Repairing Windows that will not boot.

[tamarisk]

Can anyone tell me if the Windows Repair (All in One) program is suitable for repairing an Vista installation that will not boot in either normal or safe mode? The inbuilt Windows Repair fails as does System Restore.

Many thanks

[Boggin]

As far as I know, WR only runs from within Windows and isn't available as a bootable version.

You haven't said the make and model of the computer but here are a couple of guides to troubleshooting.

http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/SLN85632/en

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&lc=en&docname=c00899280

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&lc=en&docname=c01443371

[tamarisk]

I deliberately hadn't given details so that I wouldn't breach the rules of the assistance I've requested from Bleeping Computer, which is where I found out about Tweaking.com and the WR program. However, since you've mentioned it, the laptop is an Acer Aspire 5920.

I've been directed by BC to the Acer eRecovery Management webpages but they seem to suggest that any repair will result in personal data loss, which I want to avoid if possible.
 
My understanding of WR is that it can only repair the installation in which it is running and it cannot be used to repair a non running instance of Windows that is installed on a different partition or hard disk. Just to make sure, can someone confirm this please?

[Boggin]

That's known as cross posting which some forums frown upon.

I'm not familiar with Acer eRecovery Management but I suspect that entails either a reinstall or factory reset, but you would need to be able to boot up into Safe Mode to execute the inbuilt factory reset whereas you could boot up with OEM recovery disks which would do the same thing.

An alternative to that is to create a Paragon Rescue disk which has some tools that may be able to get you back in.

It has it's own burner so you just need a DVD and it will e-mail you a free product key - don't know why that's a requirement, but it is - or was.

Have a read through the User Manual to get the best out of it. http://www.paragon-software.com/home/rk-free/download.html

[tamarisk]

Hi Boggin,

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll take a look.

Can you confirm that my understanding of WR, as per my previous post, is correct?

Thanks.
 

[Boggin]

Yes, it is my understanding that WR is only designed to run within Windows because of the pre-requisites prior to running it, which you would be unable to do when the machine isn't bootable.

[jraju]

Hi,             Should not you give the link for bc. Is it against something you mentioned. Windows Repair is a windows repair in running windows that give fixes so most of the problem that normal computer has. It runs on, while window is on , as Boggin says and it has everything. But what is the problem that you have and addressed to BC. Normally, those forums would immediately tell a person to handle your query and he will stipulate so many conditions and your thread will go on for ever. I found so many forums when you question a product by them, would ask you try some other programs, which logs could only be handled by experts . Lot of log files including your operation and other details would mostly fill up the pages of threads. This forum is certainly an exception to those kind of things. Why could not post your problem as a separate thread so that experts of this forum would give you sound advice. Windows repair, to me , works on all systems including Vista.
                          I do not thing giving your OS information would be wrong

[tamarisk]

I managed to find a solution that involved copying and pasting older hive files. This has enabled me to get the laptop to reboot into Windows normally without the need to repair or reinstall the operating system.

Apologies for the cross posting error. I was just trying to give credit where credit was due.

Thank you for your suggestions/assistance, have a good New Year and a great 2015.

Many thanks

[Boggin]

Glad you were able to sort it and thanks for the update.

I take it Paragon wasn't any use ?

[tamarisk]

I had a look at Paragon software but because the hive fix worked I didn't need to use it.

[Boggin]

Actually, I was wondering how you managed to do that when you weren't able to boot up the computer.

[jraju]

Hi,
                Boggin I was also wondering. What that hive fix is. Is that a program to fix boot problems.

[tamarisk]

I was able to implement the hive fix by booting the laptop using a bootable modified XP installation on a USB stick. I've requested that I be able to pass on the hive fix and I will post it here if consent is given.

Many thanks.

[Boggin]

As Shane's aim is to share knowledge and as long as it's legit, I shouldn't think there would be any objection - but it sounds like a nifty fix considering you are repairing a Vista machine with XP, albeit modified.

[tamarisk]

I won't give the name of the person who helped or the website it came from, coz they haven't expressly given consent to do so but they have OK'd passing on the fix, which is:-

Vista periodically saves the registry Hives to the regback folder in C:\Windows\System32\config\regback.
If the registry Hives have not been updated you could copy them to C:\Windows\System32\config\.

I would rename the the Hives in the config folder to

Software   to   Software.BAK
Security   to   Security.BAK
Default    to    Default.BAK
SAM    to    SAM.BAK

Then copy, not move, the registry Hives from the regback folder to the config folder using your rescue USB flash drive. Reboot. Depending on when the Registry Hives in Regback were create and saved then in the d, you may have to do some registry fixes in the malware removal forum but this may get you to a bootable state.

In addition, from the same source,

The files are overwritten by Windows every so often but I don't know what the time interval is. As long as you see that the date on the Hives are earlier than your problem then there may be a good chance at recovery.


I made a backup copy of the four files from the regback folder and saved them in that folder, obviously with a different file name, so that when Vista overwrites the originals I've still got unmolested copies to fall back on should they be needed again.

I don't know if this fix is what the System Restore automates but in my case the System Restore did not work so was not an option. Now knowing the simplicity of this fix I reckon it would be wise to periodically backup the files Software, Security, Default and SAM found in the regback folder just in case.

I hope this helps.

[Shane]

s Shane's aim is to share knowledge and as long as it's legit, I shouldn't think there would be any objection

Absolutely Correct

Shane

[tamarisk]

I've just found out that there is another hive file in the regback folder that may need to be replaced in the config folder and that is the SYSTEM file, eg

Rename the file named SYSTEM found in C:\Windows\System32\config\ to something else.
Copy the file named SYSTEM.bak found in C:\Windows\System32\config\regback and paste it into C:\Windows\System32\config\   then change its name to SYSTEM

In my case I did not need to replace this file.