Boot config is corrupt

A few weeks ago I restarted my computer, only to see that it somehow got totally fucked in the process- now it goes straight to startup repair and fails, telling me that the boot configuration is corrupt.

So I figure I’ll try to reinstall windows from my Win 7 disc. I pop it in the disc drive, turn the computer on, nothing happens. It just goes to startup repair again.

What the fuck do I do? I’m not even half-sure, but I think my hard disk may have head crashed.

Is ‘boot from CD/DVD’ enabled in BIOS?
/asking the obvious

I’ll have to check. If it’s not, what do I do to make it so?

I’m pretty shitty with this kind of computing. I can’t even make DOS commands work right.

There should be about 3 boot devices listed and one of them should be CD/DVD. Make that the first boot device to be sure.
After saving and rebooting it should display something along the lines of “press any key to boot from CD/DVD” after POST. Then you press the “any” key and it boots from the disk (disc?).

[EDIT] It’s past 2am so I’m off. Good luck fixing ur PC.

Well, the bios is in english, so should be pretty straightforward.

You can as well just try if your mobo supports/has enabled boot menu, try pressing F12 or something nearby (varies across the board) during post, it should even list the hotkey if you have quiet post disabled.

When I pressed tab, the BIOS flashed on screen for a second and then it went to startup repair.

What the fuck.

From this I assume you have some fancy looking image as “loading screen”. In that case, pressing tab just shows the normal post screen, and then proceeds to boot from the primary device.

To enter the bios either use del, insert or F2. Del used to be the normal hotkey for award and ami bios, but since I pretty much only use notebooks with different hotkeys since ~10 years, best to try all 3.

F10 F11 or F12 could be assigned to the Boot Selection menu; if you try those, you wouldn’t even need to go into BIOS, you can just choose if you want to boot from the CD or hard drive.

This happened before to me in a different way I suggest you either have a saved copy of what your computer had from a while ago or if that does not work they’ll simply have to do a system file cleanout and install a fresh new copy of windows.(aka your files gone reinstall everything)

This has to do with the boot.ini if you messed with it, it can easily destroy the computer on the next start up.

Thanks for all of the suggestions, I’ll try them.

I could have easily fixed this already if I ever bothered to make backups, but that never happened.

EDIT: I’m reinstalling windows now.

Turn on your PC and try the following (one key per attempt, press it like a mad mofo)

DEL
F10
F12
ESC
F1
In that order

If you don’t get into the bios after that it’s because your PC is too old for legacy USB support, get a ps/2 keyboard.

When you get into the bios try advanced startup settings or just try every menu until you see boot order or 1st boot device etc and make sure CDROM is the first device, not USB-CDROM, or any other option.

of if I bothered to reply earlier :stuck_out_tongue:

Light your computer on fire

After that, it should stop turning off erratically.

lol but no, i’m pretty sure what sersoft said should fix it, I haven’t seen one thread where his advice didn’t help(:

Well reinstalling windows was a failure. It got about halfway done then told me the installation disc was fucked up.

Windows 7 64 bit. I told it to install the Ultimate version. Should I try installing Home Premium/Ultimate instead?

I doubt it will work, but if there’s anything left to try I’d assume it would be that.

just burn another disc

if the disc is not corrupted you might have dead ram/cpu/hdd

XP FTW

Your computer sucks then.

Glad I didn’t build it.

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.