PC not booting after windows updates

[OJBestJ]

Hello,
when I restarted my PC yesterday it had to do some windows updates, but it the windows updates failed and it tried again and again in an endless loop. I decided I had no choice and switched the PC off and restarted.

Since then everytime I let it boot normally theres just a blackscreen with a blinking underscore when the windows loading logo should appear. I'm able to access BIOS but nothing else.
After some time I decided to try to wipe the HDD, but when I'm trying to enter the setup from the windows boot CD it stops at like 1/5 of the loading screen and after a long time it says that there was an error at communicating with my HDD or CD.

My guess is there is something at fault with my HDD. Can I test if it is still working or repair / wipe it and make it work again somehow?

(BIOS still detects the HDD and CD btw.)

 

[carnageX]

What OS are you running? Have you tried booting into Safe Mode?

Instead of using a CD drive, I'd recommend creating a USB installer if you have Win7 or greater. This can be done with this:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/windows-usb-dvd-download-tool
You'll just need access to another computer to create the USB tool with, and either have your Windows install disc handy or have access to an ISO for the version of Windows you have.

 

[OJBestJ]

The PC is running windows 7.
I did try to boot in safe mode but it's not working.

I already found another way of wiping the HDD (repairing probably takes too much effort), the main problem is now how to get my data back though, there is a lot of important and unfortunately not backed up information and I need to get it back.

Is there a do it yourself way to get the data on my laptop somehow or do I need to buy a HDD to USB? will that even work?

 

[Baez]

If the drive isn't corrupt or damaged in any way, your best option is to create a live Linux USB using something like LiLi, pull all important files from the drive, and reformat it.

 

[carnageX]

I hope you didn't wipe it already. If not, then you can do what Baez suggested and extract your data via a Linux LiveCD and put it on an external device, such as another flash drive or external HDD.

You can also try installing Windows on top of your current install, by going through the installer and choosing the same partition WIndows is currently on, and without formatting, just click Continue and it will warn you that an existing copy of WIndows exists there, and that it will be moved to the Windows.old folder.

 

[OJBestJ]

what am I supposed to install? I used the 15.04 Unity Ubuntu and I got an error starting up from it.

 

[Baez]

You don't install anything. A LiveCD or LiveUSB runs from the disk or flash drive, not your hard drive.

Here's a tutorial on how to create it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhqV8SYL4AY

Once that's finished, restart your computer and boot from the USB drive (usually boot menu is F8 or F12). Ubuntu will give you the option of running a live version or installing. Choose live and you'll be loaded into the OS. After that it's just a matter of grabbing the files off your windows drive.

 

[OJBestJ]

well, thats exactly what I did. My question was which of the 10000 OS possibilities I should use. I've tried Ubuntu and Linux Mint now and both dont work.

 

[Baez]

Ubuntu should work just fine. You'll need to give details or screenshots of what isn't working.

 

[OJBestJ]

Nothing worked at all so I decided to wipe the HDD.
When I tried to install windows again I got error messages that led me to believe the RAM was at fault and it actually was.