Vista does not start up: Unable to locate component

Question

Blue screen on startup:

STOP: c0000135 {Unable to locate component}
This application failed to start because winsrv was not found. Re-installing
 the application may fix this problem.

I'm guessing hard drive fault, does anyone agree?

Booting to Ubuntu from another partition took a very long time, but worked.

What are my options here besides getting a new Hard Drive and installing some windows on it?

Answer 1

I would first run some HDD diagnostics. Try Ultimate Boot CD and see if there are any tools that can help you diagnose the errors. You could also visit the manufacture of your hard drive and see if they have downloadable disk utilities.

Also consider running some motherboard tests incase it is faulty memory MemTest86 or MemTest+ should be able to diagnose memory errors (NOTE: They are also on the Ultimate Boot CD)

Answer 2

Driver Issues! possible a virus.

Can you boot to safe mode?

if not your going to have to: recover your data with knoppix or ubuntu then restore using the build in partition or recovery disk.