Vista won't boot anymore and I can't repair.

Here's my situation: I had Vista working fine on my computer for several
weeks. I ran out of space on my Vista partition so I used a live CD of
GParted to shrink one partition and grow my Vista one. Rebooting, Vista
would no longer boot to the desktop. It would show the boot progress bar and
nothing more. Abandoning that, it would give me startup options, including
the various safe modes. These didn't work either. They would load a number
of drivers and then just hang, saying to please wait. As with a normal boot,
waiting didn't improve the situation. So, I went to try using the
installation DVD to run the repair feature. It loaded files, then went to
the progress bar, and eventually a black screen, and ultimately that's it.
No matter what I try, I can't get anything to load right. But some things at
least try to start. I have no idea what's wrong. I don't know if there's a
key file or driver missing, or what it could be, or what to do to get Vista
booting again.

The Vista partition is exactly the same except larger. It's still got the
same attributes it had before growing it.

I will note something that I don't know how important it is. When I
initially installed Vista, I had a problem getting the installation DVD to
work. I don't know what did the trick, but one I thing I did was I partially
ran XP setup in order to load some harddrive drivers, then abandoned it, then
ran Vista setup and it took. It was sort of vague the whole process because
it was like a plan z attempt and I wasn't paying close attention to the
process. I don't know if this might be useful, but I've a number of
different ways of providing this driver while vista boots or the dvd runs,
and it doesn't help....so I don't even know if it's part of the solution or a
distraction.

Finally, I have data on the partition that I didn't intend on losing and
isn't backed up. No matter how foolish that was of me, if I can repair the
installation without losing it, I very much want to do so. I'd appreciate
any help you could give me.

Hi,

Have you tried undoing the volume resizing? I suspect you moved the starting
point of the partition instead of expanding into free space at the back end.
If not set correctly, the startup process will get lost because the MFT's
confused on the location of key files.

You likely need to load a SATA driver for the system before tring to run
setup from what you are describing. While IDE's don't require this, some of
the SATA drives do (not all, much depends on the system hardware).

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

"Lt. Washburn" <LtWashburn@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:A6EF0078-B572-4DDA-913A-7F6187881A3A@microsoft.com...
> Here's my situation: I had Vista working fine on my computer for several
> weeks. I ran out of space on my Vista partition so I used a live CD of
> GParted to shrink one partition and grow my Vista one. Rebooting, Vista
> would no longer boot to the desktop. It would show the boot progress bar
> and
> nothing more. Abandoning that, it would give me startup options,
> including
> the various safe modes. These didn't work either. They would load a
> number
> of drivers and then just hang, saying to please wait. As with a normal
> boot,
> waiting didn't improve the situation. So, I went to try using the
> installation DVD to run the repair feature. It loaded files, then went to
> the progress bar, and eventually a black screen, and ultimately that's it.
> No matter what I try, I can't get anything to load right. But some things
> at
> least try to start. I have no idea what's wrong. I don't know if there's
> a
> key file or driver missing, or what it could be, or what to do to get
> Vista
> booting again.
>
> The Vista partition is exactly the same except larger. It's still got the
> same attributes it had before growing it.
>
> I will note something that I don't know how important it is. When I
> initially installed Vista, I had a problem getting the installation DVD to
> work. I don't know what did the trick, but one I thing I did was I
> partially
> ran XP setup in order to load some harddrive drivers, then abandoned it,
> then
> ran Vista setup and it took. It was sort of vague the whole process
> because
> it was like a plan z attempt and I wasn't paying close attention to the
> process. I don't know if this might be useful, but I've a number of
> different ways of providing this driver while vista boots or the dvd runs,
> and it doesn't help....so I don't even know if it's part of the solution
> or a
> distraction.
>
> Finally, I have data on the partition that I didn't intend on losing and
> isn't backed up. No matter how foolish that was of me, if I can repair
> the
> installation without losing it, I very much want to do so. I'd appreciate
> any help you could give me.

On Sun, 8 Apr 2007 07:14:08 -0400, "Rick Rogers" <rick@mvps.org>
wrote:

>While IDE's don't require this, some of
>the SATA drives do (not all, much depends on the system hardware).

Some do! There are cases of Vista not being able to find the DVD from
which it has just booted due to a lack of drivers. Big article on this
issue in a UK computing mag.

