Vista Start Up Problem

[neville]

Current Set UP:

Dual-boot: Vista x64 SP1; XP Pro via Easy BCD

Problem:
After insstalling SP1 via Windows update, Vista hangs on loading with the Progress bar going on interminably (5 hours +).

Tried so far:

1. Safe mode and all its variants.
Gets me to the same point (endless loading) where I cannot get to the desktop even in safe mode.

2. Repair using original Vista (system-builder version) w/out SP1
Attempts repair and yields following msg.
Repair Action: System files integrity check & repair
Result: Failed. Error code: 0xa

3. Booting from Vista Recoverable CD with SP1? created acc. to instructions here.
Loads files and moves to endless loading again. Did not bring up the Install/Repair screen.

BTW, XP Pro works fine.

Please help. Thanks.

 

[JustinW]

Neville,

You need to boot from the recovery disc by making your cd drive first in the BIOS boot sequence and pressing a key to continue when prompted or it'll go on to boot from the hard drive. If startup repair doesnt work for you you may try system restore to restore it back to a time pre-SP1.

 

[neville]

Thanks, I tried all that. System Restore comes up with: there are no restore points. Meanwhile, Microsoft has emailed me a registry edit fix. Will report back when I have the chance to try the fix.

 

[Terry60]

If the fix from MS involves eventually reinstalling SP1, there was a problem with SP1 experienced by a lot of people (me included). The install appeared to hang (blank screen, dead keyboard and mouse) at 99% complete stage 3 of 3.
If this happens to you, don't immediately hit reset !
Although all communication with the system has stopped, you can see the HDD LED is still flickering, indicating that the OS update is still proceding invisibly.
Go and make yourself a snack and a pot of tea, and come back in 30 minutes. When you eventually lit reset, make sure the HDD activity has ceased first.
I did this, and the Windows Update was successful. A number of others less patient, hit reset when they lost communication and ended up with a broken system.
SP2 went on without a problem.
If you're a user of HnS (which renames the bootmgr), temporarily switch the names back to normal before installing either Service Pack, because they both replace bootmgr, which will break HnS if you don't let WUD find the correct module.