Windows 7 won't boot

Hi, a friend has asked me to look at his laptop (HP Pavillion g) as he can't get it boot up. He told me he had installed some updates for facebook and now he has this problem. Normal power up goes to the error recovery window with 2 options to; launch start up repair or start windows normally. The first option seems to try and load some files then flashes a blue screen and then loads a background image of blue with a white burst of light from top centre. The second option eventually returns to the error recovery window. Pressing F2 during start up gets me to a HP advanced system diagnostics and I have run the start up test which gave me the following info - Start Up test Memory test: passed SMART check: passed Short DST: failed Failure ID: 9359AM-5T7652-MFPV4K-60V003 All other tests produce the same results. I have tried booting up in safe mode but I always end up back at the error recovery window. Any help appreciated.

From your description, it appears that the machine is running either Windows Vista or Windows 7. Which? or what, if different? When advancing to "launch start up repair" can you get to a blinking cursor command prompt? "Sometimes" running "chkdsk /r" will identify the file structure corruption and any bad-sectors, and will return the HD in condition from which it can boot Windows. Otherwise, you may be needing a Hard Drive and fresh installation of Windows Operating System. Tell us more about the machine/OS/recent changes, and what you have already tried. Best Regards

The laptop is running windows 7. I have tried all available options to boot up including safe mode with with command prompt but every time it returns to the error recovery window. As stated I can get to a blue background image. I didn't mention before that the mouse arrow is active but with no menus available. So, no command prompt to work with. The laptop is only 6 months old and still under warranty so I don't want to do anything to invalidate it.

The laptop is only 6 months old and still under warranty so I don't want to do anything to invalidate it.

Then, that may be the final word.

Best Regards

From the Advanced Boot Options menu (aka Safe Mode menu), select

Disable automatic restart on system failure

Prevents Windows from automatically restarting if an error causes Windows to fail. Choose this option only if Windows is stuck in a loop where Windows fails, attempts to restart, and fails again repeatedly.

Post the info from the Blue Screen error window (BSOD) here please.

From here: Advanced startup options (including safe mode)

Hi, thanks for the suggestion, I followed your instructions and here is the BSOD info. "A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME Technical Information: *** STOP: 0x000000ED (0xFFFFFA80050F3CD0, 0xFFFFFFFFC00000B5, 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000)

Windows is not seeing the hard drive. Do you have a Windows install DVD? If so try running chkdsk from the Recovery Console as follows:

How to run chkdsk from the Recovery Console

• Boot your Vista or Windows 7 installation DVD
• When you see "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD", press Enter
• At the "Language" screen hold the "Shift" key and press the F10 key to open a Command Window
• Type chkdsk /r and press Enter.

Let this run to completion undisturbed.. Reboot and see if that fixed the problem. If not, return it to wherever you bought it to get it fixed as the hard drive is defective.

If you don't have one, you can download the iso for the version you are using from Digital River then use ImgBurn to create a Windows 7 install DVD. Burn at 4X or the lowest speed available. This can be done on any computer that has a DVD burner.

Download Windows 7 ISO (Official 32-bit and 64-bit Direct Download Links)

Hi, I have followed your instructions and reached this point - In the command window I entered chkdsk /r and got the following message - The type of the file system is NTFS. Cannot lock current drive. Windows cannot run disk checking on this volume because it is write protected.

Hmmm, sounds like the Recovery Console is not seeing the boot drive at all.

After you enter R to Repair, what did you see on the next black window? Should have looked like this:

Choose the Windows Installation

There is no next black window. After I write chkdsk /r and press enter I get the text above on the next line and a new command prompt.

No, before that. As I said, After you enter R to Repair you should get a black window as the link I gave shows. That is where it will show you what version/s of Windows it finds on the hard drive. Usually it will show:

1: C:\Windows

If all you see if X:\WINNT or nothing at all then the hard drive is not being recognized which means it's quite likely gone bad.

