URGENT: VISTA NOT LOADING ON DISK OR DVD!

[Guest]

All of a sudden Vista is not booting up past the logo screen (with the green
animated progress bar). Actually, it goes into blank screen mode after 1-2
minutes and nothing happens ever after that.

Worst yet, even the Vista Ultimate CD (which I used originally to install,
twice before) is NOT loading past the same screen (logo)! it first goes
through the 'loading windows files...' then boots to the logo screen and
nothing happens for several minutes!

I also tried booting in safe mode, it goes through the scrolling of loading
files and always gets stuck on crcdisk.sys file

Originally before all this I simply booted (not installed) from Ubuntu CD to
test it out. I attempted to install and was stuck on step 5/6 where it asks
for partition. I made it 40GB (120GB total drive) and nothing was happening,
I successfully canceled and then all broke loose after that.

What should I do? I'm really stuck, can't boot of Vista CD nor drive. I have
critical data on my hard drive.

Vista RTM Ultimate
SONY VGN-FE-770G

dxdiag info

------------------
System Information
------------------
Operating System: Windows Vistaâ„¢ Ultimate (6.0, Build 6000)
(6000.vista_rtm.061101-2205)
System Manufacturer: Sony Corporation
System Model: VGN-FE770G
BIOS: Phoenix NoteBIOS 4.0 Release 6.1
Processor: Intel® Core™2 CPU T5600 @ 1.83GHz (2 CPUs), ~1.8GHz
Memory: 2038MB RAM
Page File: 1181MB used, 3114MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 10
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 6.00.6000.16386 32bit Unicode

 

[Michael Jennings]

You asked Ubuntu to create a 40 GB partition on your laptop, then
cancelled the Linux installation. After having done that, booting Vista
hangs normal or safe, and booting from the Vista CD also hangs.
You neglected to back up data which you consider to be critical.

It is Friday. Either confess your folly to the IT guys at work or, if you
don't have that resource, find a reputable computer repair business.
That is my suggestion if the lost data surely must be recovered.

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi Chad,

Pull the drive, slave it in another system and image it to preserve data.

I suspect you may have a hardware issue, possibly faulty ram. I would run a
software check on that first, then on the hard drive itself (and as this may
cause alterations to the drive, that imaging step becomes very important).

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Chad Harris]

Linux is one avenue.

The Vista DVD has Startup Repair and System Restore from Startup repair, as
does the F8 Advanced options menu.

F8 to the Windows Adv Options Menu>try 3 safe modes there (I
don't use WGA) and Last Known Good>or go to Startup Repair and the System
Restore in Vista. That gives
you a choice of Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking,and Safe Mode with
Command Prompt.

You will need this reference:

How to start the System Restore tool at a command prompt in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304449/en-us

The command to use for system restore at the safe mode cmd prompt is:

%systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

The reason for doing this is one of these choices may work, when the other
doesn't. My experience is that people do not fully try F8 when they think
or have said they have. It is that they can almost always reach Windows
Advanced Options though.

VISTA STARTUP REPAIR AND SYSTEM RESTORE FROM STARTUP REPAIR (TWO OPTIONS):

You can run Startup Repair by putting your Vista DVD in after the
language screen in setup. You can also run System Restore from the same
location.

You run the startup repair tool this way (and system restore from here is
also sometimes effective):

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925810/en-us

How To Run Startup Repair In Vista Ultimate (Multiple Screenshots)
http://www.windowsvista.windowsreinstall.com/vistaultimate/repairstartup/index.htm

Note The computer must be configured to start from a CD or from a DVD. For
information about how to configure the computer to start from a CD or from a
DVD, see the information that came with the computer.
2. Restart the computer. To do this, click Start, click the arrow next to
the Lock button, and then click Restart.

This usually means that you enter bios setup by whatever key or keys
(sometimes there is more than one key that will do it for your model--go to
pc manufacturer site) and configure CD to be first in the boot order.

See for ref:
Access/Enter Motherboard BIOS
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

Note If you cannot restart the computer by using this method, use the power
button to turn off the computer. Then, turn the computer back on.

