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My notebook has not been able to boot into Vista recently. This happened after I restarted my computer today, due to a Windows Update prompt. Additionally, before the problems arose, I also updated iTunes and QuickTime and installed Mobile Mouse; however, that's just today, and it's been a long time since I've rebooted my computer before today.

I have let Startup Repair run many times, with no luck; additionally, I have used System Restore to return to a restore point on the 29th, a RevoUninstaller point. That was successful because I have no restore points after that now, and had none before. However, my problem persists.

I attempted Safe Mode with Networking, which also failed, but it strangely showed that C:\Windows\SysWOW64\speedfan.sys was the last file loaded before the freeze and crash into Startup Repair. Speedfan.sys is related to Speedfan.exe, a program for monitoring system temperatures that I installed a while ago. I did not think it should load during Safe Mode. I then used del "C:\Windows\SysWOW64\speedfan.sys" to delete the file. Safe Mode still failed to boot, with a different file at the end. In Startup Repair again, all the Restore Points were back; I chose one today, as I updated iTunes. Again, did not resolve the problem. I tried to delete speedfan.sys again with an error telling me the directory was incorrect. I rebooted into Safe Mode, and speedfan.sys was indeed loaded again, right before Startup Repair.

From Startup Repair, problem details are as follows:

Problem Event Name: StartupRepairV2 Problem Signature 01: AutoFailover Problem Signature 02: 6.0.6.000.16386.6.0.6001.18000 P.S. (abbreviated, obviously) 03: 5 P.S. 04: 589833 P.S. 05: Corrupt File P.S. 06: Corrupt File P.S. 07: 3221226536 P.S. 08: 2 P.S. 09: SystemRestore P.S. 10: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.256.1 Locale ID: 1033

I have Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit. P.S.: Sorry if there is no formatting. It appears correct in Edit mode on my iPod.

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1 Answer

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Exactly what happens when you try to boot normally?

Run a chkdsk from Recovery Environment.

See this article to get to a command prompt in the Vista recovery environment, once there run this command, be patient it will take some time to complete, do not interrupt the process.

chkdsk /r C:

EDIT: I may be crashing because the driver is missing, just deleting the problem driver does not work, it has to be taken out of the registry as part of startup. Microsoft has a boot CD with tools to disable drivers properly, it is called ERD commander, a version for each OS, XP, Vista, ect, not publicly available though it can be found.

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When I try to boot normally, I get the Gateway screen, then the "Aurora" image (the NoGUI boot setting), followed by the regular progress bar on black (letting me know the boot has failed), then the startup repair automatically initiates, then will invariably fail, asking me to send a report to Microsoft. I have run chkdsk on C:, but it seemed to stop at 50% on Stage 4 of 5 (file data, I think), after 3 hours of which I manually shut down and rebooted. – ariphas Jul 1 '11 at 3:35
I think you have failing sectors on the hard drive, I would connect the drive to another PC, copy your important data off, then replace the drive and reinstall windows. – Moab Jul 1 '11 at 13:59
I have run chkdsk from the Startup Repair (I don't have a recovery disk). It ended with a message, failing to transfer to a log at status 50 (something like that). Other than that, nothing seems to have been found to be wrong. Speedfan.sys still loads in Safe Mode, when I do a System Restore which I assume restored that file. If I delete it, it will load up to the point where speedfan.sys would have loaded, then ceases and goes into Startup Repair. – ariphas Jul 1 '11 at 19:13
I may be crashing because the driver is missing, just deleting the problem driver does not work, it has to be taken out of the registry as part of startup. Microsoft has a boot CD with tools to disable drivers properly, it is called ERD commander, a version for each OS, XP, Vista, ect, not publicly available though it can be found. Not sure what you can do now that it is deleted, re-install I suspect. – Moab Jul 1 '11 at 20:15
I tried uninstalling speedfan from the cmd, but I still cannot boot into Vista. I copied "null.sys" into various places where speedfan.sys may have been, including the SysWOW64 folder; indeed, speedfan.sys shows when I try to boot into Safe Mode, but it still is unable to boot. I am able to at least boot into Ubuntu, which works. Is there a way to fix the problem from there? I know Wine can run some Windows applications, although Revo Uninstaller doesn't seem to work, but I can access Vista's files. If I could get ERD commander, how would I disable the drivers? – ariphas Jul 2 '11 at 16:04
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