windows stopped working, cannot be repaired

Just before my 3-week vacation nearly a month ago, I was trying different vbios for my 7970m and after I flashed one the computer would not boot. It showed a message saying that maybe there was a recent hardware or software change to the computer, and to run repair off my windows install disk. It turns out it lied, as the windows install disk gave no option to repair as it was supposed to. Reading online, other people have had this problem, but I have found no solution.

Just for the record this is a 240gb kingston SSD I installed a few months ago.

Well I eventually tried making a windows restore CD off another windows 7 computer in the house, and among other options I was able to run the windows repair! Sounded promising, but after 2 restarts it told me that it could not fix the problem.

Any option I had to select the drive and operating system to be repaired would not recognize windows 7 as existing on that drive.

I did not have enough time to try anything else at the time, but after I came home I decided to see if the problem was the vbios flash, so I replaced the 7970m with my old 6990m. No difference.

Finally I submitted to the SSD and replaced it with the 320gb HDD that came with the laptop. I installed windows onto the HDD, and tried to access my important files on the SSD in a external case. I get an error message saying I have to format the drive before I can use it!

So, now what I want to know is, is there a way I can salvage the data on the SSD either formatting it or not, or should I just scrap it and format it and clean install windows?

Thanks

 

what you could do is try this, put the windows 7 disk in and boot from it and click on "repair your computer", the highlight "use recovery tools" it will scan the drive to see if windows 7 is there in any form. if it shows windows 7 select it and click next. a new windows will open and select "COMMAND PROMPT" nothing else !!!
when in cmd prompt run chkdsk c: /f/r (f = fix. r= recover) and allow it to run. once finished it will want to reboot blah blah blah (the usual windows stuff) let it.
if you are able to get into windows 7 now run the following from a command prompt as admin: bootrec.exe /fixmbr, bootrec.exe /fixboot, bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd.
if you are NOT able to get into windows 7 run the recovery process again and get back into the command prompt and run the commands bootrec.exe /fixmbr, bootrec.exe /fixboot, bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd from there.
hope this helps to resolve your issue.

 

Thanks for the reply. However, the windows 7 install disk does not give an option to do anything other than install windows. There is no option to do system recovery. The recovery disk had an option to enter cmd prompt though so I will try your suggestions with that. Hope it works!

 

Sadly, all of your suggestions have made no change in the computer. The first chkdsk suggestions appeared to run and work, I think it said it fixed something. I tried restarting but got the same message. Went back to cmd in the recovery disk and tried the bootrec.exe commands and they all said completed successfully except the last one which said that there were no windows installs on the disk. I am loosing hope that it can be saved!

 

Hmm, 2 options remain for you i guess. 1st a repair installation (ie upgrade) will keep your files but its a temp thing so you can get access to your files that you need or 2nd a clean install, to be done if theres nothing on the drive you require.
as you have mentioned you want to salvage data on the drive i suggest you reinstall as a upgrade, it will keep all your files and data.
sorry i couldn't help more. usually thoses commands i gave sort this type of issue out

forgot to say, should you do the repair/upgrade option it will save all your files/folders/data basically the entire image of the OS with all files/data and so so into a folder on the C drive (ie) c:\windows.old

 

I tried to reinstall windows on the SSD but it starts at first and then after a few seconds it stops and gives me an error! Any other suggestions?

 

Free Data Recovery Software, Backup Software, Partition Manager and System Cleaner Freeware in Windows/Linux/Mac - EaseUS Official Site a free file/data recovery take the drive out and connect it to another system if poss.
it simply sounds like the partition manager is corrupted... a simple fixmbr should of resolved it unless the drive is dead/dying... Hmm i shall have to think on this one, i shall get back if i figure out another option for you.

btw were did you get the copy of windows 7 from ? due to it giving you a error

also when/if you take the ssd out and reconnect it to another pc via (usb caddy) i guess make sure you use the same usb port you connected it to firstly. because the driver for it would of already been installed and it mite let you access the drive that way too (its a bloody annoying windows thing).

 

The windows 7 is from alienware and it came with the laptop. I just switched out the ssd and put the hdd in, I will try that software now. I cannot use the same port because I never used it before it was broken. I will report back soon, hopefully good news.

Edit: Just finished the scan using the easeUS free trial. It seemed to find a good amount of files on the SSD, and it gave the option to finally recover them I was so excited! And then, it said buy the product .

Perhaps there is an actually FREE program like this I can find elsewhere...

 

I was looking on a system reserved partition on the SSD and found some interesting files. Heres whats on one of them.

Startup Repair diagnosis and repair log
---------------------------
Number of repair attempts: 1

Session details
---------------------------
System Disk = \Device\Harddisk0
Windows directory =
AutoChk Run = 0
Number of root causes = 1

Test Performed:
---------------------------
Name: Check for updates
Result: Completed successfully. Error code = 0x0
Time taken = 15 ms

Test Performed:
---------------------------
Name: System disk test
Result: Completed successfully. Error code = 0x0
Time taken = 16 ms

Test Performed:
---------------------------
Name: Disk failure diagnosis
Result: Completed successfully. Error code = 0x0
Time taken = 16 ms

Test Performed:
---------------------------
Name: Disk metadata test
Result: Completed successfully. Error code = 0x0
Time taken = 15 ms

Test Performed:
---------------------------
Name: Target OS test
Result: Completed successfully. Error code = 0x0
Time taken = 0 ms

Root cause found:
---------------------------
No OS files found on disk.

Repair action: Partition table repair
Result: Failed. Error code = 0x490
Time taken = 63 ms

---------------------------
---------------------------


I thought it was interesting how it says it failed the thing that should have fixed it....

 

Well, if too many important files are in there you may actually need to acquire a service to drag them. DriveSavers are pretty good at that. I think I used a freeware once for this but I can't remember it's name.

 

I downloaded one called Puran File Recovery and in a few minutes it assessed the drive and found a ton of files, possibly everything on the drive. I am currently copying that into a folder in my HDD, which is taking forever! It's been doing that for 2 days lol. But it will be worth it if I can get back everything. I just hope I can sort out the files I need from the thousands of system files and program files.

edit: I figured out why its taking so long. Instead of recovering just the like 120gb that was on my SSD, it recovered every single file that has ever passed through the SSD. Kind of scary actually that people can do that, but you always hear about the FBI doing it lol. Anyways, now I have like a few TB to wade through of images I saw on the net and infinite files :thumbsup:

 

you could always use a DoD drive scrubber, you aint getting anything back from that lol. but never the less. im glad its all sorted for you now.

 

Sadly, while I was downloading hundreds upon hundreds of GBs off the SSD my system shut down for some reason... I think it was the HDD quitting lol, and I think I lost a bunch of data that was on the SSD cus I scanned it again and it only found a fraction as much stuff. Luckily I found those few "crucial" files before that, like the list of every password I ever used . Better keep some of those backed up eh.