When you are at the Command Prompt in the Recovery Console, try entering chkdsk c: /f and see if that works. If it does, reboot the Recovery Console again and see if 1: C:\Windows shows up this time. If yes, enter 1 then press enter to login as Administrator (no password unless you added one). Then run the long chkdsk scan as follows: chkdsk /r

OK, there appears to be a little confusion here. I went past the language window and found a Repair your computer button which, after a second stopped loading and was stuck on a background image. There is no mention of Recovery Console anywhere. I brought up the command window again which has in it - Microsoft Windows (Version 6.1.7600) X:\Sources> I tried chkdsk c: /f which seemed to work and said there were no problems but I can't get to the recovery console you mentioned. I have tried installing windows from the disc but I get the same background image as before but with 'Setup is starting' on the screen with the processing 'circle'.

Did you press Shift + F10 at the Language screen as I posted earlier? That is how to get directly to the Command Prompt. Then you run chkdsk c: /r.

If that doesn't work your best bet is to return it under the warranty and get it fixed.

I have exactly this same problem, with exactly the same laptop model (HP pavilion g6). I hit this thread after Googling for "UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME 0xFFFFFFFFC00000B5". Like the user here I can't recover Windows at all, but unlike him I can't even get to a command prompt to run chkdsk /r and my machine is out of warranty. I can boot the thing using Ubuntu 12 off a USB and that's how I'm online now. The hard disk is ok in that Ubuntu can read it and its files, and I've not come across any corruption as yet. It's just the boot record that's knackered.

 

I don't have original Windows DVDs, but I do have a bought set of HP recovery disks which I've tried booting from, without positive result. All the Windows F8 options have been tried and failed - even safe mode with command prompt fails without a prompt.

 

I posted a long and plaintive question about this on the Microsoft Community site but I'm not holding my breath for any useful replies. Could anyone here suggest a way to get a command prompt on boot? I've been going around in circles for hours and hours and it's driving me bananas. As does Windows generally… ;-\

 

I've been 'in the game' for 20 years and done plenty of tech supp in my time, so I'm familiar with diagnostic procedures. I've also worked with MS OSs going back to MSDOS in 1990, so am sadly familiar with those too.

 

Fred

www.fredriley.org.uk

Hi Fred,

 

Sorry to hear of the problem with your computer, but welcome to the WTT forums.

If you can't get into the Recovery Console via the CD that you made when Win 7 was first installed and you can't boot from the Recovery discs you bought from HP then your options are a bit limited.
 

Here's the sort of approach we would use in the workshop as this may give you some ideas.

1 Check BIOS is set to boot as priority 1 from the optical drive (CD/DVD) with hard drive as priority two, external USB as priority 3 and that the hard drive is recognised and correctly described in the BIOS; that any changes made are saved before exiting the BIOS. (please be careful in the BIOS don't mess with anything you are unsure of….and don't let anyone else alter things unless you are sure and you have taken a back up of each part of the BIOS) Making random changes can easily render the machine unbootable…

 

2 Next we would try and boot from the Recovery disc made when Win 7 was new and try to get to a command prompt, so we could run the chkdsk commands referred to by Ztruker in earlier posts or perform a startup repair, if no joy then we would try the same using the HP Recovery discs. (be careful using these…make sure your back ups are solid. reliable, reproducible, and kept safe on removable media before use)

 

3 If still no joy then back up (once again) all data and important stuff on the hard drive to removable media (keep at least one extra copy safe offsite on removable media) and then run the hard drive manufactures' hard drive testing and repair utility to check on the drive's condition (you will need to burn the utility to CD (bootable)… utilities available here:

http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287  

make sure you use the correct one for the actual make of drive installed in your computer. We would run first the quick/short test followed (if Ok) by the longer test….( you can skip the acoustic tests) this should help in identifying if the hard drive is likely Ok or has problems which Ubuntu has not yet found….If the drive is a dud and can't be reliably repaired then buy a new one and reinstall Win 7 using your recovery discs)

 

4 If the drive tests out OK then it could be the cable twixt drive and mobo, or the mobo itself ( drive controller failure)  we have had a number of these sorts of problems through the workshop ( more often than not, with HP machines) and one of the problems is the fault can be intermittent making diagnosis more difficult.

 

5 There's no point in replacing the hard drive if its a bad setting in the BIOS or a bad cable or mobo, so check out these first before spending any money.

 

Post back and let us know how you get on (at each step please) and one of us will advise the next set of recommendations.

Regards

paws