please help me comp gurus "Windows Error Recovery"

[rossco]

i tried starting my computer a asus laptop running vista

all i get is

a screen that says "Windows Error Recovery" at the top. Below that it says, "Windows failed to start. A recent hardware of software change might be the cause".

Then it says to Launch the Startup Repair to fix the issue.

There are two options below that..
Launch Startup Repair (recommended)
Start Windows Normally

Which ever one I select, takes me immediately back to the same screen.

i cant move forward from this screen, cant boot from a disk, cant do a thing, HELP ME

[Miaow]

I had a thing with windows 2000 which seemed slightly similar - I ended up having to change bios to make the comp boot from the cdrom before it tried to boot from C: Put the windows CD in the drive and then ran the repair that way

hope you work out what the problem is and get it fixed soon

[rossco]

vista came pre loaded so no disk also i cant access the bios to boot from disk it just loads straight to the Windows Error Recovery" screen

[Miaow]

when it starts to boot does it give you the boot up choices? i think its F8 ? press before windows loads - try and get it to boot into dos (edited: if vista has that?) ?
This didnt work with the 2000 prob though i had still had the same problem (which was a hd problem)

[Tannin]

First, back up your data. This is critically important. Get your data off before you do anything else.

If you don't know how to do this, don't buggerise around trying to do things for yourself and wind up making things worse, take it to a reputable computer professional. Do that first - we regularly see computers come into the workshop where there was a small problem and the owner tried to fix it ... and now it has a big problem.

Get that data off. If you need help doing that, get some help. If it has important stuff on it (like your pictures), be sure to take it to someone good, not your mate over the road who talks big and understands small. But whichever way you do it, get that data off. After that, everything else is easy.

[rossco]

all my files are saved to a external hard drive so nothing on the laptop ill miss too much, having said that i cant access my hard drive to back it up

[rossco]

looking at other fourms there seems to be alot of people with this problem but no answers, there is a suggestion it is as a result of a windows update

[Kym]

Normally you fix it by booting the installer CD into recovery mode.
There should be a way to boot to the hidden partition on the disk containing the equivalent - time to read the notebook manual or contact support.

[oldfart]

I'd try the Trinity Rescue Kit

http://trinityhome.org/Home/blog.php?blog_cat_id=2&b_node=2

[draco]

Kym is right.. you would probably have (not all laptops have it) hidden partition that contains recovery data.. though i am not sure if you will still be able to access this since you cannot start your laptop.. you usually burn a disc copy of this partition and then reboot from DVD drive..

one thing you can try is to borrow someone else's vista DVD and try a repair instead of a reinstall (not sure if vista have this option, XP have), then backup your data, then complete reinstall...

[rossco]

to all who posted a big thank you, i managed to get the comp to boot via the recovery disk which then in turn reformatted my hard drive, hmmmmmmmmm, no loss as i keep all my data on external drives, now my lappy runs faster than a puppy at the dog park, thanks again

[umajo]

i had a similar problem and they thought they would have to reformat my hardrive and then discovered it was all caused through a update from trend microcillin which had changed a heap of settings, so they took it off and reinstalled it all good now..... life is terrible without your computer so glad you are up and going again

[rossco]

interesting umanjo, i run trend as well it may well have been the devil in the detail, also nice to see a member from charlies trousers