Cheers,

Guy

** Stress - the condition brought about by having to
** resist the temptation to beat the living daylights
** out of someone who richly deserves it.

It is also possible that your partition program is not Vista compatible.
Doesn't have the right NTFS version. Been many posts about Partition Magic
and this problem. You could try to install Vista on the other partition as
a temporary measure, depending on what is there, so you could use it to
recover the data you don't want to lose.


"Lt. Washburn" <LtWashburn@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:A6EF0078-B572-4DDA-913A-7F6187881A3A@microsoft.com...
> Here's my situation: I had Vista working fine on my computer for several
> weeks. I ran out of space on my Vista partition so I used a live CD of
> GParted to shrink one partition and grow my Vista one. Rebooting, Vista
> would no longer boot to the desktop. It would show the boot progress bar
> and
> nothing more. Abandoning that, it would give me startup options,
> including
> the various safe modes. These didn't work either. They would load a
> number
> of drivers and then just hang, saying to please wait. As with a normal
> boot,
> waiting didn't improve the situation. So, I went to try using the
> installation DVD to run the repair feature. It loaded files, then went to
> the progress bar, and eventually a black screen, and ultimately that's it.
> No matter what I try, I can't get anything to load right. But some things
> at
> least try to start. I have no idea what's wrong. I don't know if there's
> a
> key file or driver missing, or what it could be, or what to do to get
> Vista
> booting again.
>
> The Vista partition is exactly the same except larger. It's still got the
> same attributes it had before growing it.
>
> I will note something that I don't know how important it is. When I
> initially installed Vista, I had a problem getting the installation DVD to
> work. I don't know what did the trick, but one I thing I did was I
> partially
> ran XP setup in order to load some harddrive drivers, then abandoned it,
> then
> ran Vista setup and it took. It was sort of vague the whole process
> because
> it was like a plan z attempt and I wasn't paying close attention to the
> process. I don't know if this might be useful, but I've a number of
> different ways of providing this driver while vista boots or the dvd runs,
> and it doesn't help....so I don't even know if it's part of the solution
> or a
> distraction.
>
> Finally, I have data on the partition that I didn't intend on losing and
> isn't backed up. No matter how foolish that was of me, if I can repair
> the
> installation without losing it, I very much want to do so. I'd appreciate
> any help you could give me.

He can recover his data also using Vista installation DVD. I succesfully
tried to run many programs in it's command line environment, for example
Total Commander. It is even possible to run local network access and
Internet acces with command startnet.cmd.

But I think the first step he must done now is chkdsk /f.
--
M. [Windows - Shell/User MVP]
/before private reply change px with pl in my e-mail address/

"John Barnes" <jbarnes@email.net> wrote in message
news:eq6CHKheHHA.1220@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> It is also possible that your partition program is not Vista
> compatible. Doesn't have the right NTFS version. Been many posts
> about Partition Magic and this problem. You could try to install
> Vista on the other partition as a temporary measure, depending on what
> is there, so you could use it to recover the data you don't want to
> lose.
>
>
> "Lt. Washburn" <LtWashburn@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:A6EF0078-B572-4DDA-913A-7F6187881A3A@microsoft.com...
>> Here's my situation: I had Vista working fine on my computer for
>> several
>> weeks. I ran out of space on my Vista partition so I used a live CD
>> of
>> GParted to shrink one partition and grow my Vista one. Rebooting,
>> Vista
>> would no longer boot to the desktop. It would show the boot progress
>> bar and
>> nothing more. Abandoning that, it would give me startup options,
>> including
>> the various safe modes. These didn't work either. They would load a
>> number
>> of drivers and then just hang, saying to please wait. As with a
>> normal boot,
>> waiting didn't improve the situation. So, I went to try using the
>> installation DVD to run the repair feature. It loaded files, then
>> went to
>> the progress bar, and eventually a black screen, and ultimately
>> that's it.
>> No matter what I try, I can't get anything to load right. But some
>> things at
>> least try to start. I have no idea what's wrong. I don't know if
>> there's a
>> key file or driver missing, or what it could be, or what to do to get
>> Vista
>> booting again.
>>
>> The Vista partition is exactly the same except larger. It's still
>> got the
>> same attributes it had before growing it.
>>
>> I will note something that I don't know how important it is. When I
>> initially installed Vista, I had a problem getting the installation
>> DVD to
>> work. I don't know what did the trick, but one I thing I did was I
>> partially
>> ran XP setup in order to load some harddrive drivers, then abandoned
>> it, then
>> ran Vista setup and it took. It was sort of vague the whole process
>> because
>> it was like a plan z attempt and I wasn't paying close attention to
>> the
>> process. I don't know if this might be useful, but I've a number of
>> different ways of providing this driver while vista boots or the dvd
>> runs,
>> and it doesn't help....so I don't even know if it's part of the
>> solution or a
>> distraction.
>>
>> Finally, I have data on the partition that I didn't intend on losing
>> and
>> isn't backed up. No matter how foolish that was of me, if I can
>> repair the
>> installation without losing it, I very much want to do so. I'd
>> appreciate
>> any help you could give me.
>

