Can't Boot to Anything. Time is of extreme importance.

CLEAN INSTALL/FORMAT IS NOT AN OPTION

Okay first i apologize if i leave something out however since i need an answer quickly i'm going to be writing this quickly. Also i i accidently posted this in the wrong place, feel free to move it. In a nutshell i cannot boot to pretty much anything. Safe mode, disabled driver signatures, normally last know good configuration, etc none of them work.

Before I forget I am running windows 7 ultimate x64

It started a few months back, where basically i was getting an annoying post message about a video driver, so i ended up just rolling back the video driver and the performance was much better however, the annoying post message was still there and it was no longer about the video driver it had added a bunch of other bs it said was wrong also. Basically i tried everything to get rid of it but it wouldn't go away.

It was annoying because when it would display at post time, i had to manually shut down the computer and power it back up. So....it was annoying but it was easily solved, just shutdown and power back up and it was gone, also i only display about once out of every three times i restart/shut down my computer.

Well eventually it started happening like every other time i shutdown/restart my computer, then it happened every time. It got to the point where i just didn't power it down cuz it was such a pain in the ass to deal with. I usually just stuck it on standby and there was no problems. Of course stupid windows update was there to ruin the day, as usual though. So it does its thing and i have to restart my computer, and of course it does the stupid video driver error thing, but after a few mins i get back to the desktop and im good to go.

So skipping ahead the next time i had to restart i knew it was gonna do it so i figured i mine as well write down some the the "supposed" problems it found, so i could look them up and see if there was something i could do...... The weird thing about the messages was that at this point they were showing every time i restart or powered it on, however there was like an array of different crap that t would randomly pick from to show as the error. It always said it failed to start because of some file, and that the file was either missing or corrupt. So far i have seen it throw out:

ntoskrnl.exe, ci.dll, CLFS, acpi.dll, tcpip,dll, ntfs.dll, and i think a few others i forgot.....

However i found a way around it one day, all i had to do was just start windows with driver signatures disabled and everything worked perfect. Windows updates still worked, virus protection was fine, networking was fine, nothing was behaving incorrectly. So while it may not be good practice, i figured well it ain't hurting it, so mine as well.

Sooooo continuing on, i ran it like that for prolly two or three months, worked flawlessly however, last night piece of s**t windows update installs something and of course it has to restart. Well by this time, i sorta had gotten the hang of how it worked, basically if it had to restart you just had to sorta deal with it giving you the errors over and over and then all the sudden it would just go. More specifically when it would restart it would always give some file error, so at that point i hit repair computer, well when you did that it would BSOD. (I realize this sounds bad but bear with me) Before it would end up hooking so to speak, you had to enter the repair my computer screen a few times and it would usually BSOD a few times, then (again always random) one of the times when it would restart again, starting with driver sigs disabled would work.

Well... that brings us to now i'm not sure what windows update installed however it put it in a state where i can't do anything. I did the whole automatically repair thing (not because it has literally EVER worked, but because it usually tells you the root cause) and suprisingly it didn't say autofailover or unknown it said badPatch -_______________-

Now in theory the logical thing to do would be to just uninstall the updates however since i can't get safe mode, normal mode, last know good config, disabled driver sigs, or any other state to start, i'm basically just stuck trying to piece through it at the recovery console.

Heres why i finally just decided to post, i am by no means in hell even a tenth as knowledgeable as ppl on this forum however in the most humble way possible i know a pretty good amount computers (that's what im getting my degree in right now). I haven't had a comp problem for prolly 7 or 8 years i haven't fixed myself, it's amazing how useful google is.....

But this current HELLHOLE is making me homicidal. And what makes this just the absolute epitome of abysmal hell is that right now as i',m typing this (on a friends tablet) i'm in finals, which i have to assume i now am going to miss.

So to expediate this lemme just run down what i have already tried:

Starting in safe mode, normal mode, disabled driver sigs, last known good config

I have tried going to the recovery console specifically from hitting f8 and selecting it

i have tried going to the recovery console by just letting it normally boot up and get the the screen where it says windows didn't shut down right blah blah

(i mention them both, because ive noticed the only time the recovery console seems to work is when accessing it thru the advanced menu)

I have tried accessing the recovery console from a repair disc

I have made a bootable flash drive with a recovery console on it

i have made a bootable flash drive with the actual OS installation on it

I have tried replacing the "corrupt" driver with copies from "X:\Windows\System32"

I have actually open the win7 install.wim and extracted the files it says are corrupt and than replaced them on my computer (which is annoying as hell having to do thru the recovery console)

I have tried bootrec/fixmbr

I have tried bootrec/fixboot

I have tried bootrec/rebuildbcd

^ those three about 100 times

OH YEAH i tried to do the repair install thing for the actual disc, and despite being the disc I USED TO INSTALL THE OS, when i tried to repair install it says that the installation wasn't compatible with the current os or something.

