Win 7 On Toshiba Laptop Won't Load Or Repair Itself

My wife's Toshiba using Win 7 won't load. On start-up the circling Windows symbol hangs and eventually presents a message that there has been an error in the starting of Win 7 and I'm given two choices, start again normally or try to have Windows repair itself.
Neither works. I'm then given a choice of trying to Restore, which it doesn't (unable to Restore).

Lastly Toshiba asks if I want to try to save all the files and then perform a reformat, After many hours it says the saving of the files failed and the laptop is reloaded with the factory Windows 7. Essentially start anew

After Win 7 reformats (a couple of hours) I'm left with machine as it was when first purchased,I then begin to restore the old set-up I had before this all happened beginning with downloading Foxfire (no old bookmarks) and Thunderbird (no old client email list), etc,

Geek Squad ran a 12 hour diagnostic and found no hardware problems. Win 7 just "forgot" how to load start-up (again).

This will be the second time in about a month that his has happened.

The machine has no D: drive, so I can't try to do a Recovery. I there any software that I could D/L on my other PC and load via a USB memory stick to do a recovery or am I doomed to just start over. All old files gone.

I am also given the choice, when all else fails of going into command line mode, but have no idea what instructions or even the correct format of any command line instructions that I could exexcute to save the files and/or "fix" Win 7 problem.

Any suggestions/help before I shoot myself?

Thanks.

 

The only way to save any data on that hard drive will be to hook it up to a working system, then save those files there. That is if there is any data the owner wants to save.
The next step is a fresh reinstall of Windows 7.
To do that, to be safe, you must find the Windows COA Product Key on a sticker on that system - on the base if a laptop, or on the case if a Desktop. With Win 8 and 10 that isn't generally needed as it is found on any existing hardware by Microsoft servers when you do a fresh install. I don't think that works for Windows 7.
If no COA Product Key on the system case anywhere you will have to ask the system owner if they have it on documentation or on a recovery disk. Without the product key I'm not sure you can do anything short of the owner asking MS support for help.
Once you have that COA Product key, go to this website
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows7
For easiest install use a blank USB pen drive with at least 4gb of space. If using a recordable DVD you will have to save the ISO file first then burn it to the DVD.
You're then ready to reinstall Win 7 afresh.

 

Save your sanity. Learn how to make images.

When a computer goes down, it takes about 30 - 60 minutes to restore an image. We have four Win 7 computers and I think I've restored all at one time or another. I image monthly so the most I'd lose is a month's worth of updates.

 

Have you looked into a possible virus or malware that could have done this.

I would all so run a few scans to make sure your system as not been infected.

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/index....ide-incl-spyware-virus-trojan-hijacker.35407/

Just be cause it has been re fresh ed and formatted does not mean that the virus or malware is still on there.It could hide in many places.

And i don't trust Geek squad be cause they charge way to much for some thing simple.

 

I just got the machine back from Geek Squad. They reported after running diagnostics (12 hours at no charge) that -
1. All the hardware is running correctly, nothing is "broken" or needs to be replaced.
2. The reformat I did last time it happened did not erase most of the files.
3. There were a lot of "temp" files and parts of Windows has become corrupted requiring a complete reformat to "fix" the Windows 7 problem.
4. Windows7 probably became corrupted during the last Win7 Update. The update was never completed.
5. They gave it back with Win7 running and many of the files, Foxfire bookmarks and Thunderbird client lists are still on the hard drive and probably working.

I had replaced the standard Norton anti-virus with avast! and it is still on the hard drive and working providing virus protection.

My wife is now using the PC and hopefully most of what she needs is functioning. We'll see.

I don't know how to hook it up to another system (USB cable?) so I'm going to try to save to a remote hard drive (thumb drive or USB attached hard drive) as much as I can before Win7 craps out again (probably the next time she shuts it down or there is an uninvited Win7 update).

Then I'll try to do a reformat and after that see if I can put those saved files back on the laptop.

Once everything is back to normal, I'll need to learn how to make images.

Any comments or suggestions very welcome.

Many thanks for the replies so far.

As always, I can depend on MajorGeeks to save my butt.

 

I would get this.

I have one and it works well.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/WD-My-Pa...ategy=PWVAV&visitor_id=WmFHn3PxgqzPUdvl2dcOP8

 

coyote - Thanks. I got that USB attach WD hard drive and have copied all the files (folders) except the Windows files on to it. The total was only 21 Gb.

Based on the Geek Squad analysis (shown above) of the nature of the problem with my wife's PC (hardware is fine, Win7 is corrupted) I have some questions.
1. When I first started this thread I noticed a banner describing a software that could be used to "fix Windows problems". Do you think I should try using it in lieu of a total reformat of the PC hard drive?
2. If I try it and it's not successful, will it do any harm, such as attempting a restart, which would be a step backward, since it is now running and I am able to access all the files.
3. My plan is to purchase another laptop (a recon from my IBM retiree purchase plan) which will probably already be loaded with Win8 or Win10. Would I be able to connect that laptop and transfer my Win7 files or possible even move the entire Desktop so I wouldn't have to rebuild it from scratch on the new machine?

 

Try running this first.Scan Windows 7 system files

To do this, click Start, type Command Prompt or cmd in the Search box, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator. If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Allow



At the command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER

sfc /scannow


The sfc /scannow command will scan all protected system files, and replace corrupted files with a cached copy that is located in a compressed folder at %WinDir%\System32\dllcache.
The %WinDir% placeholder represents the Windows operating system folder. For example, C:\Windows.

Note Do not close this Command Prompt window until the verification is 100% complete. The scan results will be shown after this process is finished.

If there any errors please let us know.

 

Thanks. I'll get on it tomorrow morning. 10AM - 12PM Eastern

 

I did as instructed. When the instruction scannow executed it told me "Verification Phase is starting. This may take some time"
It ran for about 15 minutes, indicating every 1% completion.
At 100% completed it said the following - "Windows Resource Protection did not find and integrity violations."

It then went back to the command line C:Windows\system32>

 

In case you did not know, Just type EXIT, and press enter when finished on any command work.