So earlier today my computer was running incredibly slowly and at a certain point the screen just went black, leaving only the cursor and a black screen. I left it like this for a minute or two and then did a hard reset. Upon resetting, it got to the “Starting Windows” screen and just stayed there, nothing happened, it just wouldn’t start. I’ve tried all the options under F8 (debugging mode, disable signature drivers etc etc), none of them will work, even safe mode won’t work. Startup repair hasn’t helped.
When I try to load safe mode it shows the list of files and eventually gets down to aswrvrt.sys and just stays there, nothing works.
I had just finished lots of really important work that I hadn’t backed up and I’m so worried about losing my data now, any help would be hugely appreciated.
I’m running a Lenovo laptop with windows 7 - I have avast free version installed, I’ve heard that this can be the cause of the problem in some users? Anyway I’m absolutely desperate so any help would be hugely appreciated.
Please print these instruction out so that you know what you are doing. Applicable to 32bit systems. If you have a 64bit system then create a thread and instructions for the recovery console download will be given
Download OTLPENet.exe to your desktop
Download Farbar Recovery Scan Tool and save it to a flash drive.
Ensure that you have a blank CD in the drive
Double click OTLPENet.exe and this will then open imgburn to burn the file to CD
Reboot your system using the boot CD you just created.
The problem is it’s late here and I don’t have any blank CDs. In some other threads there seemed to be a way to do it via USB and I was hoping to do that.
I’m just trying to get a sense of how likely it is I’ll get my data back? I don’t mind that much if I have to buy a new drive (although I’d prefer not to) but if my data is gone then I’m completely screwed. Will I still be able to get it back?
Insert the USB into the sick computer and start the computer. First ensuring that the system is set to boot from USB
Note: If you are not sure how to do that follow the instructions Here
Windows 7 and Vista screenshots
When you reboot you will see this. Click repair my computer
notepad and press Enter.
The notepad opens. Under File menu select Open.
Select “Computer” and find your flash drive letter and close the notepad.
In the command window type e:\frst64.exe or e:\frst.exe dependant on system
and press Enter Note: Replace letter e with the drive letter of your flash drive.
The tool will start to run.
When the tool opens click Yes to disclaimer.
I currently have a system repair going (windows suggested system restore but it’s been “attempting repairs” for an hour or so and nothing’s changing) and windows says “the current repair operation cannot be canceled” - not sure what to do?? Should I just let it finish? I’ve heard sometimes it can take days. Is it ok to cancel?
I have to be honest I cancelled one earlier, although I cancelled it during the preliminary stage where it was searching or solutions rather than the actual attempting repair stage.
Do you think it’s likely I’ll be able to get my files back?
Ok so I’ve followed those steps, I’ve gotten to the system recovery options bit and it’s been on a “Searching for windows installations…” screen for quite some time now. The window that looks like this: http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee362/Essexboy3/RepairVista_7277202.jpg is there and it has my windows 7 drive listed but the more prominent window is the one that says “searching for windows installations” and there’s no button to cancel or close it or anything - I can’t get at the other window in order to click next.
Ok it’s come up now but there are only 2 options and they’re different to the ones shown in your image - there’s no option for command prompt.
The option to select my operating system is there, and the option to click “next”, but also there are 2 options either side of it to choose either “use recovery tools that can help fix problems starting windows - select an operating system to repair” or “restore your computer using a system image that you created earlier”
Ok cool, I’ll do that right now - thanks again for your help man I really appreciate it. Is there anything else you think might be worth doing just to be extra secure?
What do you recommend for backing up data? So far I only have physical backups because I’m a little distrustful of cloud etc. Also how do I create an image of the working system? Is that a system restore?