^^^^^^ None of those did anything, even the brand new working files from the actual installation ...............................................................

So i eventually figured maybe i can do something about the updates it install that are messing it up, however when i ran the line to see if there was any pending updates it didn't show any.

So i did some poking around in the windows folder and managed to open the windowsupdate.log so i could hopefully get some sorta data about what it was that updated.

From what i can tell, the group of updates that messed it up was one or more of these, and the description next to them i just added so i could keep track of them, as i was having to copy them out of the windowsupdate log:

kb2565063 visual c++ 2010 sp1
kb2767916 office update
kb2932965 visual studio 2013 update
kb2993928 asp mvc 4.0 security
kb3102433 net framework 4.6.1
kb3108664 security
kb3109560 security
kb3110329 security
kb3115858 security
kb3121461 security
kb3122648 net framework 3.5.1
kb3122656 net framework 4.5.2
kb3123479 security
kb3124001 security
kb3124214 security
kb3124280 security
kb3126446 security
kb3126587 security
kb3126593 security
kb3127220 net framework 3.5.1
kb3127229 net framework 4.5.2
kb3134214 security
kb963665 office help
kb963673 office help features

With those in hand i figured the only thing to do would be to just start uninstalling them one by one and hope that something works; however when i tried to use 'wusa' to uninstall them, every single one just said catastrophic failure. I don't what i can do at this point, because i know that my data is still on there, perfectily in tact. Hell, i can browse to my personal folders when i am in recovery console, which is why i don't see the need to wipe anything out. But the place I'm at now, im basically helpless and in reality prolly now going to fail my classes

I have spent the last 40+ hours without sleep, without food, and without luck trying to fix this. Please please please please help me guys

Edited by theomega76, 07 March 2016 - 03:07 AM.

 If this happened to me, I'd restore from one of my full system backups, but I take it you didn't make any?  I hope you learn from this experience why you simply HAVE to do that if you want to avoid the predicament you're currently in.  

 OK, now for some things you can do.  First of all I'd download Linux Mint and put it on a DVD or flash drive.  It will boot in under 4 minutes from a DVD and less than 1 minute from a flash drive and give you a user interface very close to the Windows one so you don't have to learn anything more about Linux.  You can download it from here:

http://linuxmint.com/download_lmde.php .

 Now to get Windows working, the first thing I'd do would be to boot from a repair disc or an install disc and try doing a repair.  However, I have to say it sounds like your current installation has so many problems, you may need to restore to factory settings in accordance with the instructions in your user guide.  You can use the Linux system you made to back your data up prior to doing so.

 Good luck.

Well the first thing i should mention is that i have countless restore points however, when i get into the recovery console and try to use system restore none of them show up for some reason. Second thing, from the days i have spent trying to fix this and debug it in any way that could be helpful it appears as though the only problem it has is pertaining to the boot. Next thing, i have tried booting to the recovery console using an actual recovery disc as well as a bootable usb containing the recovery console. In addition to that i have tried actually booting from the installation dvd and hitting repair my computer at the installation splash screen, none of those things helped. The most i could get out of any of them was pretty much just the recovery console in which the automatic startup repair just said it  couldn't fix it, granted i'm not sure i have ever in my life seen the automatic startup repair actually fix anything. Nonetheless, since i am able to see all my data still if i open the command prompt via the recovery console, isn't there a way to somehow reset, replace and/or rebuild all the files required to correctly boot? I need to fix this urgently and i can't really afford to lose all my data and start from scratch. Is there any way to somehow isolate or find the specific details of exactly what the problem is in the boot process. It will BSOD every now and then however apart from the error code it gives, the file(s) that is usually displays as being the cause are the same ones that show up when it tries to normally boot i.e. acpi.sys, tcpip.sys, ci.dll, etc....

I can't accept that there is no options left, this is the last place i have to turn for help, and i have always had faith in the knowledge that the people in this forum have.

As Niweg posted you can use a linux distro to pull your data. A smaller download would be Parted Magic. You can download the iso here. See this guide on pulling data from the hard drive to an external drive. Then you can do a reinstall.

If you don't have a disk handy you can use Rufus to create a bootable USB flash drive. Run Rufus and make sure your flash drive is shown. Keep all boxes as checked. Select MBR for a partition scheme. Where you see FreeDos in the dropdown box select iso image and click the small folder icon. Browse to the Parted Magic iso. Click Start. Backup any data on the flash drive.

