BleepingComputer.com: Vista won't boot past "windows error recovery"

Okay, I'm having real problems here. Along with the problem with my laptop not connecting to the internet, this morning I've run into a problem with my desktop, ( dell running windows vista home). When I sat down to the computer, it had a bluish/ black screen and nothing would bring it out of that state. I turned it on and off and now I'm getting a "Windows Error Recovery" screen. It shows "Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause". It then gives me two items to select from; "Launch startup repair (recommended), and start windows normally". I've tried both and it just keeps coming back to this screen. When I click on Launch startup repair, it instantly goes back to this screen. When I click on start normally, it runs through the startup and then goes back to this screen. I've tried safe mode, (and all of the items you can pick from) and it goes to this screen also. I can't get past the "Windows error recovery". I'm having problems with my laptop and I believe its due to windows updates so if it had updates installing, I'm sure my desktop may have been loading updates and either they messed up my windows startup files or maybe they were installing when the power went out, or when I turned it off manually.
Anyway, any help I can get would be appreciated!! Both computers are down and I'm computer stupid!
Thanks in advance for the help.

Subscribed. Having same problem on my desktop

I was having problems with my laptop also, and noticed they started after a windows update was downloaded. I'm wondering if the problem with my desktop is also a problem with recent updates.

I've fixed the problems with my laptop so I am now able to get on the net to try and figure out the problem with my desktop. Just a quick run down so you won't have to go through my other posts. A few days ago I noticed I had a dark blue/ black screen on my dell running windows vista. Nothing would get it to come out of that screen so I shut it down and restarted. I immediately got a "windows error recovery screen" allowing me to do two things: run startup repair or start windows normally. Clicking on either one brings it back to the windows error recovery screen. I tried booting into safe mode the three different ways and they all come back to this screen. I've put the dell windows disk in and was finally able to boot from it but it then goes to a blue screen showing a problem has been detected and windows was shut down to prevent damage..... It asks me to check if any new hardware or software has been installed, which I HAVE NOT DONE, and to get updates for that software if possible. I can't even get into the computer to see if anything is changed so I don't know how "they" expect you to do this. It then says to disable or remove any new software, again can't get into the computer to do that, or start in safe mode, which doesn't work. The technical information shows "Stop 0x0000c1f5 (0x0000000b, 0x00000003, 0x85e94000, 0x00000000).

I know I didn't install any new hardware or software the night before this all happened. My laptop problem was due to a windows update that caused the network adapters not to play nice with the computer. My laptop and this desktop normally have updates come in at the same time so I'm wondering if a windows update has caused this. The problem is I can't get past the error screen to figure it out. I've run diagnostic tests and everything checks out.

If someone could please help!! This is a two year old computer but we've had virtually no problems with it and it contains alot of our info that we now can't get to.

Thank you in advance!

Hi - just joined so I can add my tuppence-worth.

I can't give a solution yet, but I'm an IT consultant with a small client base, and three separate clients have had this problem in the last week or so.

I've had two Sony Vaio's (laptops) come in, and one "Cyberpower" desktop. All stuck in the "windows recovery" loop, which I must admit I've never seen before.

Unfortunately, all I could do was a complete re-install. This included dropping the hard disk out of one of the sony laptops as the owner hadn't backed it up. Sony provided a piece of software on the hard disk that should have offered repair options, but these didn't work. They SHOULD have allowed me to go back to a previous restore point, or to export the data - but neither worked. Fortunately the full operating system re-install did work, and (as far as I know) the pc's are OK having restored all systems and added anti-virus software and all windows updates.

The cyberpower desktop was not happy - it took a few attempts to get a clean install, but eventually the PC was running again and fully updated.

And now it goes wrong again. Two days later I went back to make a partition image, and as I shut down the PC, it announced that it was installing new updates - and I was back at square one - the windows recovery system!

I've reinstalled everything again, and saved a partition image, but I HAVE NOT run any windows updates.

Sony and Cyberpower tech support have both pretty much claimed that I'm the only one having this problem, and that it's microsoft's problem anyway.

So it's good to know I'm not alone! The new google option to show recent results only looks useful - I'm going to keep looking for a clue as to what is causing this problem, but take heed - it looks like the update may come back to haunt us!

That's all I can contribute so far - now let's see if I can actually post this!

Steve

I am having the same problems as the first few posters. I haven't tried the "Windows Complete PC Restore" for fear of losing all file data from 3.5 years of Vet School. Dell support said I need the original CD but it doesn't work. Can anyone advise?

