If Windows Vista is not starting on your pc, there are many tools you can use to fix the problem. There is a nice tool called WinRE (Windows Repair Environment… including Startup repair. [Startup Repair is a tool that automates diagnostic and repair tasks of unbootable Windows Vista installations] ). Windows Error Recovery starts and runs automatically upon boot, startup Repair can be launched as a manual recovery tool from a DVD, (Start WinRE by booting to Vista OS Backup Media DVD)
Startup Repair will try to repair computers that are unbootable because of the following reasons:
• Registry corruption
• Missing or damaged system and driver files
• Disk metadata corruption (MBR, partition table, and boot sector)
• File system metadata corruption
• Installation of problematic or incompatible drivers
• Installation of incompatible Windows service packs and patches
• Corrupt boot configuration data
• Bad memory and hard disk hardware (detection only)
When starting from a CD/DVD or the F8 (Advanced Boot Options – Repair your computer) you can manually launch Startup Repair and other recovery tools.
Lets say you have NTOSKRNL.exe is missing or corrupt flagged.
1. Start Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE).
2. During Startup Repair, at the Do you want to restore your computer using System Restore? message, click Cancel.
3. Computer restarts, Startup Repair runs again for a total of three times.
4. At the Startup Repair cannot repair this computer automatically screen, click Don’t send.
5. In Windows cannot repair the computer automatically screen, click View advanced options for system recovery and support.
6. At System Recovery Options, click Command Prompt.
7. At the Command Prompt, type C:, and press ENTER.
Type bcdedit, then press ENTER.
8. Under the heading Windows Boot Manager, verify “default {default}” exist.
9. Type, bcdedit /delete {default} then press ENTER.
10. Type, bootrec /rebuildbcd then press ENTER. Answer Yes to any prompt by pressing y, then pressing ENTER.
Note: If this is run without deleting the default entry… the procedure fails.
11. Type exit then press ENTER.
Click Restart.
Say Startup Repair runs automatically
1. Startup Repair attempts to locate and resolve issues with the computer.
2. When prompted with Do you want to restore your computer using System Restore?, click Restore.
3. In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Finish.
Computer restarts… If the problem was resolved, the computer restarts into Vista… If the problem was not fixed, the error may present itself again.
1. Run Startup Repair again.
2. If Startup Repair runs more than three (3) times, you are prompted with View advanced options for system recovery and support.
3. Then select one of the following:
System Restore
Command Prompt
Last resort – Recovery Manager.
(Recovery Manager is not available if accessing WinRE via Vista OS Backup Media DVD)
If ya wondering “Why would Vista launch Windows RE instead of Vista”… well at startup, the Windows loader sets a status flag to indicate that the boot process has started, and this flag is typically cleared before the Windows logon screen is displayed. If the boot attempt fails… the flag is not cleared. The next time the computer starts, the loader detects the flag and assumes that a boot failure occurred. When this happens the loader launches Windows RE instead of Windows Vista.