Endless Startup Repair boot loop

[lonewolfmage]

Hello all~
Bit of a long post here.

Seeing as though I am now SUFFICIENTLY aggrivated and stumped on this issue i figured I figured I would ask here for some additonal help.

Just this evening( Wednesday eve) while trying to watch a Tv program on my main desktop computer ( from a link I have used in the past WITHOUT issue), My computer rebooted itself WITHOUT a blue screen.(which IS unusual as i DO NOT have it set to do so on a system crash incedent)

When it rebooted it went ( on its own accord) through Startup repair. And is continuing to do so.
(now on about the 10th time of doing so) And the system WILL NOT boot normally.

When it finishes EACH TIME the only Root cause found is the following from the Start up repair:

Root Cause found:
------------------------------
Boot manager failed to find OS loader.
Repair action: File repair
Result: Failed. Error code = 0x490
Time taken: 5195ms

Repair action: Boot configuration data store repair
Result: Failed. Erroor code = (same error as above)


Everything else was successful.

What i have tried
As per recommendations from Microsoft and other forums I ATTEMPTED to use my W7 DVD to get to the repair options.

And i say ATTEMPTED due to the fact either the "burn" of the ISO (which i got from the links supplied at this forum) that I did is NOT working correctly(wasted 3 DVDs already 2 burned with ImgBurn, and 8x speed, and 1 with the built in Windows Burrning program all from my laptop computer)

OR cause for some reason my computer BIOS is not for some reason allowing to boot from CD/DVD , YES my BIOS IS set to do so .Which it SHOULD do. I have done this before when I had a diffrent problem with my desktop system and did a repair install of W7 as well a a full format and restore.

BOTH ROMS DO WORK correctly .. I recently installed some other programs with no issues less than a week ago. And they are recognized as "active" in the BIOS settings. They are SATA interface drives.

Somethings I DID notice are:

When Setup repair finishes its tests (unless this is "normal" ) is that under the "system details" section it says the following:
System Disk= \Device\Harddisk0
Windows directory= E:\Windows should not the E:\ be a C:\ ???

Also, when the Startup repair starts is see a minimized command prompt window that says "x:\(with not enough info to see). When i move my mouse to either hover over this or to click on the restore window button it immediately disappears.

If I HAVE TO I do have a few older ATA drives available to hook up to possibly get this ISO to woork .. but i have the funny feeling that wont even help the matter any.

any suggestions that i havent already tried to solve this issue ???

Thanks in advance.
LoneWolf

PS I'll be around for a little bit in the a.m. before work but not be back till about 6:30p.m my time (Eastern Standard) so if I dont answer right away my apologies.

 

[lonewolfmage]

Forgot to add

Rather than editing and cause confusion....


Something I DID forget to add .. was the fact that when booting ( since the "loop" started happening)

There is a Black screen with "Windows is loading files" and a grey side scrollingbar beneath.

The next screen is just a Green scrolling bar with "Microsoff Corportation" ..

Kind of (if not exactly like) the Win XP Loading screen .. just with out Windows XP above it .

Which in all acctuallity DOES NOT make ANY sense at all .. since the system was FULLY FORMATTED from Win XP to Win 7 in order to go to WIn 7 Home Premium 64 Bit

 

[brkkab123]

The Windows 7 dvd will be considered the C: drive when you boot from it. Try this set your pc to boot from the hard drive. When you press the power button to turn on your pc, keep pressing the F8 key on your keyboard and select Safe Mode and hit enter key. In Safe Mode 1st put the bootable Windows DVD in, then click the start button and type Command in the Search box. Right-click where it say's Command Prompt and click on Run As Administrator, Now type sfc /scannow and see if that fixes things. If it doesn't go back into Safe Mode a second time. This time double-click on Computer on the right side of the Start menu, right-click on C: and click on Properties, then Tools and then click on the top box that say's Error Checking. In the window that opens up put a check mark in both boxes with your mouse. Now click on Start and then click on Schedule Disk Check and restart your pc. If neither of those work do a Clean Install of Windows 7.

 

[lonewolfmage]

Brkab~

First of all TY kindly for replying and trying to help.

Unforunately hitting F8 doesnt get me to the Safe Mode boot prompt.

All it gives me is a "boot order" menu ( ASUS Brand MB apparenlty ASUS has found in the infinite wisdom to make F8 the "default" keystroke for that even pressing ESC after the boot options and then F8 immediately after OR in conjunction with the ESC or Enter key does nothing.)

When i even TRY to boot to the Main Hard Drive .. it still gets stuck in that Start up repair "loop".

