Windows 7 failed to start up

[rage33]

hello all,

Okay, well hopefully this isn't so long that nobody reads it lol. Heres the issue:

today my computer failed to boot up, I got a message stating that Windows 7 failed to start up. It was working perfectly fine the day before, I have no new installed software, applications, or hardware. So first I went through the "repair" process however it failed also and yielded no fix, I tried this activity several times to no avail. Then I began to test my hardware I removed one of my graphic cards and all but one stick of RAM and only connected one Hard drive. I went through the boot process with no motherboard errors, however I still got the same "failed to start up" warning. Running out of ideas and swapping hardware like a mad man, nothing seemed fix the problem.

After these failed attempts I decided to put the Windows 7 installation disk into the drive and see if I could run that and repair, or essentially put a fresh install onto my hard drive. Unfortunately for some reason when it prompts me to "hit any key to to boot from DVD" it doesn't record my keystroke and immediately brings me back to the original message of "failed to start up".

So here I am running Ubuntu from a USB flash drive and all my hardware is reported accurately and is running like a top. Now, I can re-format the hard drive as NTFS through Ubuntu but I have a couple of questions: 1. my Original Windows 7 install has been on a 500 gb partition from a 1tb drive, I can format just the partition through Ubuntu but not sure if that will translate over when I attempt to reinstall windows.
2. Why isn't my keyboard being able to press "any key" to boot into the windows install disc?

Also I already tried hitting f8 and booting from last known good configuration, this didn't work as when I hit f8 my only options were to choose boot disc or I could go into my BIOS. If you made it this far thanks lol, any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[das_stig]

If your going to reinstall, just use Ubuntu to delete all the partitions and let Windows set them up during install.

As for booting, just set the bios up for DVD first, normally doesn't ask for "Press Any Key" and just starts install.

 

[rage33]

good copy, I actually did that and disabled my hard drives so the only boot device was the DVD drive..... still go the same error. I re-format and and see what happens, thanks, I'll let you know what the outcome is lol.

 

[rage33]

Okay, reinstalled and everything is slowly getting back to normal. I still don't know what caused it specifically and also I had to use an old PS2 style keyboard to be able to continue the install from the error screen. I have a Corsair K90, which is working pleasantly now, so not sure why it was essentially disabled. None the less I was able to reformat using Ubuntu and put a fresh copy of Windows back on my hard drive.

 

[rage33]

Best answer selected by Rage33.