[Solved] Windows Failed to Start, System Repair Can't Discover Pro

[anathematized1]

All right, I've been searching all over the Internet and I've found several solutions to this problem which do help some and not others, and they're all different. The thing I did note is that of all the people posting this type of problem, they didn't really know what they were doing most of the time and had no idea what happened prior to the problem.

The Windows Repair Problem Signature

Problem Event Name: Startup Repair Offline

Problem Signature 1: 6.1.7600.16385

Problem Signature 2: 6.1.7600.16385

Problem Signature 3: Unknown

Problem Signature 4: 21200770

Problem Signature 5: AutoFailover

Problem Signature 6: 4

Problem Signature 7: BadDriver

OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1

Locale ID: 1033

What Happened...

Last weekend, my computer was running and I wasn't exactly using it actively, but was reading something when I got a pop-up saying that "Windows cannot read removable disk K". Disk K is my 1TB external Seagate Expansion drive. When I checked it using the disk manager, it was listed as a 128GB raw removable drive with a 128GB partition size. Well, on Wednesday(ish), I recovered all that I could from the drive, saving the recovery to the main OS drive (drive C). I reformatted the external as an NTFS. Once it formatted, it read as a 128GB NTFS with a partition size of 128GB but needed to restart because the drive type changed (from removable to HDD).

After the restart, I brought up the disk manager again, selected the 128GB K drive which listed a partition size of 1TB, so I reformatted it again and once it finished, it read as a 1TB HDD again. At this point I transferred the recovered files back over to it.

The next thing I did was shut down my antivirus (Avast Free) and ran a Malwarebytes scan on my OS drive, which found 15 infections. I selected for it to fix them and then it needed to restart to get rid of some of them. It shut down and then started back up and made it all the way to the black Windows Loading screen. As soon as it got to its normal length of loading time before it would actually start up the desktop, it restarted itself and came back up and failed to start, so I ran the recovery utility. Of course, the recovery utility couldn't figure out what exactly was the problem and gave me the above code.

I still have the Windows 7 installation disk (full install disk), and I boot from there, go through the recovery process so it can fail and I can select to do advanced options where I can access the command prompt.

What I Have Tried So Far

• Boot in safe mode
  
• Boot with minimal graphics
  
• Run chkdsk (no problems found)
  

All of the above failed to solve the problem.

From the command prompt, I have attempted...

• Bootrec.exe repair MBR, Boot Sector, BCD
  
• Bootrec.exe BCD rebuild
  
• chkdsk
  
• sfc/scannow
  
• switch to partition with OS, "ism /image:c:\ /cleanup-image /revertpendingactions"
  

The above didn't work either.

I found other suggestions more specifically related to the "bad driver error" that suggest downloading and saving to a removable media, the drivers and then re-installing them. I've also tried "loading the drivers" which I couldn't seem to find the file it was looking for anywhere so.

Current Questions

• I know where I can get the drivers and what ones I need, but how, from the command prompt/system repair, can I re-install the drivers?
  
• Is there anything else that I've missed that can be a possible solution, such as finding the Malwarebytes log to see exactly what it took out as how one of them might be the problem?
  
• Is is possible to re-install just the OS to the position it currently exists on without effecting the other "partition" that has the program and other files (which of course would have to be re-registered if they're not portable, but that's no problem)?
  
• How can I re-install Windows 7 to a new partition (parallel install) where I can actually get the computer up and running to have more access options and get the least amount of headache possible to get my files and programs back on the re-install?
  

Edited April 7, 2012 by anathematized1

[draku]

You can try to restore the Registry Hives from Backup

The files are located in C:\Windows\System32\config\RegBack\ and are generated every Monday

Once you are in Recovery Console go to Command Prompt

navigate to C:\Windows\System32\config\

do a backup of current registry with: xcopy *.* *.old

and after that copy over the backup files with xcopy RegBack\*.* *.*

You will need to reinstall any software/driver you added after the date of the backup wich in your case i think is 26 March

Edited April 6, 2012 by draku

[bphlpt]

The files are located in C:\Windows\System32\config\RegBack\ and are generated every Monday

... wich in your case i think is 26 March

Mine are done on Friday, so my last one is dated 30 March. Why did you say they are always done on Monday?

Cheers and Regards

[anathematized1]

The issue has been resolved actually.

If you're interested, the solution is here: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic448339.html/page__pid__2654556.

[draku]

Mine are done on Friday, so my last one is dated 30 March. Why did you say they are always done on Monday?

I looked at my Microsoft\Windows\Registry\RegIdleBackup task trigger wich is set to Monday

@anathematized1 good to know you "combofixed" your PC =)

Edited April 6, 2012 by draku