- Mar 15, 2014
- 7
- 0
- 10,510
I'm having a difficult time with my new Windows 7 install on a brand new 3 TB hard drive. Windows 7 installs from the DVD just fine and seems to be stable if left alone in that state. After installing Windows Updates I am inevitably cast into Startup Repair hell. Startup repair never fixes the issue(s), System Restore nearly never works, and I've tried numerous other things with no success. I have to install Windows 7 all over again and the awful cycle continues. I've gone through all this about ten times now, and I'm very frustrated.
MY COMPUTER SPECIFICATIONS
* Operating system: Windows 7 Home 64-bit (my DVD says service pack 1 is already on it)
* Hard drive: Western Digital 3 TB Black WD3003FZEX model (brand new)
* RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ
* CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Processor
* Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA790GPT-UD3H AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
* Video card: MSI R6570-MD1G/LP Radeon HD 6570 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Low Profile Ready Video Card
* PSU: Corsair CX500 power supply (brand new)
A little background to my problems. My computer had been shutting down randomly. At least a couple of the times was seemingly from touching the top of the case. There were also assorted system errors. You can read all about that here <http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2064969/random-shutdowns-errors-windows-startup-loop.html>. I determined that my old 1TB HDD had bad sectors and that my Rosewill power supply was failing, so I replaced both components (which are reflected in the above specs).
THINGS I HAVE TRIED AFTER STARTUP REPAIR FAILS:
1. Checked my new 3TB HDD with the Western Digital Lifeguard disk utility and it reported that the disk was good.
2. I tried running Windows updates from within an installation's safe mode, but it wouldn't let me.
3. I tried this strategy <http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/139576-startup-repair-infinite-loop-recovery.html>, but found on Step 13, part II, that I had 0 bytes for all three categories and could not continue.
4. I tried Bootrec.exe as described here <http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/163216-bootrec-exe-tool-how-use-windows-recovery-environment.html> but to no avail.
5. After having Startup Repair fail, I go to the System Restore and select an earlier point. Sometimes it says that it is successful and upon restart still goes back to Startup Repair. Other times it says that it is NOT successful. There was at least a few instances where System Restore actually worked, but it wasn't too long before I got stuck back in Startup Repair and then System Restore no longer worked.
DESCRIPTIONS OF MY EARLY ATTEMPTS TO INSTALL/UPDATE WINDOWS 7:
The first several times I tried to update Windows 7, I didn't take notes on what was going on, so I'll give you the basics. In just about all my attempts I got the following error message after Startup Repair failed to repair:
Problem Event Name: StartupRepairOffline
Problem Signature 01: 6.1.7600.16385
Problem Signature 02: 6.1.7600.16385
Problem Signature 03: unknown
Problem Signature 04: 0
Problem Signature 05: AutoFailover
Problem Signature 06: 1
Problem Signature 07: CorruptFile
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
At least one or two of the times I got a mention of a CorruptRegistry. Here's another example of an error message that I received after Startup Repair failed to repair:
Problem Event Name: StartupRepairOffline
Problem Signature 01: 6.1.7600.16385
Problem Signature 02: 6.1.7600.16385
Problem Signature 03: unknown
Problem Signature 04: 0
Problem Signature 05: ExternalMedia
Problem Signature 06: 1
Problem Signature 07: MissingOsLoader
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
When I tried system restore from this attempt it said that System Restore did not complete successfully, saying that "An unspecified error occurred during System Restore. (0x8000ffff)"
MORE RECENT ATTEMPTS WHERE I TOOK SOME BRIEF NOTES:
Attempt 8: Installed Windows 7 from the disk, then the chipset drivers and video card driver individually. Then I installed all the critical non-security Windows 7 updates with a successful restart, and then all the critical security Windows 7 updates, with a successful restart. No problem then! I used Ninite to then install all my favorite programs such as Firefox and Pidgin. After doing that, I restarted just to see that no problems would occur, and of course it then went to Startup Repair hell much to my incredulity. This really stands out because it seemed like for a time I had made all the updates successfully.
Attempt 9: Installed Windows 7 from the disk, did NOT update any device drivers, and chose to install all 48 of the recommended/optional updates (none of the critical ones). After they were downloaded and installed, the computer needed to be restarted and promptly went into Startup Repair. It failed to repair and said the root cause was "Boot critical file c:\windows\system32\drivers\wdf01000.sys is corrupt."
Attempt 10: Installed Windows 7 from the disk, did NOT update any device drivers, chose 'let me select which updates to download & install,' and tediously installed them in batches of 4. After about seven batches, I finally got a batch that triggered the startup repair function, which failed and said the root cause was "Boot critical file c:\windows\system32\drivers\partmgr.sys is corrupt." The batch of updates included KB2685939, KB2690533, KB2691442, and one that I somehow didn't write down! The second attempt at Startup Repair failed and said described the failure as generally as a StartupRepairOffline, AutoFailover, CorruptFile, etc. Then I tried a system restore, which the program said succeeded and upon restart it merely went back to 'startup repair.' That third attempt at startup repair failed & said that it could not detect a problem and gave me this message "If you have recently attached a device to this computer, such as a camera or portable music player, remove it and restart your computer. If you continue to see this message, contact your system administrator or computer manufacturer for assistance."