Wow. It is nice to know that Total Commander will run from the install DVD
command line. Thanks!

--


Regards,

Richard Urban MVP
Microsoft Windows Shell/User


"Michal Kawecki" <kkwinto@o2.px> wrote in message
news:Oi%23AtvieHHA.1312@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> He can recover his data also using Vista installation DVD. I succesfully
> tried to run many programs in it's command line environment, for example
> Total Commander. It is even possible to run local network access and
> Internet acces with command startnet.cmd.
>
> But I think the first step he must done now is chkdsk /f.
> --
> M. [Windows - Shell/User MVP]
> /before private reply change px with pl in my e-mail address/
>
> "John Barnes" <jbarnes@email.net> wrote in message
> news:eq6CHKheHHA.1220@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>> It is also possible that your partition program is not Vista compatible.
>> Doesn't have the right NTFS version. Been many posts about Partition
>> Magic and this problem. You could try to install Vista on the other
>> partition as a temporary measure, depending on what is there, so you
>> could use it to recover the data you don't want to lose.
>>
>>
>> "Lt. Washburn" <LtWashburn@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:A6EF0078-B572-4DDA-913A-7F6187881A3A@microsoft.com...
>>> Here's my situation: I had Vista working fine on my computer for several
>>> weeks. I ran out of space on my Vista partition so I used a live CD of
>>> GParted to shrink one partition and grow my Vista one. Rebooting, Vista
>>> would no longer boot to the desktop. It would show the boot progress
>>> bar and
>>> nothing more. Abandoning that, it would give me startup options,
>>> including
>>> the various safe modes. These didn't work either. They would load a
>>> number
>>> of drivers and then just hang, saying to please wait. As with a normal
>>> boot,
>>> waiting didn't improve the situation. So, I went to try using the
>>> installation DVD to run the repair feature. It loaded files, then went
>>> to
>>> the progress bar, and eventually a black screen, and ultimately that's
>>> it.
>>> No matter what I try, I can't get anything to load right. But some
>>> things at
>>> least try to start. I have no idea what's wrong. I don't know if
>>> there's a
>>> key file or driver missing, or what it could be, or what to do to get
>>> Vista
>>> booting again.
>>>
>>> The Vista partition is exactly the same except larger. It's still got
>>> the
>>> same attributes it had before growing it.
>>>
>>> I will note something that I don't know how important it is. When I
>>> initially installed Vista, I had a problem getting the installation DVD
>>> to
>>> work. I don't know what did the trick, but one I thing I did was I
>>> partially
>>> ran XP setup in order to load some harddrive drivers, then abandoned it,
>>> then
>>> ran Vista setup and it took. It was sort of vague the whole process
>>> because
>>> it was like a plan z attempt and I wasn't paying close attention to the
>>> process. I don't know if this might be useful, but I've a number of
>>> different ways of providing this driver while vista boots or the dvd
>>> runs,
>>> and it doesn't help....so I don't even know if it's part of the solution
>>> or a
>>> distraction.
>>>
>>> Finally, I have data on the partition that I didn't intend on losing and
>>> isn't backed up. No matter how foolish that was of me, if I can repair
>>> the
>>> installation without losing it, I very much want to do so. I'd
>>> appreciate
>>> any help you could give me.
>>
>
>

Opera works too... :-). And before any repair we can make image of
damaged partition using very small (200 kB) Drive Snapshot
http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/home.htm . It don't require installation
on hdd, trial is fully functional and works nicely from Vista command
line.

