laptop boots up wrong

[eishiba]

I don't know much about computers but Ill try to explain. I have a Dell Studio laptop. Im sure there are lots of studios but I don't know this specific one. It has a label that says "Intel Core 2 duo" if that helps. I recently got one of those virus's thats the FBI thing where it basically says you have been doing illegal stuff and expect you to pay money. I was able to go into safe mode because the virus doesn't let you get into your stuff, i went into safe mode and did the advanced recovery option where you start your computer from an earlier save point. This fixed the issue. A week later it happened again, so I attempted the same methods but now this isn't working. The computer constantly boots to start up repair. I try to hit f8 to go into safe mode but it doesn't let me do that. It also has an f2 and f12 option but they don't get you to any recovery or safe mode options. The start up repair mode does let you look at the recovery options after it runs the test thing. I can't seem to skip past all of this to the long in part or anything. There is the same recovery option to choose an earlier date but for some reason it says there aren't any dates. What can i do? This is a vista computer. I couldn't tell you if it was 32 or 64. The computer is rather old and Id like to avoid reloading vista onto the computer because I like to do macromedia flash 8 things and from my past expieence in reloading a operating system, you have to reload macromedia and you can't open any of the files from the older operating system for some reason.

I've added the "problems detail" that the start up repair shows.

Problem Event Name: Startup repair offline
problem signature 1: 6.1.7600.16385
problem signature 2: 6.1.7600.16385
problem signature 3:unknown
problem signature 4:28
problem signature 5:autofailover
problem signature 6: 1
problem signature 7:missing os loader
os version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1
locale id: 1033

Not sure if that will help anything.

 

[steves85]

Sounds like your boot partition is corrupt.

As an alternative, you could try taking your hard-drive and connecting to another pc to try and access your saved files. If startup repair is not working you may not have a choice but to reinstall.

 

[Yevrag35]

The computer is rather old and Id like to avoid reloading vista onto the computer because I like to do macromedia flash 8 things and from my past expieence in reloading a operating system

This tells me that you have the Vista installation media, correct? If you do, pop in the disc like you would to install the operating system.

At the install windows screen, instead of clicking install now, choose the "Repair your computer" option.

It will then scan for existing windows installations, when it finishes go the next option (it is doesn't find any installations at all, then we have a problem).

It should give you the advanced recovery options, in which case choose the command prompt one.

In the command prompt window type the following:
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /fixmbr

See if this lets you boot normally, and try to get back into safe mode.

The reason the Restore your computer worked was because the virus was probably on your computer already for some time. At a certain, predetermined, time, the virus's code told it to go into effect and lock your computer down. Restoring the computer to a week earlier fooled the code into thinking it was, in fact, 7 days before the predetermined time, so it went to inactive state (make sense?).

 

[eishiba]

This tells me that you have the Vista installation media, correct? If you do, pop in the disc like you would to install the operating system.

At the install windows screen, instead of clicking install now, choose the "Repair your computer" option.

It will then scan for existing windows installations, when it finishes go the next option (it is doesn't find any installations at all, then we have a problem).

It should give you the advanced recovery options, in which case choose the command prompt one.

In the command prompt window type the following:
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /fixmbr

See if this lets you boot normally, and try to get back into safe mode.

The reason the Restore your computer worked was because the virus was probably on your computer already for some time. At a certain, predetermined, time, the virus's code told it to go into effect and lock your computer down. Restoring the computer to a week earlier fooled the code into thinking it was, in fact, 7 days before the predetermined time, so it went to inactive state (make sense?).

The laptop i bought years ago as used so no there is no vista cd for it.