You may have hard disk errors preventing you from booting. You will need to access a command prompt outside Windows to check the hard disk for file system errors and/or bad sectors. There are a few methods that may be used to access a command prompt outside Windows:
Access a Command Prompt using the Windows 7 Install Disc:Press Shift + F10 when the installer loads.
Access a Command Prompt from the Windows System Recovery Options:You can access a command prompt through the
Windows 7 System Recovery Options. To do so,
- Press F8 every second or every half second when your system first turns on or restarts. Some BIOS systems may not recognize the F8 being pressed unless it is pressed very rapidly. Others require the F8 key to be pressed with a longer interval in between. You may have to try different methods of pressing F8 after the Power On Self Test (POST) screen in order to reach the Advanced Boot Options screen. For reference: the POST screen generally has the name of your motherboard (ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, etc.) or the name of your system's manufacturer (HP, DELL, Toshiba, etc.) as an image/logo or in text as it proceeds through the test, and it appears just prior to seeing the Windows logo for the Windows loading process.
NOTE: If you are unable to reach the Advanced Boot Options screen, proceed to the Windows 7 System Repair Disc section.
- Once you have the Advanced Boot Options available, choose Repair Your Computer.
- Select your language and login to your administrative user.
- Choose the Command Prompt.
Once you have a command prompt available, do the following:
Code:
chkdsk /r c:
chkdsk /r d:
chkdsk /r e:
chkdsk /r f:
.etc until you get the message that the volume could not be opened for direct access. For any drives that do not give the message:
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems
run disk check again as above. In other words, if it says:
Windows has made corrections to the file system
after running the disk check, run the disk check again.
I realize you may only have one disk show up in Windows explorer, but you may have more than one disk through recovery options. This is because the system creates a hidden boot partition (which will be C: in recovery), you may have a recovery partition for your PC that is hidden (which will be D: in recovery), and you will have your primary Windows partition (which may be E: in recovery). A custom PC will likely have at least C: and D: to scan.
Also, if asked whether you would like to force a dismoount on any volumes, choose Y for yes. That message just means the volume is currently being accessed, but dismounting it will not cause any harm.
