Vista will not boot

been given the mother in laws laptop to fix here's the problem;

boots up to options of repair windows or start windows normally, the repair windows option can't repair the problem and start windows normally just restarts,

I've pressed f8 and tried every option but each one just restarts the laptop so,

I booted up to a windows vista dvd and tried the repair through that with still no luck, sometimes it says it can't fix the windows registry and other times it can't fix the osloader, at the minute i'm in command prompt trying a chkdsk /f /r. Its correcting alot of errors with index $130

I suppose my real question is, if the chkdsk doesn't work and you guys have no other ideas, can i partition the only drive without damaging the data so i can do a clean install of windows and then be able to copy the files back across

thank you

 

http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Recovering+the+Vista+Bootloader+from+the+DVD

ive tried following these instructions but i have no bootsect.exe

confused????

 

followed the rest of the instructions on that page, now everytime windows starts

File: \windows\system32\config\system

Status: 0xc00000e9

Info: Windows failed to load because the system registry file is
missing, or corrupt.

 

Hi,



The issue first occurred after installing some update packages; you might perform a system restore.



System Restore

1) Before we start, please close all open files and close all open programs.

2) Click Start; click All Programs; click Accessories; click System Tools; and click System Restore. The System Restore user interface should appear.

3) Click Next.

4) From the restore points available, select an appropriate restore point before problem occurs and click Next.

5) Click Next again. The restore process will run and your system will restart automatically.



For more information, please refer to the article below:

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/9f6d755a-74bb-4a7d-a625-d762dd8e79e51033.mspx



in addition, please test this issue in Windows Clean Boot mode. A Clean Boot will allow us to isolate any device drivers or programs that are loading at startup that may be causing a conflict with other device drivers or programs that are installed in your computer.



Start Windows in Clean Boot mode

Note: You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group to complete this procedure.

1) Click Start.

2) Copy and paste "msconfig" (without the quotation marks) in the Start Search box, and click Enter.

3) Switch to Services tab and then Check Hide All Microsoft Services.

4) Click Disable All.

5) Switch to the Startup tab and then Click Disable All.

6) Click OK.

7) Click Restart to restart the computer and test the issue.



If the problem does not occur, it indicates that the problem is related to one application or service we have disabled. You can use the MSCONFIG tool again to re-enable the disabled item one by one to find out the culprit.



Hope it works!

 

no system restor point, there's a bigger problem now. My dad decidided to take the HDD out and has snapped the connector, is the laptop now ****ed?

 

managed to get the hard drive to boot up once more

going to do a clean install, is there a program that will boot from cd and let me partition the existing drive so i can keep the data??

cheers guys???

 

http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm