Vista won't boot, cd won't work
I tried booting into Vista today as usual and encountered this error:
Code:
Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the
cause. To fix the problem:
1. insert your windows installation disc and restart your computer.
2. choose your language settings, and then click "Next"
3. click "repair your computer"
:
:
File: \Boot\BCD
Status: 0xc000000f
Info: An error occurred while attempting to read the boot configuration data.
I tried restarting a few times with the same results. I looked out my vista installation disk and inserted it, but for some reason nothing changed, as if the disk wasn't recognized. I checked all the connections, reseated all cables going to the disk drive yet it still won't work.
Any ideas what I can do? Is the only way to solve this using the windows installation disk and repairing?
Think I should try and get another dvd drive, or is there a better solution?
Thanks hex :rockon2:
Re: Vista won't boot, cd won't work
I would just popin the Vista DVD and repair the startup process.
Re: Vista won't boot, cd won't work
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Singh400
I would just popin the Vista DVD and repair the startup process.
Well that is exactly what I done, except that I could never get to repairing it since nothing changed when I put in the dvd.
I changed the boot order, so it would boot from the dvd drive before hard and drive and at first this seemed to work. It came up saying "loading windows files" and spent about 5 minutes with a bar filling up across the screen, then the vista load screen came up and the cursor appeared and there was just the vista default background in the middle of the screen. I couldn't do anything, nothing came up and I just had to reboot. I done this 3 times and on the 4th try it randomly stopped being able to boot into the dvd drive. Instead it just says "Boot from dvd: _ " or something, and I can't press or do anything and have to restart.
Completely out of ideas, anyone know what I can try?
Re: Vista won't boot, cd won't work
It could be a hard drive problem. I'm not sure if there is a way to boot to dos and run chkdsk, if there is it might help fix any bad sectors. You could also try removing some ram and trying different sticks if you have more than 1.
Re: Vista won't boot, cd won't work
if you have a disk already or if you have another machine it might be worth runing something like a ubuntu live disk to retrieve any files you might need to salvage and to test the hard drive...usually quite usefull.
The only options i can think of to repair the boot data involve using the vista tools on the dvd....might it be worth using a different vista dvd if you have one? could be a damaged or corrupt disk?
Re: Vista won't boot, cd won't work
If your Vista disc is damaged, you can use this:
Well, I'd link you straight to it, but:
Quote:
Members are required to have a minimum of 5 posts before they can post any URL's
Google for 'vista recovery disc', click the neosmart result (first result as I write this post).
Re: Vista won't boot, cd won't work
So I'll burn a new vista dvd and try that. Failing that, salvage files using ubuntu live disk just incase, and test the hard drive?
I'll try it when I get home then.
Re: Vista won't boot, cd won't work
Quote:
Originally Posted by
cmd
If your Vista disc is damaged, you can use this:
Well, I'd link you straight to it, but:
Google for 'vista recovery disc', click the neosmart result (first result as I write this post).
Ok so I downloaded this and burnt it to a cd, but it didn't work. I started it up with the disk in the drive and it acted like it was searching for a disk to boot from, hung for a few seconds, and just tried booting from the hard drive and I encountered the same error.
Possible that I just burned it wrong? I thought I just had to burnt the iso to the cd and it would work, but is there such a thing as making a bootable CD (like a bootable flash drive) that I didn't know about?
Re: Vista won't boot, cd won't work
You dont need to do anything to make it bootable. What did you use to burn the ISO image? and did you burn the contents of the iso image onto the disk or the actual ISO file?
Re: Vista won't boot, cd won't work
Used Nero and just burnt the actual ".iso" file to the disk.
Re: Vista won't boot, cd won't work
so when you explore the disk all you see is the ISO file?
If this is the case you need to do it again. I think in nero you need to open the recorder menu at the top and select burn image and then select the ISO file of corse.
Re: Vista won't boot, cd won't work
Right ok, know how to do that, thanks.
Just my luck, now my other computer is giving me trouble. Dvd drive refuses to open with the old, wrongly burnt repair disk in the drive. Now I can't fix the other problem until I fix this. Just my luck.
Re: Vista won't boot, cd won't work
oh no that sucks, hope u get the drive working soon. manual eject if u can??
Re: Vista won't boot, cd won't work
Just restarted and it worked, I'm too pessimistic :P .
Burned the new repair disk and it booted into it. The results I got were IDENTICAL to my actual Vista installation disk.
"Windows is loading files..."
Vista load bar
Vista default desktop in middle of screen
Nilch
Just waiting to see if it does anything, what SHOULD happen at this point?
Edit: Restarted and it still just hanged, restarted again and it worked. Third times a charm.
All fixed now, thanks guys :) .
Re: Vista won't boot, cd won't work
Re: Vista won't boot, cd won't work
Hmm, booted up this morning and encountered that error again. Had to repair it again. Restarted and got the same error and repaired.
Am I going to face this error every time I boot up :O_o1: ? Any...permanent fix?