# Vista sp1 won't load. drive won't restore



## nayslayer

Wouldn't be antivirus software. If you have installed windows 98, or xp, this is much easier. The problem is that you will lose any think you have saved on the old drive. If your up for it, just buy a Western Digital serial ata drive and install it on there, you could slave the old drive later on and try to get some of your info off of it. So if you have the disks, i'd just buy a drive and install with the hp disks, and after its up, i'd run pc decrapifier, great app to clean all the bloated apps off


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## nayslayer

well, after re-reading you post, you probably should take advantage of the warranty. They are really never a great idea, but use it if you get it, don't usually get your money back from those pos


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## rgsgww

Its the hard disk, must have failed. I'd use the warranty.


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## sv9779

Thanks, I think you're right. Just have to decide if I want to ship it off or just buy another drive. Cost is the same. I leaning tward just buying a drive.


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## rgsgww

sv9779 said:


> Thanks, I think you're right. Just have to decide if I want to ship it off or just buy another drive. Cost is the same. I leaning tward just buying a drive.



Do you have sata ports? (Kind of stupid I know, the computers only a year old.)


Buy a sata drive. What do you do on this computer? high end tasks lean towards 10k rpm hardrives, normal tasks lean towards 7200 rpm drives.

Western digital and seagate are some of the good brands to look at.


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## sv9779

rgsgww said:


> Do you have sata ports? (Kind of stupid I know, the computers only a year old.)
> 
> 
> Buy a sata drive. What do you do on this computer? high end tasks lean towards 10k rpm hardrives, normal tasks lean towards 7200 rpm drives.
> 
> Western digital and seagate are some of the good brands to look at.


 

Yes it's SATA. 7200 is what it has now. We don't do anything special on it. 200 to 300 gig is around $60.00


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## crawdoogie

If your computer runs from the hard disk then the disk is probably fine. Don't send the PC into HP, you "have a 5 yr warranty at the store you bought it from.", take it there. If they can't fix it then it's their responsibility to send it out on their dime. Ask them what procedures/protocols do they follow to diagnose/ repair systems under warranty. You should also read the warranty as well so you know what is expected of them.
Some things that you can do: 

1. uninstall any third party firewalls or turn off windows firewall if thats what your using. reboot

2.Take a look at this HP website and follow directions to get restore to work or do a full system recovery.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&cc=us&docname=c00850095&dlc=en

3. Run Disk Clean UP. See

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-us/help/1264bc24-72a8-48aa-84e3-a355327139d91033.mspx

In the *Disk Cleanup Options *check all files
In the* Disk Cleanup: Drive Selection* select drive usually "C"

In the *Disk Clean up tab* select everything except "compress old files" if shown
In the *More Options tab:**Programs and Features* uninstall any programs that you don't use.

4.Run System File Checker. For more info go here:

http://vistasupport.mvps.org/system_file_checker.htm

5. Run Checkdisk .

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-us/help/bc1393cf-9f9c-79c7-0f91-9337c2c41f811033.mspx

6. It's very likely that virii or spyware is causing the problem.
Download and run SuperAntiSpyware free edition here:

http://www.superantispyware.com/download.html

and Malwarebytes Anti-malware

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download5756.html 

It say $25 but that's if you want to buy the real time protection using it as an on demand scanner is free.

If any of the above freeze reboot the PC (alt-ctrl-del) or hold the power button down for 5 seconds.

Post back with updates on your progress (or lack of )

Other thoughts:
-is system restore service enabled?
-drive full
-loose SATA/IDE cable
-any error codes
-look in event viewer
-enable adminstrative access to run system utilities like Restore
-do a HP System Recovery as a last resort. HP System Recovery restores the entire software configuration back to way it originally came from the factory.You will have to reload all updates and software installed after initial start up.


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## sv9779

Thanks for all the help. I'll let you know how I make out. Unfortunatly the store I bought it from is 200 miles away. That's why I would have to ship it for repair. I bought a sata to to usb adapter. I was thinking I could save all my info to an old hard drive then take the sata drive out and put it on my old pc using the usb port and try to reformat the disc on that pc (running XP). Then put it back in the HP and see if the restore disc will work. I think you might be right about the drive being ok. Seems funny that everything works except restore and recovery and updates.


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## rgsgww

sv9779 said:


> Thanks for all the help. I'll let you know how I make out. Unfortunatly the store I bought it from is 200 miles away. That's why I would have to ship it for repair. I bought a sata to to usb adapter. I was thinking I could save all my info to an old hard drive then take the sata drive out and put it on my old pc using the usb port and try to reformat the disc on that pc (running XP). Then put it back in the HP and see if the restore disc will work. I think you might be right about the drive being ok. Seems funny that everything works except restore and recovery and updates.


I usually ditch that hp software pre loaded on the disk. I would get an adapter (like you said) and copy to some sort of storage device and reformat your disk to a fresh install of any operating system. Then copy the old data back to the drive.


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## sv9779

[
-do a HP System Recovery as a last resort. HP System Recovery restores the entire software configuration back to way it originally came from the factory.You will have to reload all updates and software installed after initial start up.[/quote]


I can't get the restore discs to work. They start to load then the computer just sits there with a flashing curser. I slipped an old ata drive in there as the c drive and installed the restore discs and the menu came right up ready to format and restore the drive. 

I just did a scan with SuperAntiSpyware and just found a bunch of cookies. I disabled the firewall and antivirus still no luck.

My fear is that if I reformat the drive in my other computer and there really is something wrong with it I won't be able to get this computer up again. Maybe I should wait until I'm ready to buy a new hdd or to ship it off if all else fails.


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## crawdoogie

> I can't get the restore discs to work. They start to load then the computer just sits there with a flashing curser.


Actually the disk is spinning but your optical drive is not reading anything, that plus you cannot access the hard drive indicate that your disk drivers are corrupted.
You need to uninstall all of the disk drivers in Device Manager and then reboot your system. Window will automatically reinstall those drivers as it restarts.

To uninstall the drivers go to *Control Panel > System >Then click the Hardware tab > Device Manager.*

In *Device Manager* find:

"*IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers*" and click on the *+* next to it. It should expand a bunch of "Primary/Secondary IDE Channel" and several "Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller" listings. You will need to right click on each, then choose uninstall and click OK. Do this until all drivers are removed.

Next go to *DVD/CD-ROM drive* > click + to expand > then right click / uninstall/ OK for all the drivers listed.

Next go to *Disk Drives* > click + to expand > the right click / uninstall / OK for all the drivers listed here.
Reboot system.

As your system restarts you will see notifications that Windows is finding and installing new devices which are the ones that you just uninstalled.

Post back with results.


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## rgsgww

What he said...your optical drive drivers are not working...try reinstalling them with his steps...

If that fails you might need to try a new drive.


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## sv9779

I just finished the System File Checker. the report came back. 

"Verification 98% complete. Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files unable to fix some of them. "

???????


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## sv9779

crawdoogie said:


> Actually the disk is spinning but your optical drive is not reading anything, that plus you cannot access the hard drive indicate that your disk drivers are corrupted.
> 
> The drive will run other discs ok. I can load other programs. I can burn a cd or dvd.


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## crawdoogie

Hmm. Optical drive works, just not with the system restore CD. yeah skip the driver uninstall for now.

System file checker 
Verification 98% complete. Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files unable to fix some of them.

Is there more to the above message?

Anyway see if you have this log file

_C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log_

if you do open it a copy and paste it here.
-----------------------------------------
Make sure the BIOS is selecting an optical drive as the first boot device. 
Then try reboot with repair CD in the drive


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## sv9779

When I try to go to the log at "_C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log"_
It comes back "access denide"

I should also mention that the hard drive has a partition that holds the same back up files as the recovery discs. It won't load from there either.


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## crawdoogie

Googling "*Verification 98% complete. Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files unable to fix some of them."* shows that many Vista users have had this problem which in a sense is good because it makes it easier to find a solution.
Go to:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929833

In the RESOLUTION section you have already run *sfc /scannow* so move to the next section and go from there.

It seems that your problem is that your account on your Vista system doesn't have permission to access files that have been corrupted. The corrupted files in your case are most likely the ones used for Windows update and System Restore and maybe others.This fix finds the files that SFC cannot fix, has your take ownership of them so that you can replace them.
See if this fix works. If you have any problems post back.


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## sv9779

thanks for the help, I'll give it a try


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## sv9779

Can't seem to get the Sfcdetails.txt file to come up in the viewer. I guess the good news is that if it's a corrupted file, reformatting on my other computer should get me back to a good drive. The SATA to USB adapter I ordered should arrive in a few days. I'll keep you all posted. 
Thanks for all the help


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## crawdoogie

If you reformat the drive in another PC you may lose your HP repair partition and its possible that the drive won't work with HP's OEM version of Windows Vista. It would be better to have a retail copy of Vista if you plan to go this route. So before you go that route :

-Try uninstalling Service Pack 1

-Did you check in the BIOS that the optical drive (DVD/CD-R or whatever) is set to boot before the hard disk? *If this is not set then the PC looks to the hard drive first, It must be set to boot from the CD drive!* Then try to restore for the CD as follows:

1. Open the disk tray and shut off PC. 
2. With PC off load restore CD , close the tray, then power up the PC. 


HP system restore stuff here:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/fastFaqLiteDocument?lc=en&dlc=fr&cc=uk&docname=c00809678#


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## crawdoogie

sv9779 said:


> Can't seem to get the Sfcdetails.txt file to come up in the viewer. I guess the good news is that if it's a corrupted file, reformatting on my other computer should get me back to a good drive. The SATA to USB adapter I ordered should arrive in a few days. I'll keep you all posted.
> Thanks for all the help


Look for the Sfcdetails.txt in the Window root folder which usually is C:\
or use Windows search tool to find it. It should open with notepad.

Another way to read the cbs.log file is to simply copy/paste it into another folder like My Documents. The copy will have no restrictions to open. You may have to click the Continue button to provide administrator permission to copy after the Paste command. 
The cbs.log file may be huge though (like 20-30 Mb)


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## sv9779

crawdoogie said:


> Look for the Sfcdetails.txt in the Window root folder which usually is C:\
> or use Windows search tool to find it. It should open with notepad.
> 
> Another way to read the cbs.log file is to simply copy/paste it into another folder like My Documents. The copy will have no restrictions to open. You may have to click the Continue button to provide administrator permission to copy after the Paste command.
> The cbs.log file may be huge though (like 20-30 Mb)


 
Well I did a search for Sfcdetails.txt and found it. I tried to open it in wordpad but nothing came up just the wordpad with a blinking curser.


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## crawdoogie

Answer this please...

Have you checked the boot order in the BIOS? It must be set so that the optical drive is first.


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## sv9779

crawdoogie said:


> Answer this please...
> 
> Have you checked the boot order in the BIOS? It must be set so that the optical drive is first.


 
Yep it is... When I subbed in an old ATA drive the discs worked fine. The restore menu comes right up and ready to go.
I just found an old 60 gig ATA drive. Think I'll take out the SATA and try loading up the ATA as the master and see how it does. Just have to find the time to play with it.


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## crawdoogie

Just trying to figure out why the Recovery CD/drive won't boot with the SATA drive but will with an old ATA one and want to make sure not to have overlooked anything. 

Vista is a lot tighter with security/permissions. For some reason the programs that are not working on your PC (windows update. SFC, System Restore)are being denied access to the files needed for them to function. 

