sunshinehand

I agree with you guys... nothing I've been trying has been working. Just curious, why would chkdsk on another system be different? I don't have the proper cable/equipment for that right now, but I can probably get it in a week or so.

Thanks for the reply, I would try that, but my computer can't even get to the point where I can press F8. It only shows the initial BIOS screen, with the F2 and F12 options. After that, it just shows a black screen and I can't do anything much except make it beep if I press a key too much. Also, no, it didn't come in a set :/

I see what you mean. I am pretty sure I don't have that, but I'll dig around. I managed to recover most of the files on the hard drive using command prompt and a usb drive, so I'm okay with wiping the drive if necessary now. The disc I have does have a startup repair function and a reinstall Vista function, but neither of those functions have worked for me, so I'll look for that full operating system disk

Okay, I think I might have that. It's labeled "OPERATING SYSTEM", and under that "ALREADY INSTALLED ON YOUR COMPUTER" "Reinstallation DVD - Windows Vista Home Premium 32BIT SP1" Does that sound like the right kind of DVD? I know its the right version and SP of Vista.

Update: I tried repairing bootrec, then tried replacing it. No luck :/ I'm out of ideas...

It didn't work... I'm going to try running a bootrec command. Do you think that will work? If that doesn't work, how would I acquire a full copy of Vista?

Ugh, I hope it doesn't come to that... I guess it's better than nothing, though. I can't afford a new laptop :/ It just finished replacing bad clusters and now it's on stage 5, verifying free space, and it's taking literally forever... 915,607 / 44,328,448 free clusters processed and counting, but it has long pauses. I will post again when it finishes.

Thanks, haha, sorry for being impatient. It hasn't finished yet... it's been going this whole time. 101385/148336 files completed, and it's been replacing bad sectors the whole time. I think the problem came when the power failed in my house and the laptop shut off. I was doing some searching, and do you think running some form of bootrec would solve the problem if this fails? Again, sorry for being impatient :)

No, I understand. Thanks for your guys' help so far.

Update, I'm running "chkdsk c: /f /r", and it's taking a while on step 4 replacing bad clusters, if anyone is interested... I'll post results when it's done.

I just ran startup repair again, and it said "cannot repair this computer automatically" The report: Problem Signature 01: ExternalMedia Problem Signature 02: 6.0.6001.180000.0.0.0.0 Problem Signature 03: 0 Problem Signature 04: 65537 Problem Signature 05: unknown Problem Signature 06: CorruptVolume Problem Signature 07: 0 Problem Signature 08: 1 Problem Signature 09: Chkdsk Problem Signature 10: 5

Just did... It said, Windows has found no problems on the file system. It also ran it in read-only mode because "the F parameters were not defined" "3086 KB totak disk space 4 KB in 9 indexes 0 KB in bad sectors 2485 KB in use by the system 2048 occupied by the log file 597 KB available on disk 512 bytes in each allocation unit 6173 total allocation units 1195 allocation units available on disk Failed to transfer logged messages to the event log with status 50" I tried the "chkdsk C: /f" command, and it started "deleting corrupt attribute record"s... Also said 45 reparse records were processed. It deleted some index entries... that seems more satisfying "231031807 KB total disk space 376 KB in bad sectors 65536 KB occupie dby log file 177318032 KB available on disk Failed to transfer logged messages to the event log with status 50" It made some corrections this time. What do you think? To be honest, I'm not sure what I am doing.

Hi, I have an Inspiron 1525 Dell laptop (never buy one, by the way, the exteriors don't last). Here's my issue: 1. I try to start up the computer, but Vista doesn't load. It just shows a blank black screen indefinitely (or at least for 20 minutes) after the initial Dell/BIOS splash screen. 2. I figured it was an issue with Vista, so I put in the reinstallation CD and tried to run Startup Repair, but Startup Repair also ran indefinitely (or at least for over 4.5 hours) I think it's a hard drive issue. Possibly the information on the hard drive needed for the next boot can't be read. Also, when I try and do a system restore or complete PC restore (using the Vista reinstallation CD), it tells me that I have no saved recovery points, which makes me think that the recovery points are on the hard drive and can't be read. I usually look around for forum posts before I post on one myself, but the internet hasn't helped me here. Can someone help me? Also, I would like to keep the files on the hard drive, if possible... It would be a huge pain to replace the files that were on it. Thanks, -Sonny