So all of a sudden, my dad's laptop is just cycling through the boot up "Repairing your PC". It'll go through the Checking Step I, then Step II, reboot, and repeat. And he let this run for a couple of days. He shipped it down to me and I tried booting to a Win10 DVD, USB drive, nothing - same thing. I am unable to get to the option to do an in-place upgrade. Occasionally, the system, botting up, will give that blue screen with the "smiley face" saying Windows Didn't Boot Right, we're restarting it for you. Any ideas how to get around this? I'm worried that the drive is just dead. Took the back off and they've literally JAILED the drive - it has a circuit ribbon strap over it that I don't know how to remove. It an Asus Model: F556U (yeah 6yrs old). I also noticed that when I had the back off, and I started it up, the fan was not running (not sure if that's normal or not. Thanks for any help. He's really not looking forward to shelling out more $$$ for a new one - he basically only uses it for Facebook and searching for things (he's 87). No gaming or anything fancy. Thanks! --- DS
OK, thanks. That can get me the drive out at least. I can xfer his files off. Might try running chkdisk as well, then see how it starts up. Was hoping there might be some other tricks to do to get it fixed as is. Any ideas? Thanks. --- DS
I've been in similar situations, and it turned out the disk was actually fine. A repair install / in-place-upgrade fixed the startup process.
Personally, I don't think you need to disassemble this computer, nor do I think that the hard drive or any other important part is completely damaged and needs to be replaced. In my opinion, this computer has never been maintained by anyone, and Windows has been installed there for a very long time ago. (Unfortunately, you do not provide any information other than the name of the computer). So I would recommend doing a new clean installation and proper maintenance as I am pretty sure there is nothing to repair and there is no need to replace anything. If you provide more information, a more accurate diagnosis can be made. But I can definitely recommend one thing - don't start dismantling anything there or doing any chemotherapy before everything is clear. Now seems that Windows itself is damaged and there is nothing to fix, only clean and up-to-date reinstall can help. It would be good if this were done by an expert and not any self-appointed doctor... Then things can end sadly.
Sorry, brain fart! You can not do the in-place-upgrade if the machine doesn't boot properly. I probably booted a live linux usb, copied off files from the hdd I needed to keep, then did a complete windows reinstall. You may need to search internet for the proper hot key to get to the bios setup, or bios boot device selection. Probably banging F2 key repeatedly...
kaljukass >I am unable to get to the option to do an in-place upgrade. Occasionally, the system, botting up, will give that blue screen with the "smiley face" saying Windows Didn't Boot Right, we're restarting it for you. Noone is talking about dissasembkling the lap top . It wont boot so how the f**k is he going to do what you say ? If he takes the HDD out he can check it and maybe repair it , maybe just copy the needed things out ...... very easily and very fast ........... without playing post offices .
Yes, Windows has been installed, but maintained and updated. It just re-booted one day and has been like this since. MAYBE I could do a fresh install, but that would lose all the files on the drive. I can't even run SFC /SCANNOW from the DOS prompt, as it returns an error. Just realized I never ran CHKDISK on it from the prompt though. Will also try that.
Boot from an external device (DVD, USB) and transport/copy the files somewhere else or make partition on the same hard drive and copy files there and you will not lose any files. No matter where You save these files, only need to make free at least 32 GB to reinstal OP.
Most linux distros like Ubuntu if run from usb, have a disk managament utility which show disk smart values.
> I tried booting to a Win10 DVD, USB drive, nothing - same thing. I am unable to get to the option to do an in-place upgrade.
From that DOS prompt try this - should see status okay for hdd Code: wmic diskdrive get model,status Need to hit proper key at proper time to enter bios and change boot device. Timing it can be tricky; it needs to happen before windows boot process takes control. If see ASUS splash screen, that would be the time, but it may be set to a fast boot.
Yes, I know. It is unclear whether @DeathStalker77 has been able to get into the bios menu and change the boot device. Simply plugging in a usb drive or optical disc will not work if it is always trying to boot from the hdd
@DeathStalker77 Before tearing the laptop apart, why don't you try making a bootable usb with something like Sergei Strelec or Hiren's Boot CD or something of the sort, so you can at least run a test on the hard drive and see how it performs? On an Asus laptop like this you can probably spam F2 on bootup to get into the bios and go to the Exit section where there should be a Boot Override option(select the device you would like to boot from). From there it's a matter of booting a live distro and running a test. If even the live distro seems to take ages to load, then the hard drive might be so effed up it's actually hindering the entire laptop just by being connected, which means you COULD get some data off of it IF YOU'RE LUCKY. After that you can actually take the bottom case off and remove the drive from the laptop altogether, I would suggest replacing it with a 128GB SSD - not expensive and not too small capacity-wise.
Hadn't tried those boot options, but can - again, easy to get into the BIOS and change any boot options, been there, done that. I'm 90% convinced that the drive itself is failing with errors, but I will still do what I can. --- DS
Are you aiming to get this computer back on or just inventing some weird extra problems? Leave this BIOS alone before it's too late!
Then please clarify your advice from post #11. Is it possible to boot from an external device if the bios always looks to boot from the internal hdd first?