Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Vista boot problem, possible hard drive issue?

Mar 21, 2012 12:48AM PDT

A friend of mine brought his laptop over the other saying windows wouldn't start. I turned it on and immediately text starting flying down the screen followed by it running some test and then going to the windows startup screen, which shows the loading bar, but never went any further.

My initial though when any one gives me a computer to look at was virus, get to safe mode and go from there, well even though I got to the safe mode selection/start window that wouldn't start either.

Now I tried doing a windows restore but he never created a restore point so then I booted to his vista os disk and was going to do a repair from there but at no point would it see the hard drive. This leads me to believe the hard drive is shot and need replacing but I just thought I'd if anyone has any other ideas?

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Clarification Request
similar symptoms can show up ...
Mar 23, 2012 10:59AM PDT

if the optical or floppy drive is non-functional - this can be caused by a bad drive or by a bad (or loose) data cable.

Can you access the computer's BIOS and see if all drives are found?

- Collapse -
Answer
Re: drive
Mar 21, 2012 1:17AM PDT

Before you see the Windows startup screen, many (I think hundreds of) files have been read from the hard disk. A corrrupted account, corrupted programs in the windows folder or malware are common causes for not going further than that.

The strange thing is that Vista repair doesn't see the disk. But it certainly isn't shot, I think.

Kees

- Collapse -
Thanks
Mar 21, 2012 4:42AM PDT

So any idea what I can try next?

- Collapse -
(NT) Alas, no.
Mar 21, 2012 8:03AM PDT
- Collapse -
Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool
Mar 21, 2012 8:18AM PDT

First try the Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool 2011
and/or a Linux Live CD.