I'm assuming that you have tried using HP's Recovery Manager which is accessed by clicking Start > All Programs > PC Help & Tools > Recovery Manager.

Take a look at this page also and run through HP's steps on doing a clean install of Vista if you haven't before.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&docname=c00814731#

also what model is your HP PC?


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## sv9779

Model is an HP Pavillion A6030n. When I called HP tech support we went through that recovery method. When that didn't work they said I needed to buy the restore discs. So I did. When those didn't work they sent me another set just in case those were bad. Niether set works. It would be nice to get it going without reformatting, but sometimes I think it's just better to start over.


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## sv9779

Just an update for all those trying to help. I took out the SATA hard drive and put in an old ATA hard drive. I inserted my restore discs and it worked ok. ( to a degree) It reformated the drive. Copied all the Windows files and other factory programs to the drive. But when it tried to reboot it was unable to boot from the drive. I tried checking the bios to make sure it was booting from the correct drive and that seems ok. Maybe you can't have a "C" drive on the ATA bus in a SATA computer???? Soooooo I put the SATA drive back in and added a RAID controler so I could add another ATA drive and I started backing up all my info from the SATA drive to an ATA drive. I havn't tried to reformat the SATA yet on my other computer. I want to have another SATA drive ready to go in case It won't work after I format it. Can't help but think there might be a problem with the drive and if I erase it all I'll have is an empty drive that I can't restore. 
I'll keep you updated on progrees. 
Thanks to everyone for all your help.


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## crawdoogie

Hi again sv 

You don't need RAID drivers to run multiple SATA drives as single drives. You only need the RAID drivers when you run the drives in a RAID array. You do need SATA drivers though.

The HP recovery disks can not do a full install, they can only repair or restore the Vista software that came pre-installed by HP. This is probably why the ATA drive won't work using the HP recovery disk and also why you shouldn't reformat the SATA drive that has Vista installed on it by HP. 

The following website has info about creating a recovery disk that may allow you to access the OEM recovery partition on your SATA drive. 

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/141820-create-recovery-disc.html

Or if you can get your hands on a copy of a full retail Vista DVD (friend maybe?) try using it to repair your system files.


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## DangerMouse

sounds to me like bad sectors on that drive, windblows won't install on it if so. or there are truncated/crosslinked files. get new HDD and try again. there are HDD tools that MAY restore the drive, but it's hit or miss with them.

DM


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## sv9779

The HP recovery disks can not do a full install, they can only repair or restore the Vista software that came pre-installed by HP. This is probably why the ATA drive won't work using the HP recovery disk and also why you shouldn't reformat the SATA drive that has Vista installed on it by HP. 



So if i'm understanding this right..... even if I get a new SATA drive the recovery discs won't install the full Windows and the factory software load.


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## rgsgww

sv9779 said:


> The HP recovery disks can not do a full install, they can only repair or restore the Vista software that came pre-installed by HP. This is probably why the ATA drive won't work using the HP recovery disk and also why you shouldn't reformat the SATA drive that has Vista installed on it by HP.
> 
> 
> 
> So if i'm understanding this right..... even if I get a new SATA drive the recovery discs won't install the full Windows and the factory software load.



Not always, alot of discs ive seen come with the os. Can you boot from the disc?

If all else fails, don't go vista (unless you have something fancy...like tri or quad sli, etc. that wont work with xp...)


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## DangerMouse

the recovery IS the os cd. it will install to new HDD. rgsgww is right. although sometimes there is another cd or more with drivers needed as well. 
"If all else fails, don't go vista (unless you have something fancy...like tri or quad sli, etc. that wont work with xp...)" agreed, although my kid wants to play halo2 which, of course, needs it...... here we go again......

DM


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## sv9779

Think I'll send HP tech support an email and ask them what my discs are.


