After successfully installing W7 Ultimate, like I have done in the past on my 2 other PC/laptops, it was running fine. I Used Daz loader to activate it, it restarted and was running as genuine and fine. When I restarted it, I logged into the bios menu to change the boot priority back to default (I booted from a USB as I always have done in the past) and Windows failed to load. The startup repair diagnosis returned the root cause as above in the title. It is a Lenovo T61 and had Ubuntu previously installed, I did a clean install and deleted all partitions, and used all the unallocated space to install Windows (meaning I created no partitions and clicked next). It's gone to startup repair twice with the same results. I'm not sure what has gone wrong, Could it be the hard drive (It is making loud noises but the person I got it from said it has been doing that for a while). Help!!
OP never mentioned the drive clicking once, just that it was loud, which some drives are... OP - Enter safemode options and try "Last good known configuration" Sounds like an update was partially installed when you rebooted, and has messed up Windows Otherwise, reinstall Windows
Thanks for the reply. I don't think I can enter safe mode, it doesn't give me the option. It did give me the option of using a system restore point, but I tried that and it failed twice. I guess I'll try reinstalling. If it were the HD failing, wouldn't the diagnosis show that?
Hit reset on the machine while it's running, mash F8 while it POSTS and Boots, see if you can get the safemode options there if not, quickest just to reinstall sayings as it's a fresh install anyway S.M.A.R.T if enabled, would show the HDD as about to fail, if it was failing And you'd likely have noticed problems earlier on than this, during install for example Once you're back in Windows, run something like CrystalDisk Info to check the life and health of the drive
I just done a clean install. There is something I noticed the 1st time around which is happening again. Windows update is on an endless 'searching for updates' loop. I never thought much of it, I thought it might work the next time. But now it's happening again in the same way, and I'm wondering if it may be the source of the problem? It's running fine at the moment, I read some people said try Ccleaner but it is still stuck with the green progress bar going back and forth. I'm worried if I turn it off it might crash again!! Any ideas?
Clean installs sometimes take a long time to find updates, (Actually it has already found them, but in the background) if you restart, it should say "updating windows, do not turn off..... etc) - meaning it was downloading / installing them, just not showing you in WU Or just wait, and it should eventually show
I haven't been able to turn it on every day, but it still has the same problem. When I go into windows update and check for updates it is always an endless loop. I tried manually downloading KB3102810 but when I double click on it I get an endless 'Windows update standalone installer: searching for updates on this computer' green progress bar. I tried downloading and Windows updates downloader and downloaded a bunch of security/non security updates but when I manually double click on them the same thing happens. And when I shut down I never get any message saying updating don't turn off etc. Help!!
Your getting the endless loop while trying to install KB3102810 because windows update is still running. Yea you may have closed it off and you think it is shut down but it is still running in the background. You can't search and install at the same time. Reboot the computer, (That should stop it) and do not start Windows update, then try to install KB3102810
Windows update doesn't run unless I manually click the search for updates button, it's definitely not running. Is this an unheard of problem?
Well if it is unheard of or not this is what happened to me. If you manually click and search for updates and it is in an endless loop, it will not stop checking even if you close windows update. A reboot will reset it and shut it down.
But that's what I mean, it happens every time I turn it on, even though it's the 1st thing I do after booting Windows up. . Is there anything else I can try?
Well I tried doing it straight away after bootup (instead of waiting a few minutes to let windows finish startup processes) and it worked! Thank you so much for the help, much appreciated
Don't know what your talking about here and what you did, but if it worked and your happy, then I am Happy