BleepingComputer.com: Stuck in a System Recovery loop

Update: Fixed it.

My suspicions were correct: the computer was having issues with labeling the drives correctly, and disconnecting the second one did indeed force the computer to label the main one correctly, thus allowing the recovery tool to start up correctly and then after a restart allowing the OS to boot normally. I dunno how just going into the System Recovery tool caused this... but it did, and I fixed it; no thanks to you guys. Although, 1002 Richard S did supply me with potentially life-saving tool, and I'm still going to burn it to a DVD for any time someone else or I need it in the future. Props to you, Richard.


Following is the original post and an update, left for anyone who may have the same problem as me in the future


Running a Compaq Presario SR5501P with Vista Home Basic. Recently installed a new video card, but I doubt that its the problem as it was running fine for about a week before this.

Ok, so first a little backstory to this problem. I'm watching over a friend's house for a few days and decided to bring my desktop along and hook it up to her TV (currently posting from her laptop, btw.) When I hooked the tower up to her TV, it would go through the BIOS, then the TV would flick to "Incompatible Format" which meant the resolution was incompatible with the TV. Not having a monitor or anything else to hook the tower into to switch the resolution, I was looking around in the BIOS settings and such for a way to switch the resolution before boot (which I know how to now... a little late, though.)

Well, I thought the system recovery tool might have something in it; if someone's monitor couldn't display anything, and they knew the monitor was working, they might go to System Recovery, right? Well, I could find nothing there either, so I restarted the computer.

Now, Vista will only boot into Recovery mode. It refuses to boot normally. I've tried Boot Windows Normally, Last Known Good Config, just about everything. And, I can't use system restore, because all of my restore points are stored on the C partition of my main drive, whereas the recovery system is stored on a different one (I am steadily finding this type of setup ridiculously idiotic, and I have no idea as to why manufacturers do it.)

A clean install is extreme last ditch effort. I'd almost rather cut off any of my fingers rather than wipe my drive. So, is there any way to get past this problem? I only know a little concerning how OS's boot up, but my guess as to the problem is that in initially opening up the recovery tool, I changed the file that holds all of the boot info on the main drive, so now instead of the BIOS being told to boot off of the C drive, its booting off of the X drive, the partition that holds the recovery tool. Again though, thats just my guess, and I have no idea how one would fix that.

Update: Some interesting developments. Because the Recovery tool that is on my HDD partition was doing nothing, I decided to download the Vista Recovery Tool and burn it to a disc (which, yes, is legal) in the hopes that running it off a CD would allow the tool to see more than the empty partition that the other one saw. Well, it did see more, and what it saw was interesting.

I have 2 hard drives in my computer: one dedicated to programs and the OS, and the other dedicated to media. Somehow, through the processes that I went through in my first post, the media drive was labeled drive C (originally E), my main partition of the main drive was labeled drive E (originally C), the "Recovery" partition was unchanged with the label D, and a new drive (a new partition? a virtual drive?) was discovered, with the name of "Boot" and the label of X. So all this time I haven't been booting to the recovery partition as I thought I was, I was booting to this new drive or partition.

I found these through the System Restore Point system, in a list of which drives would be affected by reverting to an older point, which I tried, and which didn't work.

I just now tried the Startup Repair system, and it reported that the "Boot manager is missing or corrupt." The tool says that it is fixed, but I am still booting to the System Recovery tool when I boot from my HDD.

I would like to know, since through the System Recovery tool I have access to the Command Prompt, if I am capable of re-labeling my drives, as I have a hunch that this could be part of the problem. Also, I'm going to try booting with my Media drive unhooked from the computer, as on the computer seeing no C drive, it may label the main drive back to C.

This post has been edited by InsanityOnABun: 01 August 2009 - 10:21 PM

Have you considered using Knoppix Live CD (Linux) to try to rescue the important stuff to external storage media ? You can then work on the other issue knowing your data is saved elsewhere.



Here's a link to a guide on how to do so. The version of Knoppix may have changed but the same principles apply:



http://www.shockfamily.net/cedric/knoppix/



Hope this is of some help?

Set C: back to first boot device in the BIOS

garmanma, on Aug 1 2009, 08:07 AM, said:

It is. C: and X: are both partitions of the same physical drive, and the only boot options are to choose physical drives, not the partitions within them.

1002 Richard S, on Aug 1 2009, 12:00 AM, said:

That would make the last resort a whole lot more bearable, thank you.

Also, I'm going to ask this here before I start googling around. Is there any place to legally download a Vista re-installation disc? My computer didn't come with a recovery disc, it came with a recovery partition (fat lot of good its doing me.) I do have a set of recovery discs that I made (thank you HP for bugging me to make those) but they are at my own house, which I won't be able to get to in a few days, and I'd really like to get this computer up and running ASAP.

Quote

Legally, no

Update: Some interesting developments. Because the Recovery tool that is on my HDD partition was doing nothing, I decided to download the Vista Recovery Tool and burn it to a disc (which, yes, is legal) in the hopes that running it off a CD would allow the tool to see more than the empty partition that the other one saw. Well, it did see more, and what it saw was interesting.

I have 2 hard drives in my computer: one dedicated to programs and the OS, and the other dedicated to media. Somehow, through the processes that I went through in my first post, the media drive was labeled drive C (originally E), my main partition of the main drive was labeled drive E (originally C), the "Recovery" partition was unchanged with the label D, and a new drive (a new partition? a virtual drive?) was discovered, with the name of "Boot" and the label of X. So all this time I haven't been booting to the recovery partition as I thought I was, I was booting to this new drive or partition.

I found these through the System Restore Point system, in a list of which drives would be affected by reverting to an older point, which I tried, and which didn't work.

I just now tried the Startup Repair system, and it reported that the "Boot manager is missing or corrupt." The tool says that it is fixed, but I am still booting to the System Recovery tool when I boot from my HDD.

I would like to know, since through the System Recovery tool I have access to the Command Prompt, if I am capable of re-labeling my drives, as I have a hunch that this could be part of the problem. Also, I'm going to try booting with my Media drive unhooked from the computer, as on the computer seeing no C drive, it may label the main drive back to C.

I am also going to edit this post onto the end of my first post.

Update: Fixed it.

My suspicions were correct: the computer was having issues with labeling the drives correctly, and disconnecting the second one did indeed force the computer to label the main one correctly, thus allowing the recovery tool to start up correctly and then after a restart allowing the OS to boot normally. I dunno how just going into the System Recovery tool caused this... but it did, and I fixed it; no thanks to you guys. Although, 1002 Richard S did supply me with potentially life-saving tool, and I'm still going to burn it to a DVD for any time someone else or I need it in the future. Props to you, Richard.

I'm going to add this to the beginning of my first post, so that newcomers know that it has been resolved.

You're welcome and I'm glad to see that you solved it!