What i DID find out is that by pressing F5 it gets me to boot options BUT it olnly has the option for either booting into Win 7 ( which sends me to the Statrup repair "loop") or Memory Diagnostics. Which right now I AM running and so far it doestn look like ethere are any issues.

Well just finished Mem diagnostics while typing this and it cam up (apparently ) with n issues .... but still no dice as to gettting into Safe mode Now im NOT a happy camper .

This happens even with a "standard" (non usb) Keyboard being used to attempt.

 

[brkkab123]

Press the Delete key. It will get you in the bios to where you can change any settings. After you have your hard drive set as the 1st Boot Device click on Save & Exit. Start repeatably pressing the F8 key on your keyboard now and select Safe Mode and follow my earlier instructions. If that doesn't let Windows boot into Safe Mode you'll need to do a clean install of Windows 7,

 

[Shintaro]

I am not trying to be a rude or anything, but in the manual p. 2-17 for your motherboard it says:

To access Windows OS in Safe Mode, do any of the following:
Press <F5> when ASUS Logo appears.
Press <F8> after POST (Power On Self Test)

Again I am not trying to be rude, just trying to help.

I understand how frustrating computers can be. I have in the past, pushed them off the work bench in anger. Not the smartest move, given it just adds to what needs to be repaired.

When you get it repaired I would be interested in the fix and especially interested in why Win 7 reset causing a boot failure.

 

[lonewolfmage]

Hello again~

Brkkab:
Main hard drive IS set as first boot devicein BIOS(double chkecking as we speak).....Yep set as First boot...

Regarding to both Brkkab and Shintaro. Pressing F8 only gives me the "boot menu" to pick which drive to go to . It DOES NOT give me the option to go to safe mode.

Regarding F5. All I get when ipress it is what I mentioned above: "What i DID find out is that by pressing F5 it gets me to boot options BUT it olnly has the option for either booting into Win 7 ( which sends me to the Statrup repair "loop") or Memory Diagnostics."(double checking again)......Yep same thing as earlier...NO OPTION AT ALL for safe mode.

What im gonna TRY to do .. just for the heck of it .. is put an older (IDE/ATA) DVD rom in and see if i can boot to the repair module that way from the Win 7 DVD.

Anhy other suggestions please contiune to post them and at this point ill try JUST ABOUT any thing .

I will as well post a solution IF I find it.

 

[lonewolfmage]

Update still a no go

Well i tried with an older IDE DVD rom drive... and nothing ....

still stuck in the Startup repair loop.

I do have a large enough Jump drive to put the ISO on to even think of booting from that. and even then im not 100% sure if i can boot from it ... not sure if my Bios will do it NOR how to accomplish it ???

Im looking on line as im tying to find out how to do a Win 7 UBS Bootable drive ..

 

[TrainableMan]

Forgive me if you already covered this but there was so much that I primarily skimmed it. You mention your computer is set in BIOS to allow boot from the DVD-rom but what I did not see is mention that it is the first boot device. It is critical that the DVD-Rom be the first device accessed for an OS rather than it finding the broken one on your HD, so be sure in BIOS that the DVD-Rom is the first boot device in the boot order.

 

[Shintaro]

If you have set everything in the BIOS correctly then I would try:
1/ Boot from a know working CD/DVD. For example a Linux CD that is included in a magazine.
2/ Disconnect eerything except the CD ROM to see if it boots.

Hope this helps.

 

[lonewolfmage]

TM~

No problem on the clarification..i know it was a long post...

YES the DVD rom in each instance above(when trying to boot from DVD rom) was selected in the BIOS at the first boot device.

Im acctually starting to wonder in by "burns" are bad or something (ive heard rumors) has corrupted my BIOS ... im caatually THINKING of either flashing my BIOS ... OR resettting the BIOS to "default"

SPeaking of BIOS setting.. one thing i DID happen to notice.. once i had a little bit of clearer head..

When igo in to the "Boot Settings" section .. off to the right it states " adevice enclosed in parenthesis has been disabled in the corresponding menu"

when looking back to the left of the screen i see (as things are set now)

1st Boot Device [CDROM: 3S- Optiarc D] << which is also a DVD Multi recorderR-DL,RW DVD+RDL,CDRewritable Ultra speed

2nd Boot Device [ Removable Dev.]not sure what the BIOS is considering removable

3rd Boot Device [ SATA:3M-ST3250410A] <<<< Main OS drive SATA interface

Thanks TM for trying to help

 

[Shintaro]

Page 2-2 of the motherboard manual covers BIOS update and 2-3 covers recovery.

In relation to the CD's you could try burning at a slower speed.

 

[TrainableMan]

A Windows 7 problem would not corrupt your BIOS; it is more likely the boot section was corrupted on the HD. A damaged BIOS would be quite unusual unless you tried to update it and it did not complete.

