Troubleshoot System declared dead, to reinstall, but questions

[jhald]

Briefly explain your current issue(s)

Has progresses to no boot even in safe mode, and now can't get it to open anythign from USB.

Steps taken to resolve, but have been unsuccessful

many for 3 weeks. Hardware checks, several virus and malware scans, assistance here with FARBAR . . . told to reinstall.

I have been told to reinstall system, which I will as a last resort . . but I still have some questions that I would like to clarify before giving up in a repair, as I have MANY programs installed which I may not be able to reinstall.

Can you answer a few questions for me before I give in . . . as I still think this was/is virus caused as it has been getting progressively worse and worse as I work in it.

1) If the system does not reboot when commanded after doing a function as Restore, does that restore take hold after I have to do a hard off and re power to attempt a boot, or is it lost because of no proper reboot?

2) When choosing to boot Recovered Windows System, I get message that cannot start because, ...system32\Winload.exe is missing. Could this be the issue?

3) Can I put the hard drive in an external case in order to connect with a different system through USB, to do more troubleshooting with it? Perhaps to totally eliminate anything wrong with the hardware?

Vista OS

Any input will be appreciated.

 

[jamescv7]

Question 3: Yes you may check your hard drive and retrieve any files as possible using Enclosure, then scan for possible bad sectors that may probably cause damage to your PC.

Question 2: Due to bad failures of boot problem, corrupted files may exist and in order to fix that then a bootable CD OS should done for that.

Question 1: Usually as computer suffers error and no automatic action made then likely make a manual reboot and activate bootable drive.

 

[WinXPert]

1. When you do a System Restore, what windows does is replace replace your registry hive with whatever was saved on your saved Restore Point

• Default
• Sam
• System
• Software
• Security

in addition to that executables (exe, pif, etc) are also restored. Documents remained untouched.

With a successful (or even unsuccessful) restore, your PC will have the registry hives coming from the registry point you have chosen.

2. Don't have a Vista to check for that specific file. But here's a workaround with that. If you have your Vista installer DVD, locate the file Winload.ex_. Expand that one at the CMD prompt

EXPAND SourcePath\WINLOAD.EX_ DestinationPath\WINLOAD.EXE

Try replacing the corrupt/missing winload.exe with the one you expanded.

3. Best you can do with that is perform a CHKDSK and do some scanning.

 

[WinXPert]

A few questions: Can you boot in Safe Mode? Try System File Checker. Make sure you have the DVD used to install your Vista.

sfc /scannow

Can you undo your last Restore? Worth taking a shot and start from there.

Good Luck