Vista Won't Boot and Repair Options Not Working

Hi, first I'd like to apologize for such a lengthy post but this is an ongoing issue and I have a lot of detail to relay.

A few years ago I purchased a Toshiba Laptop with MS Vista. This laptop has been used very little and will no longer boot.

I was doing a bit of gaming when my game froze. Ctrl+Alt+Del wouldn't allow me to end the game, nor would anything else I tried and since the laptop was frozen for more than 5 minutes or so, I decided to hold down the power button to reset it.

Upon restarting, the laptop hung at the Microsoft Windows loading screen for about 10 minutes or so, after which I tried to reset it again. On the next reset, it started CHKDSK automatically, which I allowed to run. It found a handful of errors and said it was discarding the files and repairing Windows.


CHKDSK finished, but said it wasn't able to repair the disk. Afterwards, it restarted and ran Startup Repair, which also failed. It then became stuck in an endless Startup Repair loop.


I found a tutorial online that attempted to fix the endless loop problem by using the REGBACK command and a few other things, but when I typed CD\Windows\system32\config as mentioned in the tutorial, it says not found on the drive (or something to that effect). It says the same for CD\Windows and CD\windows\system32. Having said that, it did show my Windows, Users and Program Files folders when typing DIR on C: and I was later able to recover the data from the drive using Ubuntu.


Both Ubuntu and Windows were able to see my Windows partition, though Windows won't boot.


I was eventually able to fix the Startup Repair Loop by using a Vista install DVD to attempt more startup repairs. The startup repairs didn't fix the booting problems but it did allow me to finally access command prompt from the Vista DVD.


I've ran more than 30 startup repairs at this point (many of them due to being stuck in the loop) and it does no good. I can't boot into Safe Mode and System Restore doesn't work nor does last known good configuration. Windows says there are no restore points to use, though I did have System Restore turned on.


I'm also unable to get into Advanced Restore Options by pressing F8.


After doing a lot of research and asking for advice on other forums, I ran out of options and decided to give Bootrec.exe a shot. I used the /FixMbr, /FixBoot and /RebuildBcd commands. All indicated they were successful but of course this didn't fix my problem and Windows is now no longer seeing my Vista installation. I'm also getting another message upon startup, which is of course caused by the Bootrec attempts I made, but I'd run out of time and had to leave the house before I was able to take note of exactly what the message was.

After this, Ubuntu is still able to see my Vista partition and I can still access the data.

I've tried almost everything on it with the exception of reinstalling and doing a repair install.

I haven't done a repair install because my laptop came with an OEM version of Vista and my understanding is that when I were to reactivate Windows I'd be out of luck because MS no longer supports OEM activations. Is this correct?

Wouldn't I be unable to activate Windows?

I did try using the sfc /scannow command. It didn't work at first but after some research I was able to find out how to run it in offline mode. Once I got it working it found some corrupt files but was unable to repair them. It did mention that these files were now stored in the log but I didn't have time to check them before leaving the house. I'll have to check it once I return home. I'll also try running the scan a few more times when I have the time, as I've read it may need up to 3 scans to fix everything.

I plan to download the System Update Readyness Tool from Microsoft but once I've done that how will I replace the files with me only being able to use command prompt?

I've considered doing a repair upgrade but I've read that I may be unable to activate Windows since my laptop is OEM.

I read on another forum:

"Microsoft no longer provides support for preinstalled OEM (recovery)copies of Vista. If you have one of these, then you must contact the OEM, instead of Microsoft in this tutorial, to activate your OEM Vista."

This leads me to believe that I will not be able to activate Vista unless I go through my OEM?

I do have a COA sticker on my laptop still but my OEM didn't provide any install media, so I'm actually using a retail Vista Disc for this.

I'd really like to fix this laptop without having to do a fresh install if possible, though I realize it might not be. I'm determined to try everything else in the world first though.

If a repair install would allow me to keep my data I'd be okay with that, but I don't want to wind up with an issue of being unable to reactivate Vista.

I seem to recall reading somewhere that when reinstalling Vista, even with an OEM COA key you would have to still go through reactivation which would require you to get a new key from MS. Am I mis-remembering this? Would I simply be able to re-enter the key from my laptop sticker and have Windows activate normally (permanently)? If so, I'd go this route.


At this point I'm guessing there's no fixing this laptop without reinstalling everything but if anyone here has any advice that might help me, I'd love to hear it. Thanks.

 

Joe, you're correct about the bad sectors. I thought I'd mentioned that but I guess I omitted it by mistake. Windows says 4 bad sectors found, Ubuntu says 1. I will likely swap out the drive at some point and put Win 7 on it, but if it's possible I want to try to get this one booting again.

 

LatinMcG, am I understanding this to mean that the Daz Windows loader can also activate Vista? Or did I misunderstand that part?

This command "sfc /offbootdir=c:\ /offwindir=c:\windows" is what I used to get the scan working before. I entered it as "sfc /SCANNOW /OFFBOOTDIR=c:\ /OFFWINDIR=c:\windows". I notice my way has "scannow" and you way does not. Do I need to run it again without the "scannow"?


For the second part, you're saying I need to type \windows\system32\config\regback and then overwrite \windows\system32\config\ with it? This will then copy the registry back to a working version?

 

Thank you both for your input. I appreciate it.

 

Joe: Don't worry, I've already pulled the data off the drive. I don't intend to rely on the drive, I'd just like to use it a little longer before I have to buy a new one.

Latin: Good to know that Vista will activate with the loader. Was I correct in my understanding of the last part? This: "For the second part, you're saying I need to type \windows\system32\config\regback and then overwrite \windows\system32\config\ with it? This will then copy the registry back to a working version?"

 

LatinMcG: Got it. I'll give that a try once I return home. Thanks

 

Well, here's an interesting development from last night. It seems the offline scf /scannow check I did previously partially brought my Vista install back. Windows is now seeing Vista on the drive and it now refers to Vista as being recovered, although Windows still won't boot.

When Vista came back up it recommended that I run System Repair again, which I did and it made repairs, then still would not boot. I ran System Repair once more and now it says that it detects no problems, yet still won't boot.

After restarting it now says there is a corrupt Winload.exe file. I've read that if I were to use Ubuntu to copy the Winload.exe file from Windows\system32\boot\winload.exe into \Windows\system32\winload.exe that this may fix my problem. Does this sound right?

Finally, when Windows "recovered" my Vista installation it is now also showing my System Restore points once again. I haven't tried to use them yet, because even the most recent restore point it's showing is fairly old. If I can't fix this any other way, I might try one of the restore points, but for now I'm going to continue to try other methods.