If you have UEFI then you may have to change the mode to Legacy or CSM boot.

If you cannot get Parted Magic to boot then try Fatdog64. This can boot UEFI. The copying is a little different using Fatdog. You need to open two File Managers. Click once on the sdaX partition that is your Windows partition and once on the USB icon of your external drive(sdb or sdc).  For Windows 7 it is probably sda2. Then drag and drop files/folder from one window to the other. Select Copy and click the quiet box. You  can select files/folders by pressing Ctrl+left click or left click drag around the files/folders.

Edit: Once you pull the data with PartedMagic double click the icon on the desktop called Disk Health. Run the short and long generic test to test your hard drive for any problems. 

Edited by JohnC_21, 07 March 2016 - 10:10 PM.

I know what you're saying and i already have considered it, but only as a last resource. I am specifically trying to find a solution that does not involve reinstalling the os, i can view the hard drive from a gui view using windows boot genius. Mind you i can't execute any of the files on the C: drive but i can view, delete, access all the files on the HDD including system and hidden files. Since it was giving errors before this happened but would still boot fine if i selected disable driver signature verification, i was wondering if there was any way to rollback the updates that caused this to happen. Being that now the auto. startup repair list "BadPatch" as the reason it can't fix anything. Keeping that in mind, when i looking around the C: drive from the gui i noticed that in the temp folder in appdata there appears to be folders that almost look like the data that pertains the the window updates. To be a little more clear, since the windows update required a restart before it could finish installing some of the upgrades, is it possible that since it never correctly restarted that the windows update data is just sitting in the temp folder and will be applied next succesful boot? Also since the errors it gives are usually regarding some specific file and not something like "Invalid Paartition Table", "Operating System Not Found", "Error Loading Operating System", etc... I have to presume that the issue is regarding a boot file and not the actual MBR. Is there a way i can sorta check or validate the basic required files for boot are present or better yet replace the boot files with new valid versions?

Several/many (??) of the Windows OS files that you copied from x: or wherever have very likely been updated by Windows Updates and the copying you did restored old versions; hence one likely reason for "bad patch" messages.

I was shocked to see "ntoskrnl.exe" in your list in post #1 as it is the Windows Kernel (NT).

I don't see how this system can be saved. Furthermore, I have no idea why you would want to save it. With the amount of time you have spent, you could have backed up your files and reinstalled the OS by now many times over.

Back up the files you need and reinstall Windows. You said you have the ISO on a USB stick...? If so, we're talking 20 minutes tops to reinstall the OS.

Good luck to you with this and in school. You will never regret your education.

Regards. . .

jcgriff2

Edited by jcgriff2, 08 March 2016 - 02:14 AM.

the reason i am trying to save it is because with a reinstall comes the reinstallation of over 120 programs, settings the preferences for every single one of those programs, setting the personal settings of the OS like services, permissions, etc.... it's a MINIMUM of a week just to get everything installed and set up right. Also i have read quite a few threads where people had the ntoskrnl error plus a slew of others and they were able to recover there os just fine. Also i made sure to backup every single file i replaced, in addition to that i tried replacing them with the copies that were stored on X: and i also tried using copies that came straight out of the actual win7 Installation .wim file. Lastly from the info i have found (which im still trying to fix this) every single one of those errors, including ntoskrnl.exe, can be specifically caused by a bad boot file. Thus if the boot file can be repaired then subsequent actions to fix it will be much easier. Lastly i have been getting the ntoskrnl.exe (plus all the others) for like 3 months now, it started when i rolled back a video driver however all i had to do was just start with the driver signatures disabled and it worked fine. Plus i refuse to accept that this cant be fixed and i definetly don't believe at all the ppl on this forum aren't intelligent enough to solve this. I have seen some of the solutions given to similar problems on this forum, and i am always just blown away. Im not ready to give up faith yet

Unfortunately, you're unable to pass GO and collect the $200(or in this case save faith and fix the system).

Backup, Format, Reinstall, redo settings(turn off automatic updates), create a full backup of the System(in case this happens again).

I've been in your shoes and no matter how hard it may seem to re-tweak everything, it can be done and usually better and without half the programs that were installed previously(rarely used).

The only time you need to worry is if you don't have backups of pictures, documents etc. everything else program wise can be re-downloaded.

You've burnt over 40 hrs on something you could've fixed within a couple hours with a fresh install. Sometimes you just gotta let go.

I'm not saying this to be a douche, I've been where you're at.

Edited by vdubbs4life, 08 March 2016 - 09:29 AM.

