cannot boot into windows ? am3970

Hello,

Over the weekend my m3970 failed after having been working normally just before the last shutdown. Upon starting the next morning the computer would not boot. Initially I figured I had a dead HD. I followed all the recovery tools, including the recover disks and the altf10 steps, but it remains stuck in a windows boot loop, saying it is unable to install windows and a reboot is needed, but this is not successful. Now I am inclined to think maybe there is a different problem, dead ram or motherboard? The recovery tools running and the amount of activity I was able to accomplish lead me to think the HD is still alive? I can hear it churning away, it doesn't sound great, but the tools did not say it was bad. I cannot get to the command prompt, I think, to run check disk, as my skill set is pushed to the limits here. Any thoughts? Suggestions? I hope that this is not the HD. Thanks for listening.

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calahorn

@gabrielaguirre

A couple of things to do when my HD looked dead. If you go into the bios of your computer (not sure how to do it on that particular model) you should see the hard drive listed on the main screen. If it isn't most likely dead or otherwise unreadable by the computer itself. If its listed, try going to:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-CA/windows-8/create-reset-refresh-media

And create a usb stick for windows 8.1 installation. Go back into your bios and make sure your computer can boot either UEFI or legacy off USB HDD, then reboot.

When you get into the windows 8.1 install, it should ask if you want to upgrade / recover or install fresh. Hit install fresh (advanced). It will then present you with a listing of partitions on your computer. Normally I delete them all, and thus, the master boot record gets updated with the new MBR information and will boot normally. You could however delete nothing, and choose to install to drive C, which should keep all the files you had before.

Try that and see if it boots into windows 8.1. If that works, then you know your HD is fine. Smiley Happy

IronFly

if it's ram....you can try to boot with 1 ram stick and check if it works.

or you can download Hiren's boot cd and run some HDD tools to check it's health.

i suggest you to create a bootable USB or CD media from Hiren's boot cd .iso
http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/
unzip the zip file, burn the .iso file to CD or USB pen/external HDD
then use a software to burn CD/DVD or USB flash drive and burn the .iso file
once done, put the CD/DVD/USB on your PC, boot from CD/USB (maybe you need to boot under Legacy if you have UEFI BIOS)
press F12 at boot and choose CD or USB

once in the boot menu, selec tHDD tools and run Hard disk sentinel or smartudm

gabrielaguirre

Thanks for your quick reply. I should have stated that I am running Windows 7, and under no circumstances will I wipe the drive, I am operating as if I can retrieve the info or proceed with HD data recovery if needed. Too much valuable info on there. I backup regularly, I just got caught this time between large backups....My fault.

IronFly

if you want to try some file recovery, from hiren's boot CD, choose mini xp, this will run a live version of XP and let you copy your files to an USB flash drive.

gabrielaguirre

XP? I am running Windows 7 with all the latest updates, The PC was running perfectly last week, no indication nor warnings that there was a problem. Friday OK, Saturday morning, not booting. Does the sound emanating from the HD and the facts that I was able to interact with the partitioned recovery tools indicate that it is alive, even though I cannot access it at thee moment?

gabrielaguirre

I appreciate the help on this guys, bear with the newbie, you guys are way out in front of me on these things. thanks again.

IronFly

some bad blocks on HDD can let you start the recovery process but not ending.

i know you have windows 7, the live XP is mini-xp on hiren's boot CD, it's a light version of it that run only from CD or USB flash drive, so you can easily browse your HDD if still alive.

JordanB

gabrielaquirre,

Ironfly is trying to help you get your files copied off of your HDD to a USB drive so they are safe. That's the most important thing. Troubleshooting can come later. If creating a hiren boot cd is out of your tech comfort level, or accessing a command prompt from your recovery tools cd is out of your tech comfort level.......................unfortunately sometimes you have to do things that are more low tech....but not free.

Such as buying a HDD enclosure. You'd have to take your hard drive out of your computer and put it in an enclosure and plug it in to another computer's usb port. From there you could copy your files and run chkdsk.

The easiest and cheapest methods would be to follow Ironfly's suggestion. Or access a command prompt from your cd tools and use copy command.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0064I1NRG/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=1944687462&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B000EDKO04&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=13R4M5W6363RG6QC8AYW

http://www.amazon.com/Vantec-3-5-Inch-Enclosure-Black-NST-366S3-BK/dp/B00J61Y23A/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1438634549&sr=1-2&keywords=vantec#Ask

gabrielaguirre

I appreciate the help, unfortunately I don't have a cd burner available to deal with the ISO file and converting it? I am working off a laptop with no drive. Is there a way I can copy the file to the USB drive or is there a file that I can obtain that I can use too boot from USB without having to go through this cd burning step? I have downloaded the files from hirren, but am now stuck without a burner available. Thoughts?

IronFly

download Rufus

http://rufus.akeo.ie/?locale=en_US

and Burn the Hiren's iso file to an USB flash drive then use it to boot from your laptop, press F12 at boot and choose the USB flash drive.

gabrielaguirre

Ok, I tried that, reformatted the USB with Rufus, then I needed to install cd burning software, so I did by following the suggestions, cburnerxp and imgburn, got a bunch of unwanted crapware and the software cannot burn to USB as far as I can make out, So I guess I'm at an impass here.

IronFly

wait, i don't understand.

to burn .iso files to USB you just need Rufus, simply select iso image near "create a bootable disk using", then click on the little icon near this string and browse to the .iso file to burn.

click on start and wait until the USB is ready, then you can plug on your laptop and boot from that.

gabrielaguirre

WHEW! Ok, I've got it, I'm in. I can see that there are many programs that can be used, which do you recommend? I'd like to first move my files to a external HD if I can. Recovery is the first thing I want to accomplish. Is one app better at that task?

IronFly

mini-xp is good

gabrielaguirre

I copied everything I could from my profile, and most of it is there I think... I would like to go next to try and get it to boot into WIn 7 and maybe repair it if I can? I'm not sure how to do that with the boot USB? Or do I have to take it in at this point? I'm trying to get to my desktop if I can, then maybe I can run a repair inside Windows? I wasn't supplied with a Windows disk when I bought the PC, I guess the rescue disks were designed to address that? Suggestions on how to proceed? Thanks again for the help.

IronFly

if you want to try to repair, you need a windows 7 installation media and try "repair pc" and follow instruction to fix startup issues.

if....the HDD is not having some issues.

i suggest you to check fo any issues on your HDD before trying any fix, you can use Hiren's to test HDD or check SMART attributes.

gabrielaguirre

Well, I left it sitting as work demanded my attention, and I wanted to gain some perspective on the crash. I am trying this again. I tried the WD data lifeguard and also check disk. It seems the HD is OK, checkdisk says no bad sectors from what I can gather. The WD quick test says PASS. I think that means the HD is Ok, so the next step is I get a windows installation disk for Win 7? Will that retain my profile, software and files on the HD? Or does it wipe it clean? Is this a motherbord problem? Or did Windows get corrupted somehow? The thing failed overnight, so I was inclined to think it was a hardware failure. Can I check the RAM too, or the motherboard via Hirren? Thanks for the help.