Vista will no longer boot

Yas786 · 25 Sep 2008 at 01:16

Hi all,

I have Vista ultimate running on my laptop and so far up until last night it was running perfectly fine. Well this morning i got up to check some emails and found that my laptop was no longer in Vista.

I tried rebooting but it kept booting to the windows error recovery so i chose all of the options listed but it wouldnt boot....keeps throwing me to the windows boot manager screen which them tells me the steps i need to take to repair but i have tried those options without any luck.

It has the message:

File: \Windows\system32\config\system
Status: 0xc000000f
Info: Windows failed to load because the system registry file is missing, or corrupt.

Now ive booted from the vista cd and tried the repair option but thats doesnt do anything...ive tried going into command prompt and fixing the mbr etc etc but it keeps saying device not ready :confused:

...ive changed to the c drive and typed in dir but it doesnt bring up anything. Ive also tried hooking the hd into another pc but i cant see it....well it does but its unreadable.

Now i wouldnt be so bothered, i could just install a new copy of vista on there but the problem is that i have quite a few stuff i need to back up ie mp3s and other important business documents.

So im at a loss as to what i need to do...ive spent the last few hrs searching for answers but cant find anything that will help...tried all sorts of command prompt scripts but i just cant boot into vista and its really starting to annoy me.

So can anyone help or perhaps give me ideas??...if i install another copy of vista onto the one thats already on there...will i lose all my settings and programs etc??

helmutcheese · 25 Sep 2008 at 01:25

How To Perform a Repair Installation For Vista

. You must have Retail Full or Upgrade Vista installation DVD to do this. Some people have had problems with a Full version letting them do a upgrade install though.

. If you have a OEM Recovery installation DVD that came with your computer instead, then it will most likely only be a clone of the hard drive with Vista allowing you to only do a clean install with it instead.

. If you have a Anytime Upgrade Vista installation DVD, then you will not be able to do this.

Do you fall into any of above ?.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/88236-repair-install-vista.html?ltr=R

Yas786 · 25 Sep 2008 at 01:27

helmutcheese said:
How To Perform a Repair Installation For Vista

. You must have Retail Full or Upgrade Vista installation DVD to do this. Some people have had problems with a Full version letting them do a upgrade install though.

. If you have a OEM Recovery installation DVD that came with your computer instead, then it will most likely only be a clone of the hard drive with Vista allowing you to only do a clean install with it instead.

. If you have a Anytime Upgrade Vista installation DVD, then you will not be able to do this.

Do you fall into any of above ?.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/88236-repair-install-vista.html?ltr=R

Hi mate,

Its a dell laptop so it comes with the OEM version of vista ultimate

helmutcheese · 25 Sep 2008 at 01:30

May be the issue then.

lokkers · 25 Sep 2008 at 07:21

Er, if you've plugged the HDD into another machine and it's unreadable, I'd suggest the disk is dead or corrupt. Can you run chkdsk on it? If you know the manufacturer sometimes they have utilities to check the disk health.

Yas786 · 25 Sep 2008 at 20:14

lokkers said:
Er, if you've plugged the HDD into another machine and it's unreadable, I'd suggest the disk is dead or corrupt. Can you run chkdsk on it? If you know the manufacturer sometimes they have utilities to check the disk health.

It does seem like the hd is corrupt...its a dell laptop so ive done their diagnostic checks and it came back as passing all of them so i dont think the hd is dead.

I did manage to get into the HD itself, i again hooked it up into my other desktop pc and assigned it a drive letter which then gave me access to whatever is on the hd but most of the data i need resides in the my documets part of vista and namely under my name ie Spawn. Now ehen i try to access that part of the hd it comes up with the error that file cannot be accessed as its corrupt....and it only shows as 200mb rather than the 50-60gb of data that should be on there. Problem is that i really need that data...theres a lot of pictures, mp3s and movie files....no not porn lol

..a lot of those files arent backed up as i didnt expect this to happen...so im pretty peeved at the moment as to why this happened.