I know what you mean and i totally understand. However before i make the final decision i just wanted to get a few things clear. I have read a good number of threads where ppls ntoskrnl has been "corrupt" and almost always the solution (as provided by microsoft) is to simply replace the ntoskrnl with the copy in x:\windows\system32 or the copy on the installation disc. Now to me that makes perfect sense if the ntoskrnl is in someway messed up (which also apparently is rarely the case, it is usually cause by something else) why doesn't replacing it make any difference. After all when you do a clean install the ntoskrnl.exe file that is placed in the system32 file is just the file in the install.wim package, so what is different about it being valid within a clean install and not valid when used to replace a corrupt copy?? What determines whether the ntoskrnl is valid or not, because no matter what way it is spinned the file from the installation cant be invalid. Furthermore if the files required for booting are all replaced with valid copies of the cd, how does that not work????

Also i have read a few threads on the MS forum where ppl have had trouble booting and the solution was to simply delete the file that was producing the error, thus forcing windows to recreate it at the next boot, would that work in anyway, or is there a way to check if windows will recreate the file? Perhaps renaming the currently used file?

I do realize this situation looks very bleak, but i don't want to just admit defeat when the specific cause of this situation has not yet once been identified...... Let me just say this, even if it comes to me having to do a clean install (which is not only a min. of a week to finish getting everything set up, it is over 200gb worth of files that have to be redownloaded), i know for a fact that there has to be some test or some checks that i can run to at least create some logs or something that will give me more information. Thats all i am asking for is before every abandons hope on this, just lemme run some tests or something to get some more info. Because while i know a good amount about computers i dont know enough about the os to just start changing things. Also i found a live environment i can boot to, Hirens boot cd. It has a whole sh**load of test and utilities as well, i just wasn't sure what ones would be useful im my case. However since it allows you to operate in a MiniXP environment i was able to run an error check on the C drive (which i now see why i never did before.....) and after the five phases completed it said everything was fine.

I'm not sure if anyone knows a specific tool or utility i should run that would be helpful in terms of gathering information, because i can bet my life that there is a tool out there that can at least give some relevant information at the very least. Also here is a list of the tools included on the cd http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/ just scroll down a little past the download button and hit view cd contents. There's a looooooooot of stuff on it, some of it's gotta be useful?

I think your last ditch effort would be running sfc /scannow offline. It is supposed to replace any corrupt or missing system files but the install disk needs to be the same SP as what is installed.

See offline sfc /scannow here.

i have an iso image of just the win7 sp1 recovery console and i also have an iso image of the entire win7 sp1 installation. Im still wonderingwhat tools i can run to get some more information on the boot files, any system erros, anything at this point, it's not like the tools aren't there, i just don't know how to configure them properly to return the needed info. Also another flaw with the whole clean install scenario..... i dont have a spare HDD or anything really at the moment to backup my files on. I know this is kinda a stupid question but its hard to find any clear information about this online. I have always wondered about it, but never looked into it really. Hypothetically if one performs a clean install a looooot of thigns can simply be replaced, e.g. the entire appdata folder with all subfolders that hold programs settings, the entire my documents folder, etc... However all that is correlated to programs that are in fact installed. Now since i have done this before, actually i cant remeber the last clean install i even did where i didn't do this, i know that when you reinstall your programs you can (if you have them) just replace the files on the new OS with the files from the same program on the old OS and everything is peachy keen. However, what is the barrier that requires the program to be installed for this to work?

If the program data and settings are placed onto the new OS, what would prevent that from therefore working. The only thing i can think of would be the registry and that can also be backed up and restored to replace the new registry (now the system registry entries but basically everything is HKLM).

Anyways i am not at that point yet, because i am not going to just wipe everything out, 1.) without any means of backing the data up at the moment and 2.) without anyone at all knowing what the actual cause of this whole situation was.

Also i remember why i haven't run sfc yet...... i got into the recovery console from the installation usb, which for some reason was giving errors while trying to load the damn installation...... kept saying ntfs.sys was missing or corrupt -__________________- which is almost comical seeing as ITS THE GOD DAMN INSTALLATION FILE....... nevertheless after around 20 or reboots it finally loaded.... i tried to run sfc /scannow /offbootdir=c:\ /offwindir=c:\windows

and it acted like it was going to start.......

Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.

and then...............................................................

Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation.

what the hell is that suppose to mean?

Anyways though to me one of the most crucial things about mistakes is learning from them, so that can have the knowledge in the future to avoid repeating them. What is the point of starting over when i have no idea what caused the problem, and even more so i have no idea what the problem is.

Edited by theomega76, 08 March 2016 - 10:20 PM.

In the link I provided showing offline sfc /scannow look at the drive letter in this window. Substitute it for C:. If the screen shows D: then use D: