[SOLVED] [Broken Vista] Any way to recover?

littlebigman · 03-25-2012, 06:35 PM

Hello

A friend of mine has a problem with her Windows Vista laptop. After launching a much-needed update (something she hadn't done in years), the computer no longer runs OK: After booting up, Windows displays "Please wait..." but it never goes anywhere.

I booted with the Vista DVD, chose "Repair your computer" which said that there was nothing wrong :-/

Next, I booted it up with a Linux USB keydrive, and ran Gparted 0.8.1 (which includes ntfsresize v2011.4.12AR.4 libntfs-3g) which displays a bunch of warnings for the NTFS partition where the Vista system is located such as:

Quote:

ntfs_mst_post_read_fixup: magic: 0x00000000 size: 1024
usa_ofs: 0 usa_count: 65535: Invalid argument
Record 16 has no FILE magic (0x0)

Next, I ran ntfsfix /dev/sda2, which said:

Quote:

Mounting volume... OK
Processing of $MFT and $MFTMirr completed successfully.
NTFS volume version is 3.1.
NTFS partition /dev/sda2 was processed successfully.

Next, I rebooted Vista, which did a CHKDSK, before rebooting.

But I'm still getting nowhere with "Please wait..."

Before I copy her data to another host and reinstall Vista from a DVD, does someone know what I could try?

Thank you.

syg00 · 03-25-2012, 07:32 PM

I had similar about a year ago. As a last resort tried the recovery disk from Neosmart (as distinct from the recovery centre on the install disk).
Worked just fine.

Used to be a free download, then got pulled when M$oft threatened legals. I see it is now back, but with a fee. Search their site for "recovery disk" for all the gory details.

littlebigman · 03-25-2012, 07:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by syg00

I had similar about a year ago. As a last resort tried the recovery disk from Neosmart (as distinct from the recovery centre on the install disk).
Worked just fine.

Thanks for the tip, but Neosmart's Vista Recovery Disc simply displays the same menu I see when booting from a Vista DVD ("Choose a recovery tool: Startup repair, System restore, Windows Complete PC Restore, Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool, Command Prompt").

As I made the mistake of not creating a restore point before lauching Windows Update, System Restore in unavailable :-/

Looks like I'll copy her data out of the laptop, and reinstall an OS.

Good news, though: Since she only uses it for web browsing, she's OK with trying Linux :-) I'm torn between Ubuntu, Mint, and Fedora.

syg00 · 03-25-2012, 10:47 PM

I thought I made some notes at the time, but can't find them now.
From memory I couldn't run "Startup Repair" from the install disks. Failed to run at all. From the rescue disk, it whinged and moaned but did the job.
Can't remember the specifics, but that's broadly it ... I hope

littlebigman · 03-26-2012, 03:52 AM

Although there was a bit of disk activity, I waited for a couple of hours while it displayed "Please wait" but it didn't go anywhere. It looks like Windows is unable to recover from an NTFS filesystem that was broken by an update :-/