Red Screen of Death

[lagan258]

hello
i own a custom built pc and yesterday i could not get it to boot windows 7 i got the following screens appear

http://imageshack.com/a/img21/5892/vmfn.jpg
http://imageshack.com/a/img198/975/ai4i.jpg

i tried all on screen prompts, nothing worked
will i have to reinstall?

specs
i5 3570k @4Ghz
gtx 660 oc
msi z77 g45a
seagate 2tb hdd
g skill ripjawz 8GB DDr3 Dual channel kit
windows 7 64bit professional

 

[pcgaming98]

Yeah, sounds like a bad installation.

 

[Tom Tancredi]

Uhm okay first off your using a DUAL boot system? GRUB is NOT needed to load Windows UNLESS you create it as the 'boot loader' to choose between Windows and say Linux. Windows does NOT like this and usually craps out (and you really shouldn't have it on it if you don't have a clue about it) because it likes to be the only OS on the computer.

Either go back to whomever 'custom built' the PC and tell them to fix it, or else YEA you need to completely wipe the computer with DBAN CD to get rid of whatever boot loaders exist, even if on a LINUX partition (which Windows can't see) and start from scratch with Windows ,etc.

 

[J9169681]

May i ask is there a reason other than your using multiple operating systems other than windows 7

The error 15 is the boot loader error saying it cannot find your windows installation... this can be due to hardware error, data corruption, data deletion or mis-configeration

Its basically a file cannot be found error

If you are using grub to boot into other operating systems try loading a different OS and verify that he data is still there..


Please don't get upset by this next question but from what I see is that the grub loader is trying to load a program to bypass windows genuine authentication... If you purchased the machine under the assumption that windows was genuine I believe that this may not be the case.... Please I may be wrong but any machine which I have came across with a SLIC loader has been setup to bypass windows checking that its a genuine copy..

I know that some antivirus, malware, and spyware software can cause problems by quarantining files which have been found by vendors to aid in software piracy because they contain malicious code which is used to manipulate valid code... It may be the case that a third party software has detected the SLIC loader and removed or quarantined associated files such as configuration or even the loader itself..

If you purchased the machine and you have a valid Microsoft key attached to your machine I would get hold of a installation disk or image and do a full re-install

If you are concerned that you will lose your files then I would suggest that you use a live revovery CD and back up the documents, pictures etc to a external hdd or flash drive (Sometimes if the windows installation is damaged the filesystem can be intact and accessible via this method)

I Agree with the last post that stay away from any boot loaders unless you have multiple operating systems... your screenshot shows that it only contains windows 7... if you want to install another operating system (even a linux type OS) you can use the windows bootloader to do this without any hassle what so ever

 

[lagan258]

i didnt put grub or slic on this computer i dont even know what these are
windows 7 is the only operting system on the computer no linux operating systems
it has been working perfectly for 8 months then this happened. and i didnt change any system files or modify them.
i guess i will have to use another bootable hard drive to get files (game saves) off the corrupted one then reinstall windows 7. but will i have to do a dban low level format? will that be necessary? because i have over a terabyte of games and other files downloaded and installed which took quite a while to download so i dont want to download them again
and yes, i built the custom pc

thanks for your reply

 

[Tom Tancredi]

Okay, based on your answer, I am tending to agree with J9169681, you have a pirated copy of Windows. Once you try and 'activate' it (you were required to be sold the license key and the certificate label that has that number on it) Microsoft will refuse to activate that Windows because it is a illegal copy. If you got this 'customized' computer from a business you will have legal recourse for a full refund, as well as you should immediate report them to the BBB / Software Alliance to be immediate 'cease and desist' anymore fraudulent sales.
If this was your 'buddy' whom did this for you, you were screwed over IMHO. Think of it this way, you buy your buddy's car and he says he will take care of the insurance and license plates for you as part of the cost. Well down the road the car breaks so you bring it to the nearest shop for repairs, and explain what happened. The Car Guy looks at you and tells you to call the police, because the license plate comes up stolen and the 'insurance' is a 1800 Sex line. That is basically the same thing with your PC at this point.

Now for the problems at hand, per the computer the drive 'partition' where all those games and files is on is 'gone'. The problems persist that with a GRUB / Linux install first, it could possibly be 'unreadable' if Windows was in a Virtual OS load, and thus the Virtual partition is 'gone' (again illegal). The other way is the 'file type structure' is Linux and not Windows FAT, FAT32, NTFS, then it is unreadable by Windows (can you read Latin AND Cryllic -Russian- writing? that is what your asking Windows to 'understand' about Linux).

IF you have a legitimate licensed copy of Windows, then I would use DBAN and just Quick format it to clean, this will be the only way to clear out 'GRUB' and what is the Boot Drive. If you don't, then head to Best Buy and be ready to fork over $179 for a new copy of Windows 8.

 

[Pinhedd]

We cannot help you bypass security or assist with unlicensed software.