I haven't read through this entire thread, but what you are describing sounds very familiar to a similar problem on my mother's Vista Home Edition on her PC. What you have happening (and I haven't sorted out the why yet) is that Vista is randomly reassigning your start up pathways to a virtual temp/shadow. Literally, if you traced out the location you have arrived at, you've been sent off into parallel universe where it looks like the real Startup Repair but isn't. It's like a bad dream.
Again, literally, my mother was booting up and seeing what appeared to be her desktop minus all shortcuts and files that used to be there except (random) Outlook. But this shortcut, when opening what appeared to be Outlook contained none of her emails. And when she clicked on the start menu and opened her Documents folder, all files and folders had disappeared. She called me in panic, crying because all her work was gone.
Investigation revealed this: in the url pathway of her Documents folder, I asked her to move up one level to her profile username. When she did this the pathway displayed as C:\\...a bunch of meaningless/ness.../her name/temp.inf
Her profile was suffering the same fate. During startup, when she clicked to log in to her profile (which, incidently, is also admin) Vista was misdirecting her to a virtual shadow.
In the real world, her files and profile still exists. Nothing has been deleted, restore point is not going to fix the problem, and undelete programs are a waste of time. Fixing the problem involves reassigning to the affected areas the correct pathway BACK to the correct location.
What has me somewhat flummoxed is Microsoft and other knowledgeable techies not cluing in to this and supplying appropriate fixes and/or explanations for what so many folks are experiencing. In every case I've read in searching forums on this issue, the stories are different but they all are actually the same root problem.
I will be researching this more indepth over the next week to work out a solution from the C:/ prompt. Most folks are receiving advice and when it works it is because the machine brain was tricked back into the proper neural pathways. Your machine is confused and misguided, but your information is in there and there is a way to access it.
If you have your Vista install disc, you may be able to start up properly with it. You might also press f8 before your login window appears during start up and try starting in Safemode. When you do this, choose the option that starts only the basic components to run Windows. As the start up process happens, you will see the pathways to each process initializing's pathways and the order in which they are occurring. If you see a pathway that ends in /temp.anything, that indicates the crossed wires have occurred in your startup. Try "last know good configuration" and see if that resolves the problem. Otherwise, having the Vista install disc is your best bet to redemption short of one of these smart techie geeks having another (real) solution.
I believe Microsoft doesn't even gave up trying to attempt to fix Vista's really poorly programmed code. But before anyone accuses me of being a Vista-basher, know that this same "glitch" occurs on the XP and Windows 7 platforms as well. Randomly. Sending folks off to nowhere land...thinking they've lost everything and often in trying to fix the problem actually losing it all. It's there. You just have to find a way to tell your machine how to find its way again. Kind of like getting into an accident and losing your mobility in your legs, then having to teach your brain how to make them walk again.
I'll let you know if I come up with something concrete to help you trace out the affects areas and fix them. Odds are, your login pathway to your profile isn't the only gps location that's fallen off the map.
If you can find your way in through an unaffected route (like by using the Safemode), back up your files to an external hard drive.
Good luck.
Please tell me, is it really the end of me and my laptop ?
I am using Windows Vista. Today I on my laptop, the Window Vista couldn't show on the screen, but instead, Startup Repair showed up.
It seems to be there is a problem with C:\Windows\ or hard disk, I don't know.
So far the laptop is simply not working for me.
Will reformatting my laptop help ? Can I don't reformat ?
I do not wish to reformat because inside there is way too much things, ranging to pictures to work to project. Worse part is I never did a backup before. Never did I expect that I am so unlucky to be in this situation. Now, if I reformat, there is simply too much to lose !
Any helps ? Or maybe can force start to the last best timing before the laptop when down ???
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I heard you can use Ubuntu to force switch on my dead laptop to get back my data.
Just asking -- can I use Windows XP or Windows 7 disc instead ?