I am working on a clients computer with a similar problem. Application event viewer shows recurring winser 5007 errors when updates try to run.
Problem occurred occasionally over the past few weeks. Started causing memory dumps and hanging the system yesterday.
Got to a point where it kept doing it as I tried to troubleshoot it.
Used system restore to return to date prior to this problem. Customer states the problem began occurring approx. Jun 1,2009(?)
After first system restore error occurred again as soon as update tried to install. Changed automatic updates to manual install.
This seems to have stopped the problem from reoccurring, so far.
I have to agree that the update seems to be causing this problem. Found another post where Microsoft says this winser 5007 error is no problem.
Solution found: http://www.jimmah.com/vista/Administration/kb931174.aspx
Also unistalled and reinstalled Avast antivirus, just in case.
I have had system running for several hours without fault since turning off automatic update.
Can anyone tell me which update(s) are causing this and is Microsoft doing anything about it?
This appears to be affecting numerous users.

Hello
Thanks for your reply. I had a feeling this was caused by an update but I can't even get to system restore to find out what updates went through. With the blue screen showing the problem being a recent hardware or software change, and knowing I haven't made any changes to the system, I figured it had something to do with an auto update. After googling the problem and talking to other "computer people", I was leaning toward the idea that my hard drive went bad, but I still think its an update and don't want to replace a hard drive if there is a solution to the problem. I've called geek squad and their diagnostic test is expensive, so I'm hoping to hear back from this panel.

Hopefully a final update from me.

I've just taken the Cyberpower PC that I mentioned earlier back to my client. I reinstalled Vista (again!), loaded all the drivers, and added AVG and firefox. I then used Paragon Drive Backup to create a partition backup onto a separate partition. (I then tested the restore worked, but that's another story).

I allowed windows update to run - 51 updates, all applied OK. And the pc worked afterwards. Made another backup.
Ran update again. 3 optional (driver) updates - again, it survived the experience.

Next update found and update for .net framework, plus two of the optional drivers (which it reported had installed correctly first time, but then failed to install second time.)

Next update found Vista sp2. This definitely had not tried to install before, so we're now off "down a different leg of the trousers of time". Agin, the PC survived, so I made a new backup.

Apart from the two drivers that it tells me that it wants me to install (in spite of having succeeded first time and failing ever since!), there was only one other update found, for Windows defender. Again, the pc survived the experience, and it now reports no further updates available, and (so far) seems OK.

I'm leaving the windows updates on manual, but I'm hoping that's an end to it.

Dborns - my guess is that you are going to have to bite the bullet and do a full system restore. This will of course destroy all your data, so you need to get it off the disk first. The good thing is that, unless the disk has physically failed, all your data is still there, and just needs a working PC to read it. What you should try is removing the hard disk and putting it in as a secondary disk on another PC. You should even be able to do this by using a USB hard disk caddy although there's a lot to be said for fitting it properly (much faster for a start!). I'd recommend finding a friend with an XP PC with plenty of hard disk space. If you get a "not accessible" message when you try to get at your data, you will have to "take ownership" of your folders on the new PC before you can copy the data across. And there's always the danger that you'll forget something - emails, for example, are well hidden, and there's probably other stuff, so this is not a job to rush. And you might also be able to use a partition backup program to create a compressed backup of the whole disk - a belt and braces option that might allow you to get at any stuff you miss.

Once you've secured your data, use whatever means Dell provided to restore it to the factory state. Don't bother trying to repair windows, and if you get the option, destroy the first version (repartition or reformat the disk). If you have the room, you might get the option to leave the old version in a "windows.old" folder - yet another belt and braces option!

Whatever happens, your data should be relatively safe at the moment, albeit difficult to get at. The secret is not to do anything that destroys it!

Hope this gives you enough to proceed for a while. If you get stuck and I can maybe help, shout!

Steve

Hello Steve
Thank you for the detailed response and the time that you took to respond. I figured I was going to have to do a full re-install, I just wanted to wait and see if anyone ran into the same problem. I was hoping to hear, "All you have to do is hit this button", type of answer, but probably not going to happen when working with Windows! The good news is most of the info I have on the desktop is also on my laptop, so I won't loose much info. All pics are backed up on an external drive also. I just wasn't sure how it was going to work as far as getting my programs back that I've bought for it, like Microsoft Office. I have the disk so I'll just have to try and get through that. Again, thanks for the help and your time.
Take care
Dylan

Hi Dylan

That's what I was hoping for too, but no luck!

