bcd troubles and booting recovery and vista woes

I

irebel

New Member
I have a acer M7720 with vista 64.

For the last month or so I have found that when booting up my computer it hangs right when vista starts. (That green bar that kind of scrolls across). Only when I turn off the computer with the electrical bar and back on again does it boot-up right. I don't know what that is all about. It's very annoying.
Any Suggestion anyone?

I thought I would install windows7 upgrade on a different hard drive. That way I could still use vista. Well that didn't work at all. I ended up having a tri boot menu at start up, 2 win7's and 1 vista.
Since Vista doesn't have a boot.ini I used EasyBCD and got rid of the 2 window7's... But when I rebooted the menu only showed one windows 7 and no vista. Which of course didn't work. I rebooted and use my recovery disks and they didn't work. I tried the alt f10 no luck. I tried to do a window 7 update. Windows7 started to hang before starting until I did a cold boot. It still didn't work. I even tried to install XP 32bit But I guess my 64 didn't like it. I tried eboot that I had for xp but that didn't work either I couldn't see any of the hard drives just the cd.
Finally I got out my old computer I read somewhere that after you start windows7 update press the R for repair and go to dos. Get to C: and print bootrec /rebuildbcd IT WORKED!! Now I'm back to the way it was. At least it's working.
I really don't want to go thought that again. What would have happened if it had been something more than the boot bcd. What would I do? take out my hard drive and fix on my old computer? I bought this computer to replace my old computer. Thank goodness I didn't get rid of it.

Is there any boot disk that has utilities that I can use on my 64 computer that work when you are stuck?

The recovery disks work great when there is nothing wrong. Why would they even make this recovery disk if it can't be used without vista installed properly kind of defeats the purpose...
 

My Computer

System One

Hi irebel,

First, you should be able to use eRecovery to make backup recovery disks to use in case the process doesn't work on the computer itself. Although written for Gateway, the procedure is the same (just substitute Acer for Gateway): Gateway Support - Create Factory Default Disc. But this is a full restore to factory conditions and not for repairs. Still, you should do it so you have a backup (if the hard drive fails, you're going to lose your ability to restore to a new hard drive as you will lose eRecovery and possibly the recovery partition at the same time).

Second, create a Recovery Disk for less drastic options like System Restore, Startup Repair, and other things (this is really what you asked for, but it doesn't do everything you want but does do a lot). You can make a bootable Recovery Disk using http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/ along with burning software like: http://www.snapfiles.com/get/active-isoburner.html and, of course, a blank CD.

For the situation you were in, unfortunately EasyBCD is about the only utility that will repair that type of problem. None of the other disks (except a genuine Vista Installation Disk) will contain the required programs. There may be some commercial products, but I typically only recommend freeware.

The following disk may come in handy to access your system if other methods don't work (especially if you need to backup your data): Use Ubuntu Live CD to Backup Files from Your Dead Windows Computer - How-To Geek.

That should be all you need and pretty much covers everything we typically use in troubleshooting here. Personally, I have two sets of each of those disks just to be on the safe side (or perhaps because I'm a bit paranoid - LOL!). It isn't necessary. The choice is entirely yours.

I hope this helps.

Good luck!

If you make the above disks, you should be as prepared as you can be. Be sure to store them safely so they can't be scratched or cracked or otherwise damaged - and of course label them so you know which is which.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inc. MP061 Inspiron E1705
    CPU
    2.00 gigahertz Intel Core 2 Duo 64 kilobyte primary memory
    Motherboard
    Board: Dell Inc. 0YD479 Bus Clock: 166 megahertz
    Memory
    2046 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM) [Di
    Sound Card
    SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Generic PnP Monitor (17.2"vis)
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1200 pixels
    Hard Drives
    Hitachi HTS541616J9SA00 [Hard drive] (160.04 GB) -- drive 0, s/n SB2411SJGLLRMB, rev SB4OC74P, SMART Status: Healthy
    Case
    Chassis Serial Number: 5YK95C1
    Mouse
    Logitech HID-compliant Cordless Mouse
    Keyboard
    Standard PS/2 Keyboard
    Internet Speed
    1958 Kbps download ; 754.8 Kbps upload
    Other Info
    Optiarc DVD+-RW AD-5540A ATA Device [CD-ROM drive] Dell AIO Printer A940 Conexant HDA D110 MDC V.92 Modem 6TO4 Adapter Broadcom 440x 10/100 Integrated Controller Broadcom 802.11n Network Adapter Microsoft ISATAP Adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface Router Linksys / WRT54G -01
Thank You Lorien for your reply.
eRecovery didn't work. It needs the bcd. I think your right I should have a backup :)
Download: Windows Vista x64 Recovery Disc — The NeoSmart Files
Is the one for vista 64 bit. I wonder if it works? it should... but how do I test it when my computer is working? delete my boot dir and then test it. Hmm... :)

I remember when.... I first got xp and everything installed the way I wanted and thought I should make a image of my drive just in case. don't remember which software I used but... It took forever and used a lot of disks. The software did a check on the disks and said they were fine. One day I finally needed them and of course one of the disks had a error. All that work for nothing. Had to do a complete install anyways. But at least you got a xp disk that you could install.
The good old days lol
 

My Computer

System One

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
irebel said:
Thank You Lorien for your reply.
eRecovery didn't work. It needs the bcd. I think your right I should have a backup :)
Download: Windows Vista x64 Recovery Disc — The NeoSmart Files
Is the one for vista 64 bit. I wonder if it works? it should... but how do I test it when my computer is working? delete my boot dir and then test it. Hmm... :)
Click to expand...

Hi irebel,

Yes, that's the one that will work. You test it by changing BIOS to boot first to the CD-Drive. Insert the disk and if it boots and shows you the options (and you can try a few if you want), then it works. Since it is bypassing the hard drive, it is not using your boot files anyway. And, as I said, it does a lot of things but fixing the boot problem you had is not one of them.

I hope this helps.

Good luck!
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inc. MP061 Inspiron E1705
    CPU
    2.00 gigahertz Intel Core 2 Duo 64 kilobyte primary memory
    Motherboard
    Board: Dell Inc. 0YD479 Bus Clock: 166 megahertz
    Memory
    2046 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM) [Di
    Sound Card
    SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Generic PnP Monitor (17.2"vis)
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1200 pixels
    Hard Drives
    Hitachi HTS541616J9SA00 [Hard drive] (160.04 GB) -- drive 0, s/n SB2411SJGLLRMB, rev SB4OC74P, SMART Status: Healthy
    Case
    Chassis Serial Number: 5YK95C1
    Mouse
    Logitech HID-compliant Cordless Mouse
    Keyboard
    Standard PS/2 Keyboard
    Internet Speed
    1958 Kbps download ; 754.8 Kbps upload
    Other Info
    Optiarc DVD+-RW AD-5540A ATA Device [CD-ROM drive] Dell AIO Printer A940 Conexant HDA D110 MDC V.92 Modem 6TO4 Adapter Broadcom 440x 10/100 Integrated Controller Broadcom 802.11n Network Adapter Microsoft ISATAP Adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface Router Linksys / WRT54G -01
May I, also, suggest that you read the fine tutorial by Brink.
It gives a lot of information, which may help you.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS420
    Memory
    6 gig
    Graphics card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3650 256 MB
    Sound Card
    Intergrated 7.1 Channel Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell SP2009W 20 inch Flat Panel w Webcam
    Hard Drives
    640 gb
    Cooling
    Fan
    Mouse
    Dell USB 4 button optical
    Keyboard
    Dell USB
    Other Info
    DSL provided by ATT
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