Win 7-64 will not boot properly

[deltacoolguy]

Set-up: Custom-built PC (not by me), Win 7-64 bit, 8GB RAM, dual hard drives, computer itself about 2 yrs old, but paid to have it upgraded to current configuration 5 months ago.

Background: We did have some thunderstorms a couple days ago, which may or may not play a part. It seemed to be working fine, though afterward, and re-booted fine afterward. I have and use a CyberPower battery back-up and surge-protection system, but I was not at home to shut it down when the storm hit. I got an error message when I tried to start Photoshop last night and re-booted and that's when the trouble started.

It will begin and the "Starting Windows" screen will appear... then it will hang up. Eventually it will restart itself from the beginning and just do the same cycle over and over. I CAN get it to Safe Mode, but I cannot get it to "normal" windows.

I have tried the various repair options, and none seem to work. It asks if I have installed anything recently, and I have not. I ran "sfc /scannow" and it found nothing. I ran my anti-virus and Malwarebytes, and nothing was found. I have copied (re: backed-up) files from the C: drive to external drives while in Safe Mode, so that is not an issue at present.

I do have the original installation disk. I read online that I can do a repair install but not from boot or Safe Mode (which are the only two options I have at the moment). I don't want to do a clean install, but am wondering if I have to. If I do, I will have to back up all my drivers and such, and I've never done an install with a RAID controller before.

Any thoughts or questions or suggestions are most appreciated. Thanks.

[deltacoolguy]

I should also mention that I did a system restore back to a known good point. Didn't help. (I don't like doing system restore, but none of the other stuff was working.)

[CWB]

have you tried :

go into the bios and set the "first boot device" as the cd/dvd drive

save the setting

drop the windows disk in the drive

restart the machine

the comp should boot up the windows disk

follow the instructions

[deltacoolguy]

I can get the boot disk recognized. What I meant was that... according to a page on the Microsoft website I read... you cannot do a "repair install" from the boot disk or in Safe Mode. From those you have to do a "clean install", which I would like to avoid if at all possible.

[rgabbard]

I would suggest running in safemode and updating all the drivers you can. Sounds to me like you have a bad driver somewhere that is preventing a normal boot.

[deltacoolguy]

Ok, now this is weird. I had run chkdsk and sfc before. Neither found anything. I had pretty much resigned myself to checking drivers, then having to re-install the OS if that wasn't it. I ran a "chkdsk /f" one last time and let it restart on it's own... and it booted just fine. Maybe a tad slower to get to the right place, but now it is acting as if nothing had ever happened.

Just for my own information and education, can anyone tell me what might have happened? Or, if I still need to be wary? Thanks.

[1PW]

Hello deltacoolguy:

You should always be wary...

• Is your computer's motherboard set to overclock?
  
• Have you run the latest Memtest86+? Perhaps overnight.
  
• Have you recently evaluated your HDD's S.M.A.R.T. values?
  
• Do you have frequent full disk/incremental back-ups to rely on?
  
• Depending on the manufacturer of your computer's processor(s), and if your computer's enclosure/processor(s) have good cooling, you might consider running the Intel Processor Diagnostic Test (IDPT) and set it to run and stress the CPU for a reasonable period.
  
• AMD could have something similar...
  

HTH