regards,
--
M. [Windows - Shell/User MVP]
/before private reply change px with pl in my e-mail address/


"Richard Urban" <richardurbanREMOVETHIS@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:uIrzM5ieHHA.3960@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Wow. It is nice to know that Total Commander will run from the install
> DVD command line. Thanks!
>
> --
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Richard Urban MVP
> Microsoft Windows Shell/User
>
>
> "Michal Kawecki" <kkwinto@o2.px> wrote in message
> news:Oi%23AtvieHHA.1312@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>> He can recover his data also using Vista installation DVD. I
>> succesfully tried to run many programs in it's command line
>> environment, for example Total Commander. It is even possible to run
>> local network access and Internet acces with command startnet.cmd.
>>
>> But I think the first step he must done now is chkdsk /f.
>> --
>> M. [Windows - Shell/User MVP]
>> /before private reply change px with pl in my e-mail address/
>>
>> "John Barnes" <jbarnes@email.net> wrote in message
>> news:eq6CHKheHHA.1220@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>>> It is also possible that your partition program is not Vista
>>> compatible. Doesn't have the right NTFS version. Been many posts
>>> about Partition Magic and this problem. You could try to install
>>> Vista on the other partition as a temporary measure, depending on
>>> what is there, so you could use it to recover the data you don't
>>> want to lose.
>>>
>>>
>>> "Lt. Washburn" <LtWashburn@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
>>> message news:A6EF0078-B572-4DDA-913A-7F6187881A3A@microsoft.com...
>>>> Here's my situation: I had Vista working fine on my computer for
>>>> several
>>>> weeks. I ran out of space on my Vista partition so I used a live
>>>> CD of
>>>> GParted to shrink one partition and grow my Vista one. Rebooting,
>>>> Vista
>>>> would no longer boot to the desktop. It would show the boot
>>>> progress bar and
>>>> nothing more. Abandoning that, it would give me startup options,
>>>> including
>>>> the various safe modes. These didn't work either. They would load
>>>> a number
>>>> of drivers and then just hang, saying to please wait. As with a
>>>> normal boot,
>>>> waiting didn't improve the situation. So, I went to try using the
>>>> installation DVD to run the repair feature. It loaded files, then
>>>> went to
>>>> the progress bar, and eventually a black screen, and ultimately
>>>> that's it.
>>>> No matter what I try, I can't get anything to load right. But some
>>>> things at
>>>> least try to start. I have no idea what's wrong. I don't know if
>>>> there's a
>>>> key file or driver missing, or what it could be, or what to do to
>>>> get Vista
>>>> booting again.
>>>>
>>>> The Vista partition is exactly the same except larger. It's still
>>>> got the
>>>> same attributes it had before growing it.
>>>>
>>>> I will note something that I don't know how important it is. When
>>>> I
>>>> initially installed Vista, I had a problem getting the installation
>>>> DVD to
>>>> work. I don't know what did the trick, but one I thing I did was I
>>>> partially
>>>> ran XP setup in order to load some harddrive drivers, then
>>>> abandoned it, then
>>>> ran Vista setup and it took. It was sort of vague the whole
>>>> process because
>>>> it was like a plan z attempt and I wasn't paying close attention to
>>>> the
>>>> process. I don't know if this might be useful, but I've a number
>>>> of
>>>> different ways of providing this driver while vista boots or the
>>>> dvd runs,
>>>> and it doesn't help....so I don't even know if it's part of the
>>>> solution or a
>>>> distraction.
>>>>
>>>> Finally, I have data on the partition that I didn't intend on
>>>> losing and
>>>> isn't backed up. No matter how foolish that was of me, if I can
>>>> repair the
>>>> installation without losing it, I very much want to do so. I'd
>>>> appreciate
>>>> any help you could give me.
>>>
>>
>>
>

Lt. Washburn wrote:
> Here's my situation: I had Vista working fine on my computer for several
> weeks. I ran out of space on my Vista partition so I used a live CD of
> GParted to shrink one partition and grow my Vista one...

I don't have the facts, but I suspect that GParted probably doesn't yet
know about Vista's new flavor of NTFS. XP doesn't either, so you must
be very careful what tools you use.

