Can’t boot from Win7 System Repair Disc

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Hi,

I have an Acer TravelMate P253 running Windows 7 Professional 64 bit with all recent Updates.

About 1 month ago, I created an image of my C: Drive on an external USB Drive, using Windows 7 own built in facility and also created a System Repair Disc when the Image creation process completed. The process reported that Image and CD were created successfully.

Today, I attempted to restore my C: Drive by booting from the previously created CD, but although the CD drive is selected as the first option for booting in the BIOS settings, my laptop refuses to boot from the CD. I tried creating another CD but the result was just the same. I know that my CD drive is OK because I can see all the folders and files on the CD when using Windows Explorer.

I don’t have a Windows 7 CD because the OS came already installed (The Laptop was supplied with both Windows 8 and Windows 7 and I opted to install Windows 7)

I have a Hiren’s Boot CD and inserted this in my CD drive and rebooted – that worked OK so it would appear that bootable CDs are being recognized, but for some strange reason, the CDs created by the Windows 7 facility, are not being recognized.

I read somewhere about an alternative boot system ‘UEFI’ ? but know nothing about this…. Could this be causing the problem ?

Any help with this very strange problem would be very much appreciated

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…I read somewhere about an alternative boot system ‘UEFI’ ? but know nothing about this…. Could this be causing the problem ?…

UEFI = Unified Extensible Firmware Interface

UEFI has a “secure boot” feature which can, and usually does, prevent booting from CD (or DVD).

You probably need to go into the UEFI and disable “secure boot”. You might also have to adjust “legacy boot” settings and/or adjust “boot device order” so the notebook attempts to boot from the CD/DVD drive before the HDD.

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Hi Coochin,
Thanks for your reply…

I have checked the settings in the ‘BIOS’ screen and they are as follows :

Boot Mode : [Legacy BIOS]
Secure Boot : Disabled

Boot Priority
1. Atapi CDROM
2. HDD
3. USB FDD
4. Network Boot
5. USB HDD
6. USB CDROM

I have not changed any of these settings. Looking at the configuration, I would expect that the system should boot from a CD which was created using the Windows 7 built-in procedure. It seems strange that it will not boot from this CD, but will boot from the Hiren’s CD.

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It does indeed seem strange that it boots from the Hiren CD but not the Win7 repair CD.

I have used Windows repair CD many times when working on Vista/Win7 computers. Normally it is just a matter of inserting the CD in the drive, then pressing the space bar or some other key at the “Press any key to boot from CD or DVD” prompt. However, more than once the computer didn’t have a CD/DVD drive or the drive was faulty, when I would either use my USB CD/DVD drive or a UDB thumbdrive.

You could create a bootable USB thumbdrive from the Win7 repair CD using Rufus/. To boot from thumbdrive you would probably have to change “Boot Priority” so “USB HDD” is first.

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You can download and save a Win 7 SP1 Pro 64 bit ISO from http://www.w7forums.com/threads/official-windows-7-sp1-iso-image-downloads.12325/page-2#post-124821 and use http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/windows-usb-dvd-download-tool to create a bootable USB and/or DVD and see if it will boot up with either of those.

You will need a 4GB USB with nothing else on it and you can get to the Recovery Environment when you select Repair your Computer, but it won’t include the factory reset option.

Was the Hiren CD created on the same computer ?

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Thanks Coochin and Sudo15 – Your comments and suggestions are truly appreciated…..

The Hiren’s CD was created on my previous laptop which used Win 7 Home Premium SP1 32 bit.

Like you – Coochin – I’ve used the Win 7 Boot CD and an external USB Hard Disc to recover a System Image, many times before on my previous 32 bit laptop and other Win 7 32 bit PCs, and never experienced any problems.

Just out of interest, I tried booting my 64 bit laptop, from my previously created Win7 32 bit CD and everything appeared to proceed as normal! But of course, I was eventually informed that there was a 32 bit/64 bit conflict and I was unable to proceed any further….
So, it would seem that the problem lies in the ‘format’ and creation of the 64 bit CD…..

I’ll try out your suggestions in a couple of days (I’ll be away from home) and report back later.

Kind Regards

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Run MS’s Fixit then create the bootable Win 7 ISO or Repair disk to see if it will boot then, but I think you’re looking at a new disk drive.

http://support2.microsoft.com/mats/cd_dvd_drive_problems

I had a similar problem with this laptop where a bootable ISO disk created on here wouldn’t boot it up, but would work on another laptop even though it could read the files on it and that took a replacement drive to sort that.

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I tried the procedure suggested by Sudo15 – Downloaded the ISO file and burned a DVD using the ‘ MS Download Tool’, on my existing Win 7 Pro Laptop. Everything went fine and the DVD burned successfully. I then tried booting with the new DVD and it worked perfectly. Choosing the ‘Repair’ option rather than the ‘Install Win7’ option, I eventually got to the familiar screen, where the option to recover from a previously saved Image on an External drive, was available….. Which is exactly where I wanted to be in the first place…..

So, the conclusions I have reached :
1. The CD/DVD drive on my Laptop is in good working condition.
2. There seems to be a problem with the creation of a rescue ‘Bootable’ CD, using Win 7 Pro 64 Bit own built in facility…..

However, now that I have the means to access the option to reload an Image, it gets over my immediate problem.

I wonder if it would be worth contacting Microsoft about the problem ???

Thanks for all your comments…..

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It also proves that your DVDs are fine as well – wonder if a sfc /scannow would find anything to repair ?

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I wonder if it would be worth contacting Microsoft about the problem ???

