Aspire M3400 won't boot to Windows 7 following Windows Update freeze

Wmh68

A couple of days ago I rebooted my PC & it attempted to do an automatic Windows update - saying 'preparing to configure Windows - do not turn off your computer'. It then froze. When I switched it off & on again I got repeated BSOD - STOP 0x0000007B messages. Whenever I boot into Windows now it either attempts to run checkdisk - which finds multiple unreadable file record segments, then freezes before it can complete or it runs Startup repair which takes 1-2 hours to run but doesn't fix anything. None of the System Recovery options will work - I just get error messages - it can't seem to find the OS. The eRecovery console has both options grayed out so I can't use that. I don't have any Windows 7 disks. I read that it may be the RAID controller causing problems? I tried using a HD from my old PC - with Windows XP on it. That got repeated BSOD - the same 07B error - until I changed the mode from SATA to IDE. It then booted into XP ok. However, leaving it on IDE with my original HD (with Windows 7) means it doesn't do anything at all when I try & boot up. Any ideas?

Travis-Acer

If the update froze in the middle of processing, the operating system is more than likely corrupted.  We would suggest attempting a recovery outside of Windows. If this does not work you will want to look into obtaining recovery media for your unit. If you are in the US you can visit the Acer Store.  If you are outside of the US we would suggest contacting technical support in your region for further assistance with this issue.
Acer Service and Support

 

There is also a possibility that the hard drive itself has failed.