3. Set your language preference, and then click Next.

Note In most cases, the startup repair process starts automatically, and you
do not have the option to select it in the System Recovery Options menu.

4. Click Repair your computer.

5. In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click the operating system
that you want to repair, and then click Next.

6. In the System Recovery Options menu, click Startup Repair to start the
repair process.

7. When the repair process is complete, click Finish.

Additional References for Startup Repair With Screenshots:

How to Use Startup Repair:

***Accessing Windows RE (Repair Environment):***

1) Insert Media into PC (the DVD you burned)

2) ***You will see on the Vista logo setup screen after lang. options in the
lower left corner, a link called "System Recovery Options."***

Screenshot: System Recovery Options (Lower Left Link)
http://blogs.itecn.net/photos/liuhui/images/2014/500x375.aspx

Screenshot: (Click first option "Startup Repair"
http://www.leedesmond.com/images/img_vista02ctp-installSysRecOpt2.bmp

How To Run Startup Repair In Vista Ultimate (Multiple Screenshots)
http://www.windowsvista.windowsreinstall.com/vistaultimate/repairstartup/index.htm

3) Select your OS for repair.

4) Its been my experience that you can see some causes of the crash from
theWin RE feature:

You'll have a choice there of using:

1) Startup Repair
2) System Restore
3) Complete PC Restore

Good luck,

CH

 

[Kerry Brown]

If the Ubuntu installation tried to alter the partition structure to create
a new partition then the file system on the disk may be corrupt. Before you
do anything else you need to somehow backup your drive. Any attempts at
repair may make the problem worse. You can boot from a disk imaging program
disk and image to an external drive. You can boot from a Linux disk and copy
files to an external drive, or you can remove the drive, install it in
another computer or external case and copy files from it. You need to backup
now.

FWIW I agree with Rick Rogers that it is most likely a hardware issue but
the important thing is to backup before going any farther.

 

[Guest]

If the Ubuntu installation tried to alter the partition structure to create
a new partition then the file system on the disk may be corrupt. Before you
do anything else you need to somehow backup your drive. Any attempts at
repair may make the problem worse. You can boot from a disk imaging program
disk and image to an external drive. You can boot from a Linux disk and copy
files to an external drive, or you can remove the drive, install it in
another computer or external case and copy files from it. You need to backup
now.

FWIW I agree with Rick Rogers that it is most likely a hardware issue but
the important thing is to backup before going any farther.

I've been working with folks at ubuntu forums, please see this and help
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=346780

Looks like vista's drm is making it impossible for me to get anything.

I need to copy stuff over to my usb drive but it won't give me access

This is a laptop so I cannot use the drive elsewhere

 

[Michael Jennings]

It seems to be very important that you spend a great deal of time on
your data recovery problem rather than giving it to a computer shop.
Have you considered carefully cleaning the surface of the Vista DVD?

Possibly crud on the underside is producing a bad checksum. If that
got corrected, Vista should be better at handling NTFS 5 than Ubuntu.
On the other hand you might wreck the DVD. Do some research:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Cleaning+DVD
I don't think I'd have the nerve to finally apply brasso:
http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=54849

 

[Kerry Brown]

I don't see any mention of DRM anywhere in that thread. I think you have
confused NTFS permissions with DRM. I don't have enough experience with
Ubuntu to know if it works well in a situation like this. It is very likely
that you have a hardware problem or the partition table has become corrupt.
Remove the drive from the laptop and try to recover the data from another
system that works. If you insist on continuing on your present path it is
likely you will loose the data. If you must do it from this computer then
try a BartPE boot CD. You will have to make the BartPE CD on another
computer.

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

There are tools available to try and repair a corrupted partition table but
these generally require advanced knowledge of file systems and the partition
table. If you do the wrong thing with these tools you will loose your data.
Some tools for this can be found on the UltimateBootCD.

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

I'll say it again. Remove the hard drive and get what data you can off of it
before trying to repair the file system. Any other solution increases your
chances of loosing the data.