The only option i have left to try is to try and copy the Windows\system32\config\system from another vista computer...luckily my bro uses vista ultimate on his laptop...but i dont know if this is going to solve my problem....i hope it does or else im looking at sending the stupid hd off to a data recovery place to get them to retrieve the data i need and thats going to cost me some major bucks

.

masterluke · 25 Sep 2008 at 20:43

try doing a chkdsk with a full surface scan on the disk from the other machine

chkdsk x: /r

Yas786 · 25 Sep 2008 at 20:53

masterluke said:
try doing a chkdsk with a full surface scan on the disk from the other machine

chkdsk x: /r

Ok ill try that...i guess i have to do it through cmd prompt??...can i do it through windows or will i need to boot into dos etc??

Tried copying that systme file and it wont let me from my bros laptop...so that idea is dead lol....

EDIT: ok just doing the chkdsk now....will report back with what it says

masterluke · 25 Sep 2008 at 20:59

from within windows (on the other machine) at the command prompt will be fine

Mattus · 25 Sep 2008 at 23:50

Spawn said:
The only option i have left to try is to try and copy the Windows\system32\config\system from another vista computer...luckily my bro uses vista ultimate on his laptop...but i dont know if this is going to solve my problem..

Won't work. That file contains part of the Windows registry which is unique to that installation, so overwriting it with one from another machine will make things worse.

Chkdsk is a good idea. I fear the drive might be dead though.

Yas786 · 25 Sep 2008 at 23:56

masterluke said:
from within windows (on the other machine) at the command prompt will be fine

Mate your a star

, looks like its fixed it somewhat...well ive managed to get the data i need and wanted so backed it up to my external hd...only thing is that when i put the hd back into my laptop it still doesnt boot but thats no big deal as ill just re-install vista back on it again...

Only thing is that it seems like ive lost all my pictures on the hd...dunno if theres a way to get them back as i cant see the pictures folder in the my documents part of the hd.

Otherwise im pretty happy with the result...got most of the data i needed so i can re-format the hd now.

Thanks mate, i owe u one...

masterluke · 26 Sep 2008 at 08:51

Spawn said:
Mate your a star, looks like its fixed it somewhat...well ive managed to get the data i need and wanted so backed it up to my external hd...only thing is that when i put the hd back into my laptop it still doesnt boot but thats no big deal as ill just re-install vista back on it again...

Only thing is that it seems like ive lost all my pictures on the hd...dunno if theres a way to get them back as i cant see the pictures folder in the my documents part of the hd.

Otherwise im pretty happy with the result...got most of the data i needed so i can re-format the hd now.

Thanks mate, i owe u one...

no worries glad you got it sorted.

re:the pictures, are you sure you are looking in the right place? My Pictures can be in various different places on the disk. In my experience, smaller files like pictures are the easiest files to recover as they are small so you would be v unlucky to have parts of these files on bad portions of the disk.

otherwise - i've had some good results with "Ontrack Easy Data Recovery" software which is considerably cheaper than sending the disk off to a recovery agency.

Once youre sorted dont bother reformatting - just chuck the disk in the bin - its most likely physically damaged.

Yas786 · 26 Sep 2008 at 20:35

masterluke said:
no worries glad you got it sorted.

re:the pictures, are you sure you are looking in the right place? My Pictures can be in various different places on the disk. In my experience, smaller files like pictures are the easiest files to recover as they are small so you would be v unlucky to have parts of these files on bad portions of the disk.

otherwise - i've had some good results with "Ontrack Easy Data Recovery" software which is considerably cheaper than sending the disk off to a recovery agency.

Once youre sorted dont bother reformatting - just chuck the disk in the bin - its most likely physically damaged.

Yup ive looked just about in every folder thats on the laptop hd and still no luck...seems like the folder my pictures has just disappeared into thin air whereas all the other folders are there. Very confusing.

Anyways its no big deal, luckily most of hte pics that were on there are still on digi camera so kinda lucky there that i didnt lose them...altho i have lost a few but its no big deal really.

As for the HD, i dont think theres anything physically wrong with it as ive ran the dell diagnostics on it and it came back with all being passed. But seeing as i have xps support im goiung to get them to replace it as i dont want to take anymore chances with another failure.

Thanks again mate foryour help