUs Partition magic (free edition). It has an option to rebuild the master boot record, which appears to be the problem.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Vista Home Premium 64 bit SP2
    Manufacturer/Model
    Cyberpower
    CPU
    Intel Quad CPU Q6700 2.67 GHZ
    Motherboard
    NVIDIA 780i
    Memory
    4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    MSI GTX 560 TI Twin Frozr
    Sound Card
    Sound Blaster SB Audigy
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Viewsonic VG2436
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080p
    Hard Drives
    Samsung HD 105SI
    WDC WD20
    Case
    Apevia XJupiter
    Cooling
    air
    Keyboard
    Logitech MX 3200
    Mouse
    Logitech MX 600
    Internet Speed
    30 Mbps
wither 3 said:
If you can get to Safe Mode with networking, you might download EaseUs Partition magic (free edition). It has an option to rebuild the master boot record, which appears to be the problem.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply.

How do I get to the safe mode from command prompt? EaseUs Partition magic free edition does not allow MBR rebuild.
 

My Computer

System One

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Vista Home Premium 64 bit SP2
    Manufacturer/Model
    Cyberpower
    CPU
    Intel Quad CPU Q6700 2.67 GHZ
    Motherboard
    NVIDIA 780i
    Memory
    4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    MSI GTX 560 TI Twin Frozr
    Sound Card
    Sound Blaster SB Audigy
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Viewsonic VG2436
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080p
    Hard Drives
    Samsung HD 105SI
    WDC WD20
    Case
    Apevia XJupiter
    Cooling
    air
    Keyboard
    Logitech MX 3200
    Mouse
    Logitech MX 600
    Internet Speed
    30 Mbps
The same option is available in Partition Master Home. Just click on a drive first.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Vista Home Premium 64 bit SP2
    Manufacturer/Model
    Cyberpower
    CPU
    Intel Quad CPU Q6700 2.67 GHZ
    Motherboard
    NVIDIA 780i
    Memory
    4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    MSI GTX 560 TI Twin Frozr
    Sound Card
    Sound Blaster SB Audigy
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Viewsonic VG2436
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080p
    Hard Drives
    Samsung HD 105SI
    WDC WD20
    Case
    Apevia XJupiter
    Cooling
    air
    Keyboard
    Logitech MX 3200
    Mouse
    Logitech MX 600
    Internet Speed
    30 Mbps
Thanks for the prompt reply. In my desperation I went ahead and installed successfully the OS from the recovery disk on one of the partitions that allowed me to do so. When I tried to start the laptop, the DELL page comes up and then the cursor goes on blinking on a blank screen. The windows main screen does not show up.

I again rebooted using the recovery CD and ran the system repair. It ran successfully through a series of tests from check for updates through system disk test, target os test, boot manager diagnosis etc and came up with the final verdict "Root cause found: Boot status indicates that the OS booted successfully".

I then checked the disk using the command prompt and found the following drives: X, C, D, E, F The D drive had possibly my original data files since it showed about 27 GB used. The folders here showed up with garbled names. The windows was on F.

I ran GParted program booting from a CD and analysed the hard disk. It gave the following results:

Partition file system Mount Point Label Size used unused Flags

Unallocted unallocated 78.44 MB

/dev/sda1 fat32 /media/0708-0116 - 32.01GB 27.78GB 4.23GB lba

/dev/sda2 ntfs /media/AC2431012439D056 - 77.21GB 5.37GB 71.84GB

/dev/sda3 fat32 /media/MEDIADIRECT MEDIADIRECT 2.5GB 1.69GB 831MB boot,lba

unallocated unallocated 1.46MB

sda1, sda2, sda3 have lock signs next to them (not mounted?)

I tried to contact GParted Forum at Gparted.org without success.

My first concern is whether I can recover my data files. If it is impossible I am thinking of cleaning all the partitions during the installation process as suggested in some books and reinstalling freshly. Hope this will work. Please give me your suggestions.

With best wishes.
 

My Computer

System One

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
The only definition I could find for dev/sda is that it's the first mass storage device for Unix like systems.

I'm confused by the fact that one is NTFS and the others are FAT 32.

Can you get into Safe Mode? If you can, I wonder what it shows in Administrative Tools, Computer Management, Storage, Disc Management. You could try shrinking volumes or formatting the partitions (especially the locked ones) that don't contain your personal files or the OS.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Vista Home Premium 64 bit SP2
    Manufacturer/Model
    Cyberpower
    CPU
    Intel Quad CPU Q6700 2.67 GHZ
    Motherboard
    NVIDIA 780i
    Memory
    4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    MSI GTX 560 TI Twin Frozr
    Sound Card
    Sound Blaster SB Audigy
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Viewsonic VG2436
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080p
    Hard Drives
    Samsung HD 105SI
    WDC WD20
    Case
    Apevia XJupiter
    Cooling
    air
    Keyboard
    Logitech MX 3200
    Mouse
    Logitech MX 600
    Internet Speed
    30 Mbps
wither 3 said:
The only definition I could find for dev/sda is that it's the first mass storage device for Unix like systems.

I'm confused by the fact that one is NTFS and the others are FAT 32.

Can you get into Safe Mode? If you can, I wonder what it shows in Administrative Tools, Computer Management, Storage, Disc Management. You could try shrinking volumes or formatting the partitions (especially the locked ones) that don't contain your personal files or the OS.
Click to expand...

Thanks for all the replies. I decided to lose all my data and started the reinstalling process. I deleted all the partitions and created a new one with all the full hard disk in one partition. I formatted it and clicked new and the reinstallation process started. The first three steps of loading, expanding the files, looking for updates went off well and then the installing step went on for a long time and the computer switched off once and switched on again with the message, 'Vista starting for the first time and wait', and after a few minutes the previous updating screen came on at the place where it left off. This screen was on for a long time ( some hours) before the screen became blank and nothing happened. I switched off and switched on again. This time after the welcome screen I got the advanced booting options screen. I selected safe mode and the files started loading and then it stalled at crdisk file and did not go beyond for hours.

The next time I tried to boot from the recovery CD and it showed the windows system loaded. I tried repair option and this also went on without stopping. I quit and looked at the log which showed no errors upto the checked point.

Now the computer always comes up with the advanced boot options and the same thing repeats. Some one said that the OS is beyond repair. I am at a loss.
 

My Computer

System One

You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top