As you've got an external HDD and a second computer, I'd seriously look into some sort of automatic or semi-auto backup routine. I'd also look at making a backup of your system partition once you've got the computer reloaded with all the software.

I get Personal Computer World magazine, and the free CD includes some great software - they've given away Acronis True Image and Paragon Disk Backup - full working copies - that allow you to setup your PC, and before you have time to screw it up, make a backup. Load and update windows, add firefox and your favourite anti-virus software (do this early so that you can download the updates etc.), and any other often used or critical software. Set up your email, internet access, e-mail etc. Then make a partition backup to the external HDD, and an emergency boot CD. Then, next time windows gets screwed, you should be able to take it back to that state in a few tens of minutes. Invaluable! And for not much more than the price of some space on an external or network disk.

RAM sticks are so cheap and big now that you could probably back up all your documents on a regular basis. Again, there are a lot of options for this, but I'm a luddite, and I like "Update2.2" from profiles software (http://www.profiles-software.com) - it's low tech, but it allows you to set up a simple command file that will copy all files from A to B, (a simple copy, no compression or anything) and after that, it will just copy files that have changed. The first run takes a while (20mins for a few gig?) but after that, it just takes a few seconds. Your pictures, music and e-mails may need more work, but you can set up automatic backups for those too (as you already have, although possibly not 100%)

Me - I'm just hoping that the 3 PC's with this problem that I've fixed in the last week stay fixed!

Regards

Steve

Hello Steve,
I've decided to go ahead and erase my hd and start over, however I've run into problems just doing that. I've tried all the "f" keys and nothing gets me to a command prompt to type "format". F8 gets me to the advanced boot options, but the only selection with command prompt is "Safe mode with command prompt" and my computer won't even go into safe mode. It just continues to go back to the Windows Error Recovery screen. Any ideas on how to get to a command prompt another way?
Thanks
Dylan

I tried to reformat my hard drive but wasn't able to. I can't get to a command prompt and nothing I've tried will work. I tried to load the Windows XP disk that also came with the computer and it went through the process, but then the blue screen came up that talked about a hard drive problem and had an error code, (of which I couldn't find any info about after googling). After some research I removed the hard drive, put the windows installation disk in the computer and restarted. The screen that came up asked me to hit f1 or f2 to get to system setup, but neither one of those buttons did anything. I don't know how to check my hard drive to see if thats the problem before I spend $100 on one I can't return. Any ideas?
Thanks
Dylan

Hi Dylan

Sorry - only just picked up the message.

A lot depends on whether you have a "real" microsoft XP disk or a "manufacturer's cobbled together one". I find that the latter ones are generally a big issue, as they seem to be lobotomised - some handy recovery features are just not available.

I'm trying to remember how the real ones work. If you can boot from one of these, then you get various options like "recovery console" (which gets you a command prompt), and sometimes the questions are asked out of order, so that you tell it all about where you want it to go, and then it asks you if you want to re-format the disk.

If you've got the disk out, you should be able to add it to another pc and run scandisk on it. You should also be able to see the data. And reformat the disk (make sure you hit the right one!). This is probably the best option and is the one I think I would choose. Once the disk is empty, you can put it back in the original PC and try the installation again.

I use GRC's "spinrite" to test disks, but to be honest, it's quite expensive and probably overkill. There are possibly a lot of disk utilities available (try the manufacturer's site) that you could use that might warn you if the disk is about to fail. Speedfan (www.almico.com) is a temperature monitor that seems to have SMART reading capabilities, and that's a free download.

If you're limited to working on the disk in the PC that's "broken" and you've secured or written off your data, then I think it's a matter of trying anything that will re-install windows. If there are options along the way that will destroy the existing copy (such as reformatting the disk) then try them, but the aim must be to get the pc running. Once you can boot it, you should have more options available, such as running scandisk, or running a second re-install that might have better options.

If you do get a re-format option, always choose the "full" option as opposed to "quick". It takes a bit longer, but is much better. In cases where I've suspected a virus might be involved, I've even reformatted the disk as a FAT volume (to try and ensure any rootkits and AD streams get clobbered), before running the re-installation again.

Hope this helps!

Steve

..and thinking about it (always a good move!) before doing anything too drastic on the disk (deleting partitions) it's wise to check that there isn't a hidden partition with a vista recovery system built into it! If there is, you probably don't want to damage that!

It might be worth seeing if dell have a "live chat" support option. They might be able to give you some options, and this type of support if often free.