Windows won't start???

I was restarting my laptop and I noticed that the startup animation wasn't happening. About a minute or two later startup repair started. It searched for issues and it found them, but it could not repair them. I looked at the errors and it seems as if the windows installation directory is missing. For instance, when I go to boot in safe mode, the screen where it says loading files or whatever doesn't do anything. After a bit startup repair launches. I put in the Win7 DVD to try and repair it from there, but it just keeps searching for the installation direction. I haven't done anything recently besides install Comodo.

I don't get it. It was working perfectly and then I go to restart and it's like Windows is gone. Anyone have any ideas on how to fix this???

The error I get in the repair is "no os files found on disk."

 

If you can't use System Restore and you don't have a backup image, I'm afraid you may be forced to reinstall the OS. Can you actually reach the desktop in Safe Mode or is even that not possible? Could you list the actual errors that occurred when Windows attempted the startup repair?

 

Nope. Can't reach anything in Safe Mode. You know when you select to boot in Safe Mode how initially it starts loading files? Well, on my laptop right now that doesn't happen, as if there's no files for it to load.

The only error I get is "No OS Files Found On Disk."

I've tried "bootrec /fixmbr" and a bunch of other commands but none of them helped-----------this:


# Try typing the following commands in order: "bootrec /fixmbr", "bootrec /fixboot", "bootrec /rebuildbcd". If these complete successfully, go ahead and skip the next step. However, if any of these steps reports "Element cannot be found" you need to reconfigure the disk configuration.
# You're going to use DISKPART to make the Win7 partition active. You can type "HELP" for a list of commands or check out Microsoft's help page. Basically you select the drive first ("LIST DRIVES" and then "SELECT DRIVE [number]") and then the partition ("LIST PARTITION" and then "SELECT PARTITION [number]") where Win7 is installed. Then type "ACTIVE" to make the selected partition active. Once this is finished, repeat the previous step.
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Didn't help. I've attempted to repair it using startup repair about 99 times now. Been going at it for a good 3-4 hours.... ahhhh mannnnnnnn

 

I just took out the HDD and put it into an external enclosure and it worked just fine so it's not a hardware issue.

There's gotta be a way to fix this bloody thing... anyone please help.

 

Have you tried to modify your BIOS settings? Maybe the HDD is not read correctly.

I searched quickly on the internet and no one actually didn't find a real solution to this problem, except fixmbr, for someone it worked for others not.

Probably the best thing is still to reinstall the OS.

 

Time to dump whatever you need from the disk and reinstall.

 

I reset the BIOS to the default settings just in case something was changed, but it didn't help.

If I install a new installation over my previous one (my external hdd died) will all my files be lost? Or will it just put everything into a windows.old folder?

 

You can do Windows.old but you might run into some funk down the road. I'd recommend grabbing the files you need and reinstalling.

 

Actually, there's one last thing you could try. You can run CHKDSK, can't you? The Windows files didn't just disappear, it may be that your filesystem is corrupted or worse, the HDD is failing.

 

Ya, the HDD is failing. Ran some tests and it failed the SEATOOLS one and the Western Digital Program running through the advanced test or whatever stopped it around 5% because it has too many bad sectors. lol.

Stupid Seagate drive. And the bloody thing had the HP driveguard software always...