Hard to say specifically but the removable Dev could be a USB flash drive or some machines have removable HDs (one desktop I worked on had a 2.5" HD port on the front).

If, when you burn W7, you end up with just a single file with a .ISO extension on the DVD then this is definitely incorrect. This usually only happens when the software does not understand it is an image and simply treats it as a file. If it has multiple files then, as Shintaro mentioned, try an even slower rate like 3x or 4x. Did you use the W7 w/ SP1, because w/ SP1 would save update time?

Again, as Shintaro mentioned, you can completely disconnect your hard drive and your computer should boot to the DVD if it is burned correctly.

 

[lonewolfmage]

TM~

I used both Imgburn(2x) and Windows "built in" burner(1x)..... Img burn at 8X speed and Windows bruner .. nor sure what speed..it didnt specify... (mind you this is being burned on a DIFFRENT computer than the problem one)

Wheni DO burn with either program .. i DO end up with a SINGLE .ISO on each disk that i burned (so that MIGHT BE where the problem lies) so what am i doing wrong ?? am i supposeded to extract it with something ?? if so what program ??

I havent YET tried disconnecting my main HD

as far as other removeable devices there are none .. i have NOTHING plugged in that woudl be considered( as far as i know a removable drive)

I did find out that a BIOS update is needed... but was cut off .. from ASUS and they said they woudl e mail the instructions.. cause they were "only allowed 30 minutes to talk provide support"

 

[TrainableMan]

Actually IMGBurn is designed to handle images. When you start IMGBurn is it set for EZ-mode Picker ... if so you should see six choices and the choice you want is "Write image file to disc" NOT "write files/folders to disc".

It should also work properly if you find the ISO file on your hard drive in Windows Explorer and you right-click and choose open with ... IMGBurn the Ultimate Image Burner.

Both of these methods should treat the file properly as an image rather than a single file. Try burning that DVD and it will create a bootable DVD with many files/folders.

NOTE: When it was written to the DVD as a single file, the DVD was not created as bootable so even if you did have the boot order correct it will realize there is no boot and will move on to the next device on the boot list.

 

[brkkab123]

You may have just found your issue. The Removable Device is probably a Memory Card Reader or a flash drive. Make your hard drive the 2nd boot device.Then re-try a Startup Repair.

 

[TrainableMan]

Just because you don't have one plugged in doesn't mean it can't be in your boot order, by default if a bootable device is not found it simply moves on down the list. The way your list is set above, it checks for a bootable CD/DVD, if none then it moves on to the removable device (as mentioned, most likely a bootable flash drive) and if none are found it moves on to the hard drive.

So the issue is that the CD/DVDs you had burned were not bootable and it found no bootable removable device so finally it moved on down the list till it hit the hard drive.

Personally I put my hard drive first and set 2 and 3 to nothing because I know if I mean to boot from DVD or flash drive I can go into the BIOS and switch it but I never want a virus on a bootable DVD or flash drive to ever have the chance to boot by accident (but obviously for this current situation you do want the DVD-Rom in the list and 1st)

 

[lonewolfmage]

Update

As far as removable devices.. as mentioned.. are none currently...

the only removable that MAY have conflicted was my printer... it has an SD card reader...

but that has currently been taken out of the equation for this purpose ...
as such it now is NOT connected.(as of when I got home ,6:30pm Eastern Daylight time)


I DID reburn the ISO at a slower speed(4x) and i CAN boot to System recovery,,.and i have tried things from the top down ..,to try and see as far as recovery.

I did NOT do BIOS update .. ( not necesaary since i was able to boot to he Recovery tool .. and I don't wan't to take a chance with it even with instructions and did not want to deal with the ASUS Tech "suport limit " of 30 minutes per call.

HONESTLY its lookin more ansd moe like i WILL have to re format tthis systen ( which i am NOT relishishing at all ( but if it had to be dome it has to be done

 

[TrainableMan]

I agree, I wouldn't mess with upgrading the BIOS at this stage because I do not believe that is your issue.

I also would not worry about the removable device. You can remove it from the boot order but it should not matter.

I do believe you should reburn the W7 DVD image properly and then start the system, booting from that DVD and on the install screen run Repair.

 

[Shintaro]

Mate, what I still don't understand is what caused all this drama? Are you able to share the URL or even PM me the URL.

In regards to your HD, maybe try a re-install without formatting or hook it up to your laptop and transfer your data to the laptop if you have room, then reformat.
Maybe something like this might be useful :http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Adapter-Converter-Optical-External/dp/B001OORMVQ

Good luck