Microsoft is pretty much done with Windows 7. Their attitude would be somewhere between indifference and scorn.

Kind of like their attitude towards user suggestions for Windows 8 before they released it.

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Microsoft is pretty much done with Windows 7. Their attitude would be somewhere between indifference and scorn.

Kind of like their attitude towards user suggestions for Windows 8 before they released it.

Some of their Win 7 Fixits have been pulled as well – guess that’s what they meant by no longer supporting Win 7 but seems to be somewhat premature as that isn’t supposed to occur until 13 Jan 2015.

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Some of their Win 7 Fixits have been pulled as well – guess that’s what they meant by no longer supporting Win 7 but seems to be somewhat premature as that isn’t supposed to occur until 13 Jan 2015.

I am hoping for a Service Pack 2 with a complete roll-up, but that probably won’t happen.

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Some of their Win 7 Fixits have been pulled as well – guess that’s what they meant by no longer supporting Win 7 but seems to be somewhat premature as that isn’t supposed to occur until 13 Jan 2015.

Microsoft’s definition of the various support levels can be found here: http://support2.microsoft.com/gp/lifepolicy

38614-support

Jerry

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Did a sfc /scannow… No errors or violations reported….

Thanks again for all comments

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Thanks Jerry, but this is what I get when I click on a Google MS link to reset Windows Update Components http://support.microsoft.com/Error?aspxerrorpath=/kb/971058 and the same occurs when clicking on sub links in other forum posts for the same Fixit.

This is another for the Windows Update Agent, but both of these apply to more than Win 7 http://support.microsoft.com/Error?aspxerrorpath=/kb/949104

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Try http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971058

Jerry

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Try http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971058

Jerry

I get the same as the other two I’d linked – what do you get – or is it just on my end ?

I can’t even check it on http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/ as it does produce a website.

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I get the Fixit site for resetting Windows Update:
38617-reset
You have something on your end blocking it. Security software? Proxy server in Internet Options? Host File?

Jerry

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Well there’s something very strange going on here but I don’t want to spam this thread with my own problems.

Your link in Post #16 works fine in Firefox but not in IE 10 either in normal or safe mode with networking.

IE 10 didn’t seem to want to stay in Compatibility Mode when changed using F12 to see if that made any difference.

I’ve reset IE to defaults and even reverted IE to IE8 and it still doesn’t work.

I’m not sure why those sites should be affected as I was able to access MS’s Fixit to reset the Hosts File.

With the other sites I get to the MS page but it reports “Sorry, but the page you requested is not available” and to check the URL is typed correctly etc.

I’m not really sure what more I can do with this but I’ll have a play around with it later when I have more time.

Now to reinstall IE10.

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…Now to reinstall IE10.

Why reinstall IE10?

IE11 has been around long enough now that most (if not all) problems have been resolved.

Do you really want to remain “stuck in the past”?

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I need to run IE 10 because of compatibility problems with my ISP e-mail which I had to set up for access to my TalkTalk account and secondary e-mail addresses at the time.

I had to use a restore point to get IE 10 back plus an IE 10 Windows Update as MS no longer have it listed in their IE downloads.

When I saw you had replied – thought you may have had a solution for my problem.

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I need to run IE 10 because of compatibility problems with my ISP e-mail which I had to set up for access to my TalkTalk account and secondary e-mail addresses at the time…

So the problem is really with your ISP failing or refusing to update/upgrade their systems to take account of issues/problems that have arisen during the past since IE11 was released? If their systems can’t handle IE11 then it is their bad.

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…When I saw you had replied – thought you may have had a solution for my problem.

Sorry Sudo15, seems we have been cross-posting.

FYI during the time since IE11 was released, I installed IE11 on my systems and have had very few problems compared w/ IE9 & IE10.

Same for customers’ systems; IE11 seems to have been the least troublesome version of IE to date.

After IE10 I repeatedly had to communicate with web developers re their server-side code that was not working well with IE10. Too often the response was “well so IE10 not working for you? No worries, just go back to IE9”. So they try to avoid having to update their code (security? what is that???).

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Compatability View in IE11 seems to have worked for other TalkTalk users:

Updated to IE11 windows 7. Can log in but cannot access inbox

Unable to reply or forward emails from talktalk website using Internet Explorer

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Compatability View in IE11 seems to have worked for other TalkTalk users…

Have seen several other threads in the Lounge where users were affected with TalkTalk outages, irrespective of access via browser or email client.

As I have previously commented in other threads, I have found IE11 to be less troublesome than any previous IE version.

Note: I also use Firefox as needed, and see Chrome on almost all customers’ systems, so it is not as if I am not familiar with current browsers.

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Reverting to IE 10 was also TalkTalk’s response while they said (and still say) that it’s being worked on.

I’m on my other laptop at the moment and the link in Post #16 works fine, so it’s computer specific rather than IE specific.

TalkTalk revamped their e-mail from AOL to something called My Mail.

My secondary e-mail was the first one I’d booted after the revamp so that one was the one that got revamped whereas the other didn’t.

In Compatibility Mode I still have to fiddle the primary e-mail whereas I’m unable to delete anything in the secondary one – hence IE 10.

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…In Compatibility Mode I still have to fiddle the primary e-mail whereas I’m unable to delete anything in the secondary one – hence IE 10.

IE10 installer seems to be available on oldversion.com, but if you decide to download it be careful what you click on.

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Thanks Coochin.

I had seen other Google links from where I could download it but because I was unable to find the MS link that I’ve used before, I restored with a system image from the 27th of last month and Jerry’s link in Post #16 now works including the one I originally Googled, but still neither of the two I’ve previously posted.

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