- Jul 1, 2013
- 3
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- 10,510
Hello tomshardware folks. This forum has been a huge help in fixing my problems in the past, and I'm hoping you can help again!
I'm running an upgrade version of Windows 7 on a home built PC.
I was recently on a long trip, immediately after moving back in with my parents for the summer so my computer has been in storage for about a month. So of course when I booted it up I started updating everything. I ended up losing power during a thunderstorm, during a windows update and since then I haven't really been able to get past the "Starting Windows" swirly thing that happens at the beginning of boot. It will finish the Starting Windows part and then my screen goes blank, until eventually my monitor no longer recognizes my PC. It never fully boots into the OS.
I tried Launching Startup Repair during the Windows error recover page, but this is where it gets weird. Since I had Windows Vista previously installed on my computer and upgraded to Windows 7, startup repair launches into Windows Vista instead. I expect this might be because I have Windows 7 installed on my SSD while Windows Vista was installed on my HDD. Obviously that doesn't help and Windows can never find a solution to my problem. When I choose "Start Windows Normally" I encounter the "Starting Windows" swirly problem that I addressed earlier.
I've managed to fully boot into Windows 7 twice using the F12 function (with no problems, seemingly. And I only tried that because I read it on a forum post, I don't really know what it does) during boot, but I haven't been able to do that at all today. It just doesn't work sometimes I guess.
I can also access Safemode and Safemode with networking support but I only really dinked around in there and didn't know if I could solve my problems there.
Unfortunately I don't have a backup (lesson learned), and I'm trying to avoid reinstalling the OS if possible.
I thought about inserting the install disk to repair Windows that way (through a suggestion online), but I have two problems. I don't have a physical copy of Windows 7, I only upgraded through a download online, and I don't have a CD/DVD drive in my computer. It just hasn't been necessary up until this point.
If I can't solve the problem without zeroing out my HD and SSD then I guess I will just be doing that and buying a copy of Windows 8. If I can avoid this it would be nice though, since I have a lot of saved games, previous school work, my resume and other things that are worth saving. I also can't really afford to upgrade... but I can't afford to have a broken PC either.
Obviously I believe this issue is somewhat or completely related to the failed Windows update in my opinion.
Thanks for the help! And feel free to ask any questions.
I'm running an upgrade version of Windows 7 on a home built PC.
I was recently on a long trip, immediately after moving back in with my parents for the summer so my computer has been in storage for about a month. So of course when I booted it up I started updating everything. I ended up losing power during a thunderstorm, during a windows update and since then I haven't really been able to get past the "Starting Windows" swirly thing that happens at the beginning of boot. It will finish the Starting Windows part and then my screen goes blank, until eventually my monitor no longer recognizes my PC. It never fully boots into the OS.
I tried Launching Startup Repair during the Windows error recover page, but this is where it gets weird. Since I had Windows Vista previously installed on my computer and upgraded to Windows 7, startup repair launches into Windows Vista instead. I expect this might be because I have Windows 7 installed on my SSD while Windows Vista was installed on my HDD. Obviously that doesn't help and Windows can never find a solution to my problem. When I choose "Start Windows Normally" I encounter the "Starting Windows" swirly problem that I addressed earlier.
I've managed to fully boot into Windows 7 twice using the F12 function (with no problems, seemingly. And I only tried that because I read it on a forum post, I don't really know what it does) during boot, but I haven't been able to do that at all today. It just doesn't work sometimes I guess.
I can also access Safemode and Safemode with networking support but I only really dinked around in there and didn't know if I could solve my problems there.
Unfortunately I don't have a backup (lesson learned), and I'm trying to avoid reinstalling the OS if possible.
I thought about inserting the install disk to repair Windows that way (through a suggestion online), but I have two problems. I don't have a physical copy of Windows 7, I only upgraded through a download online, and I don't have a CD/DVD drive in my computer. It just hasn't been necessary up until this point.
If I can't solve the problem without zeroing out my HD and SSD then I guess I will just be doing that and buying a copy of Windows 8. If I can avoid this it would be nice though, since I have a lot of saved games, previous school work, my resume and other things that are worth saving. I also can't really afford to upgrade... but I can't afford to have a broken PC either.
Obviously I believe this issue is somewhat or completely related to the failed Windows update in my opinion.
Thanks for the help! And feel free to ask any questions.
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