If you are primarily interested in recovering your data (rather than
trying to rescue your Vista install) I'd suggest following the previous
advice to try a fresh install of Vista and use that to access the data.

If you don't have spare disk space for a clean install, I'd consider
buying a new hard drive if your data are important enough. I would
strongly discourage any more manipulation of partitions on your existing
disk until you have tried the above.

Thank you guys, for your replies. I have some general questions about your
suggestions. First, I can't get the installation DVD to a point where it
will let me repair the drive, or access a command line or really anything. I
believe it's supposed to run, ask me for my language or something, then ask
if I want to install, repair, etc. It never gets that far, it just runs the
progress bar, goes to a black screen, and nothing else. I've let it sit for
a long while as well. I've tried pressing enter, and other keys, thinking a
selection screen is active but not visible. None of that does anything.

As far as loading drivers, what is the correct way of doing this if the
installation DVD never prompts me for any drivers or discs before it hangs?
Do I just make sure I've got it on a floppy, in the drive, when I try to run
the DVD? Is there a way to load the drivers beforehand? As I said, I had to
provide drivers to get Vista to work initially, but trying to repeat this
process has failed for me. I would like to know the correct procedure so I
know I'm doing it right or not.

And should these SATA drivers be from the harddrive manufacturer (Western
Digital) or the motherboard manufacturer (ASUS)?

As far as the partitioning program not being compatible with Vista, I have
been told it's worked for people to do what I've done. In fact, I used it to
set up the partition I initially installed Vista on. I was also advised to
try resizing the partition to it's former size, which I'm going to try. I
don't have a lot of faith it will work, so I'd appreciate any further help
you can give me.

The other thing I'll eventually try, if nothing else works, is set up a
second partition, try to install Vista, and see if I can't access the data
before starting over from scratch. I'd like to avoid this if possible. Not
to mention if I can't get it to work now, I might have the same problems
attempting this. Thanks guys.

Richard

"Rick Rogers" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Have you tried undoing the volume resizing? I suspect you moved the starting
> point of the partition instead of expanding into free space at the back end.
> If not set correctly, the startup process will get lost because the MFT's
> confused on the location of key files.
>
> You likely need to load a SATA driver for the system before tring to run
> setup from what you are describing. While IDE's don't require this, some of
> the SATA drives do (not all, much depends on the system hardware).

"Lt. Washburn" <LtWashburn@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:2F0DBBDB-49DB-4282-A96B-5AE231B595CB@microsoft.com...
> Thank you guys, for your replies. I have some general questions about
> your
> suggestions. First, I can't get the installation DVD to a point where it
> will let me repair the drive, or access a command line


Try Shift/F10 to get to command line.

or really anything. I
> believe it's supposed to run, ask me for my language or something, then
> ask
> if I want to install, repair, etc. It never gets that far, it just runs
> the
> progress bar, goes to a black screen, and nothing else. I've let it sit
> for
> a long while as well. I've tried pressing enter, and other keys, thinking
> a
> selection screen is active but not visible. None of that does anything.
>
> As far as loading drivers, what is the correct way of doing this if the
> installation DVD never prompts me for any drivers or discs before it
> hangs?
> Do I just make sure I've got it on a floppy, in the drive, when I try to
> run
> the DVD? Is there a way to load the drivers beforehand? As I said, I had
> to
> provide drivers to get Vista to work initially, but trying to repeat this
> process has failed for me. I would like to know the correct procedure so
> I
> know I'm doing it right or not.
>
> And should these SATA drivers be from the harddrive manufacturer (Western
> Digital) or the motherboard manufacturer (ASUS)?


The SATA drivers should be from the HD controller mfg. Usually they are
supplied by the mobo mfg, but usually very late.

> As far as the partitioning program not being compatible with Vista, I have
> been told it's worked for people to do what I've done. In fact, I used it
> to
> set up the partition I initially installed Vista on. I was also advised
> to
> try resizing the partition to it's former size, which I'm going to try. I
> don't have a lot of faith it will work, so I'd appreciate any further help
> you can give me.
>
> The other thing I'll eventually try, if nothing else works, is set up a
> second partition, try to install Vista, and see if I can't access the data
> before starting over from scratch. I'd like to avoid this if possible.
> Not
> to mention if I can't get it to work now, I might have the same problems
> attempting this. Thanks guys.
>