Unable to Boot from Hard Disk

[ross m. greenberg]

The only way I am able to boot his with a political CD/DVD in the drive,
wait for the "press any key to boot from CD or DVD" prompt comes up, do not
hit any key whatsoever and then the normal user prompt/enter password screen
comes up. Additionally if I try to "Safe Mode Boot" I Blue Screen.

Any idea of what to do?

Thanks.

Ross

 

[Donald]

It sounds like you will need a system recovery or system restore. Either
there is an advanced boot option for repairing your system at startup (you
will see how to activate that by checking the manual of your computer) or
you can boot from your Vista CD and choose to repair your computer.
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/help/5c59f8c1-b0d1-4f1a-af55-74f3922f3f351033.mspx#EX

To access system restore, boot with that omiting CD prompt walkaround, and
use System Restore tool in System Tools. If there is some changes to the
software or configuration recently, you can restore the previous restore
point and see whether that will fix it. Or a virus scan can fix it
sometimes.

 

[Peter Foldes]

Ross

Can you tell us what the Blue Screen says exactly

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

You need to use the bootrec tool to fix the boot files:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[ross m. greenberg]

This seems to imply that I need the original Vista installation disk/DVD.
Unfortunately this was lost in a fire about three years ago. How can I get a
replacement or is there any other alternative?

 

[Malke]

This seems to imply that I need the original Vista installation disk/DVD.
Unfortunately this was lost in a fire about three years ago. How can I get
a replacement or is there any other alternative?

How to Replace Lost, Broken, or Missing Microsoft Software or Hardware -
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;326246

If you only need a Vista disk to do a repair:

Windows Vista Recovery Disc Download (cannot install Windows from this)
http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/

Malke