Any assistance or suggestions would be appreciated. I'm really running out of ideas on how to fix it. I am still unsure if this is just a driver issue or if there's a hardware problem (maybe the motherboard?).
**Edited: updated the links
MY COMPUTER SPECIFICATIONS
* Operating system: Windows 7 Home 64-bit (my DVD says service pack 1 is already on it)
* Hard drive: Western Digital 3 TB Black WD3003FZEX model (brand new)
* RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ
* CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Processor
* Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA790GPT-UD3H AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
* Video card: MSI R6570-MD1G/LP Radeon HD 6570 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Low Profile Ready Video Card
* PSU: Corsair CX500 power supply (brand new)
A little background to my problems. My computer had been shutting down randomly. At least a couple of the times was seemingly from touching the top of the case. There were also assorted system errors. You can read all about that here <http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2064969/random-shutdowns-errors-windows-startup-loop.html>. I determined that my old 1TB HDD had bad sectors and that my Rosewill power supply was failing, so I replaced both components (which are reflected in the above specs).
THINGS I HAVE TRIED AFTER STARTUP REPAIR FAILS:
1. Checked my new 3TB HDD with the Western Digital Lifeguard disk utility and it reported that the disk was good.
2. I tried running Windows updates from within an installation's safe mode, but it wouldn't let me.
3. I tried this strategy <http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/139576-startup-repair-infinite-loop-recovery.html>, but found on Step 13, part II, that I had 0 bytes for all three categories and could not continue.
4. I tried Bootrec.exe as described here <http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/163216-bootrec-exe-tool-how-use-windows-recovery-environment.html> but to no avail.
5. After having Startup Repair fail, I go to the System Restore and select an earlier point. Sometimes it says that it is successful and upon restart still goes back to Startup Repair. Other times it says that it is NOT successful. There was at least a few instances where System Restore actually worked, but it wasn't too long before I got stuck back in Startup Repair and then System Restore no longer worked.
DESCRIPTIONS OF MY EARLY ATTEMPTS TO INSTALL/UPDATE WINDOWS 7:
The first several times I tried to update Windows 7, I didn't take notes on what was going on, so I'll give you the basics. In just about all my attempts I got the following error message after Startup Repair failed to repair:
Problem Event Name: StartupRepairOffline
Problem Signature 01: 6.1.7600.16385
Problem Signature 02: 6.1.7600.16385
Problem Signature 03: unknown
Problem Signature 04: 0
Problem Signature 05: AutoFailover
Problem Signature 06: 1
Problem Signature 07: CorruptFile
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
At least one or two of the times I got a mention of a CorruptRegistry. Here's another example of an error message that I received after Startup Repair failed to repair:
Problem Event Name: StartupRepairOffline
Problem Signature 01: 6.1.7600.16385
Problem Signature 02: 6.1.7600.16385
Problem Signature 03: unknown
Problem Signature 04: 0
Problem Signature 05: ExternalMedia
Problem Signature 06: 1
Problem Signature 07: MissingOsLoader
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
When I tried system restore from this attempt it said that System Restore did not complete successfully, saying that "An unspecified error occurred during System Restore. (0x8000ffff)"
MORE RECENT ATTEMPTS WHERE I TOOK SOME BRIEF NOTES:
Attempt 8: Installed Windows 7 from the disk, then the chipset drivers and video card driver individually. Then I installed all the critical non-security Windows 7 updates with a successful restart, and then all the critical security Windows 7 updates, with a successful restart. No problem then! I used Ninite to then install all my favorite programs such as Firefox and Pidgin. After doing that, I restarted just to see that no problems would occur, and of course it then went to Startup Repair hell much to my incredulity. This really stands out because it seemed like for a time I had made all the updates successfully.
Attempt 9: Installed Windows 7 from the disk, did NOT update any device drivers, and chose to install all 48 of the recommended/optional updates (none of the critical ones). After they were downloaded and installed, the computer needed to be restarted and promptly went into Startup Repair. It failed to repair and said the root cause was "Boot critical file c:\windows\system32\drivers\wdf01000.sys is corrupt."
Attempt 10: Installed Windows 7 from the disk, did NOT update any device drivers, chose 'let me select which updates to download & install,' and tediously installed them in batches of 4. After about seven batches, I finally got a batch that triggered the startup repair function, which failed and said the root cause was "Boot critical file c:\windows\system32\drivers\partmgr.sys is corrupt." The batch of updates included KB2685939, KB2690533, KB2691442, and one that I somehow didn't write down! The second attempt at Startup Repair failed and said described the failure as generally as a StartupRepairOffline, AutoFailover, CorruptFile, etc. Then I tried a system restore, which the program said succeeded and upon restart it merely went back to 'startup repair.' That third attempt at startup repair failed & said that it could not detect a problem and gave me this message "If you have recently attached a device to this computer, such as a camera or portable music player, remove it and restart your computer. If you continue to see this message, contact your system administrator or computer manufacturer for assistance."
Any assistance or suggestions would be appreciated. I'm really running out of ideas on how to fix it. I am still unsure if this is just a driver issue or if there's a hardware problem (maybe the motherboard?).
**Edited: updated the links
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