Unbootable Vista (Possible File System Corruption)

See if you can backup your important data using a backup utility that can be booted from a disc. If you can see the installation, that should be a good sign as far as signaling the hard drive is still working. It sounds like however that the systems files have become severly corrupted or you might have possibly got a virus.

Since a repair on the hard disk is not going to work, you are going to need to try the last resort method and wipe the hard drive to re-install Windows. If you dont have the install media for Vista and your recovery partition doesn't fix the problem, you'll need to contact technical support for the manufacturer of your computer if you are covered under a warranty.
 
The read/write head of the hard disk must be failing then...

Consider it a oppurtunity to upgrade to a larger hard drive :smile:
 
Wow! I had to register to say I am having this EXACT same problem now with a family member's computer. The family member's kids and their friends obviously haven't been using the computer to safely....

I was also unable to get to the recovery options menu from the recovery CD as well, but I tried a couple things.

I first looked feverishly for any reputable rescue CD's I could find. I was able to utilize the rescue CD's of Bitdefender, Avira, and Avast!. Bitdefender seems to be the most helpful so far.

I next ran Bitdefender and it picked up around 30 or 35 files ranging from spyware to trojans and it was able to delete large majority of what it found. It only left about 3 or so undeleteable files. So next, I pulled the Avast! BART cd and used it's file shredder to remove the files Bitdefender couldn't get rid of.

After doing all that, I was able to access the system recovery options menu on the recovery CD. I figured I was finally there, but when I tried to do system restore, it told me the error, "file system corruption on c:." So I'm still in the dark with this issue. Safe mode won't load and the computer still hangs on chkdsk when I try to do it through the commandline.

I will be trying that memtest program next to se what I come up with.

Addendum:

Oh my god! I fixed it!

I went back to the Avast! rescue cd and selected the chkdsk like utility that came with it. After that, I opted for a thorough scan on the C: drive. That scan completed then I thought about what kairozamorro said in the earlier post in this thread about running chkdsk from the commandline.

Chkdsk froze in the commandline when I attempted to run it under the windows recovery disk, but I wondered if it would if I used the included commandline program with the Avast cd.

I next went to Avast's included commandline tool and then input "chkdsk C: /f" and it ran all the way through! I then restarted the computer and viola! Everything loaded up normally!:joy::joy:
 
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Hmm... that's odd. The chkdsk utility they include is probably the same thing, but nevertheless glad you got it working :smile:
 
I had the same issue multiple times before.

The problem is that the recovery CD mounts the partition for read/write access at all times, then attempts to dismount it when performing a chkdsk run with the "/f" parameter specified. For me, the easiest solution is just to take the drive out and stick it in another PC (all my cases are open at all times), but using a different recovery CD can also do the trick.

:smile:
 
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