Please Help: boot up going in circles

[Scando27]

My wifes Gateway notebook is not booting up correctly. about 5 seconds into the boot it goes to a black page that says its apologizes but windows did not start correctly and gives you 5 choices on how to continue the boot.

1) safe mode
2) safe mode with networking
3)safe mode with command

4) last know working config
5) normally

I have tried them all and it just reverts back to the first start up screen then back to the page with the 5 options. For a breif moment a blue screen appears with words but its gone to quick to read.?

Any suggestions? things to try. We really would not like to lose everything on this computer. Thanks for any help you can give.

Jaden

 

[Celegorm]

As it's booting, keep tapping F8. A different menu should come up that has an option that says "disable automatic restart on system failure". Click it and get down the error message and get back to us.

 

[Scando27]

Hi again,

I did as you directed and it said windows shut down to prevent damage and a few suggestions like removing recently installed hardware or software (none was installed)

these were also in the message.


unmountable_boot_volume

technical information

*** STOP: 0x000000ED (0x8635D438, 0XC0000006, 0X000000, 0X000000)

Thank you so much for your help

 

[Celegorm]

Ok, typically this means your hard drive is starting to fail, or has failed. Only diagnostic software from the hard drive manufacturer's website can tell you for sure.

However, there is a way that may work and get you back up and running. If you have a windows disk boot off of it. On the first screen type R to go into the recovery counsol. Here, type "chkdsk /r" This could take a while to run depending on the size and state of the hard drive. When that is done you will be able to type in more commands.

Type fixmbr and press enter. If prompted, type Y for yes. Then type in fixboot and press enter. Again, if you are prompted type Y.

Type Exit and press enter. Your computer should restart and usually the system will boot up. If the hard drive is infact failing, this could happen again. If it's not you should be all set. Just do a back up asap to play it safe.

 

[Scando27]

Thx a million

Going to give it a shot

J