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Question

Can't boot Windows Vista

by Mar 31, 2020 4:42AM PDT

My Toshiba a300 can't boot in Windows Vista. A while after pressing power button it shows the "Windows Error Recovery" screen. At this phase i couldn't use the arrows. For this reason I've connected an external keyboard. I tried both of the choices but i have always the same result: It stucks at the Windows loading screen and after few seconds it shuts down suddenly and starts again doing the same thing over and over again. I tried to boot in safe mode but it stucks again. Then I decided to format it. I used a bootable usb with Windows 10. I choosed from BIOS settings to boot from USB. Unfortunately this didn't solve the problem. This time it shows the windows 10 loadinf screen and it stucks again. Do you have any suggestions to solve this problem?

Discussion is locked

7 Posts
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Answer
Depends on the cause.
by Forum moderator Mar 31, 2020 8:52AM PDT

This could be a failed drive or some other issue. The symptoms don't tell us enough.

Since you appear to be ready to lose all the files on the drives try wiping the drives clean. DO NOT FORMAT SAID DRIVES. Just erase them with DBAN or your choice of utility to erase the drives. The Windows installer will prepare the media as needed.

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Drive
by allospos Mar 31, 2020 9:01AM PDT

Thanks for your response. I forgot to say that I removed the HDD and made backup of my files using another PC. Then I put the HDD back and try to boot from the usb as I said before. I suppose tha this is an evidence that my drive works properly.

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The drive works BUT
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Mar 31, 2020 9:31AM PDT

That does not mean the OS or file system is any good. This is why we wipe the drive clean (again, no formatting! just erase) and try a clean install.

Also, if the drive has faults in the boot sector area then it will fail again but could work as a data drive. I wish that your experience was a good enough test of the drive but it is not. We still have more to do (wipe the drive clean with DBAN or similar.)

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Drive
by allospos Mar 31, 2020 9:47AM PDT

I will try what you said. But, as I mentioned before I tried to boot from a bootable usb and it wasn't possible to boot even from the usb. Sorry if this is a silly question but if it was a hard drive problem as you said would this effect the boot from the usb process ?

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Yes.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Mar 31, 2020 10:50AM PDT

I don't feel I need to get into how today's UEFI BIOS works so let's move on.

If I could not boot up DBAN to wipe the drive then I'd pull the drive and wipe it on another computer. And I do mean wipe. This could be with DBAN, GPARTED or even Windows own disk management where I delete all the partitions on the target drive.

-> Also YES to it could be pilot error but I'm not there to verify your USB drive is good or if there is some option you missed or if you didn't give the Windows 10 USB boot long enough to error out.

There are a few machines that came with a label which is "Signature PC" which blocked installation of OSes by users. Rare but they are out there. I doubt this is in play but you know your PC. I do not press for details as I respect user privacy.

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just to note
by mejustsayin Mar 31, 2020 11:40AM PDT

most comuters that came with vista was unable to boot from a usb drive to begin with. did you have the option to boot from the usb drive in the bios boot order?

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I've run into that and more.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Mar 31, 2020 11:43AM PDT

What do I call a PC that "seems" to boot from USB and fail? A zombie of some sort. I pull out any OS on CD/DVD and try again there. While I may call this pilot error not everyone is a pilot.

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