If Windows 7 won’t start normally, your first
troubleshooting step is almost always to start the system in Safe mode.
When you make it to Windows 7, you can investigate the problem and make
the necessary changes (such as disabling or rolling back a device
driver). But what if your system won’t even start in Safe mode?
Your next step should be
booting with the last known good configuration. And if that doesn’t work
either? Don’t worry, there’s still hope in the form of the System
Recovery Options, a utility that enables you to launch recovery tools or
access the command line.
Here’s how to use it:
1. | Restart your computer.
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2. | At the Windows Boot Manager menu , press F8 to display the Advanced Boot Options menu.
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3. | Select the Repair Your Computer option. System Recovery Options prompts you to select a keyboard input method.
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4. | Click Next. System Recovery Options prompts you to log on to your computer.
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5. | Select
the username and type a password for an Administrator account on your
computer, and then click OK. The System Recovery Options window appears,
as shown in Figure 1.
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The System Recovery Options window offers you the following five tools to help get your system back up and running:
Startup Repair—
This tool checks your system for problems that might be preventing it
from starting. If it finds any, it attempts to fix them automatically.
System Restore— This tool runs System Restore so that you can revert your system to a protection point.
System Image Recovery— This tool restores your system using a system image backup.
Windows Memory Diagnostic— This tool checks your computer’s memory chips for faults.
Command Prompt— This tool takes you to the Windows 7 Command Prompt, where you can run commands such as CHKDSK.
All of this assumes that
you can boot to your PC’s hard drive. If that’s not possible, you can
still use the system recovery tools by booting to your Windows 7 DVD.
Here’s how it works:
1. | Insert the Windows 7 DVD.
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2. | Restart your computer.
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3. | If your system prompts you to boot from the DVD, press the required key or key combination.
Tip
If
your system won’t boot from the Windows 7 DVD, you need to adjust the
system’s BIOS settings to allow this. Restart the computer and look for a
startup message that prompts you to press a key or key combination to
modify the BIOS settings (which might be called Setup
or something similar). Find the boot options and either enable a DVD
drive-based boot or make sure that the option to boot from the DVD drive
comes before the option to boot from the hard disk. If you use a USB
keyboard, you may also need to enable an option that lets the BIOS
recognize keystrokes after the POST but before the OS starts.
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4. | In the initial Install Windows screen, click Next.
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5. | Click the Repair Your Computer link. System Recovery Options prompts you to select your operating system.
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6. | Click
your Windows 7 operating system and click Next. System Recovery Options
runs through the various tools, beginning with Startup Repair. |