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## rgsgww

MdangermouseM said:


> "If all else fails, don't go vista (unless you have something fancy...like tri or quad sli, etc. that wont work with xp...)" agreed, although my kid wants to play halo2 which, of course, needs it...... here we go again......
> 
> DM



Haha, yeah I wish quad sli worked with xp...Windows vista x64 is not very good...Lockups, etc. updated alot of things. Some people said to change volts on the mobo, cpu, ram. No way, Im not going to fry my qx9650.


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## DangerMouse

vista... heh...... windblows "Longhorn" was better! and THAT took me all day to repair all the bugs before it'd work. 
same thing with XPCP, but i use it now that i fixed it....

DM


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## rgsgww

MdangermouseM said:


> vista... heh...... windblows "Longhorn" was better! and THAT took me all day to repair all the bugs before it'd work.
> same thing with XPCP, but i use it now that i fixed it....
> 
> DM



Linux is way more stable...but I can't play any of my games! wine doesn't do anything for my games...

Right now I have a triple boot with ubuntu 8.10 x64,vista x64, and xp x86


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## sv9779

Just an update on my problem. I bought a new hard drive and installed it. The restore discs worked just fine. I loaded everything up and put the old drive back in to start copying my data. I decided to do a virus scan with the new McAfee's I downloaded from AT&T. (they give it to you free with the DSL service) I had done several scans with the Norton that was on the old drive. The McAfee's came up with a program that was called "pup-x" It said it may have been installed with a program or could be malicious. I had nothing to loose so I had the virus program delete it. After that I put that drive back as the master and tried the restore discs again. They worked! Updates worked again. Things seem to be fixed. Im going to leave the new drive in place and start over anyway, but nice to know it wasn't a hardware problem.

Anyway, Thanks to all for your help.
Have a great New Year
Steve:yes:


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## rgsgww

sv9779 said:


> Just an update on my problem. I bought a new hard drive and installed it. The restore discs worked just fine. I loaded everything up and put the old drive back in to start copying my data. I decided to do a virus scan with the new McAfee's I downloaded from AT&T. (they give it to you free with the DSL service) I had done several scans with the Norton that was on the old drive. The McAfee's came up with a program that was called "pup-x" It said it may have been installed with a program or could be malicious. I had nothing to loose so I had the virus program delete it. After that I put that drive back as the master and tried the restore discs again. They worked! Updates worked again. Things seem to be fixed. Im going to leave the new drive in place and start over anyway, but nice to know it wasn't a hardware problem.
> 
> Anyway, Thanks to all for your help.
> Have a great New Year
> Steve:yes:


A virus? must have been pretty malicious.


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## sv9779

rgsgww said:


> A virus? must have been pretty malicious.


 
Here is what is says about it. 

*Generic PUP.x*

*By: *[COLOR=#f26522! important][COLOR=#f26522! important]webmaster[/COLOR][/COLOR]* | Under: **Unwanted Programs* 4 Jul 

Generic PUP.x is a generic detection used to identify malicious files or Potentially Unwanted Program that promotes unpopular or useless and counterfeit security programs.
*Aliases:*
-
*Risk Level:* Low
*File Size:* Varies
*Affected [COLOR=#f26522! important][COLOR=#f26522! important]System[/COLOR][/COLOR]:* Windows
*Common Symptoms:*
1. Security pop-ups or security [COLOR=#f26522! important][COLOR=#f26522! important]applications[/COLOR][/COLOR] installed without users intervention.


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## crawdoogie

Glad to hear that you figured out what was causing your problems and thanks for updating this thread as it will help others that have problems similar to yours. 
The lesson here is that no single security program will detect every threat out there. So it's a good idea to run other A/V, anti-malware, security programs at times especially if you are having problems. Trend Micro and Panda and others have on-line scanners that work well as a second opinion to your installed apps.
And take a look at Threatfire. It works differently that other AV software as it detects malicious behavior and doesn't depend on virus signature files like many other AV apps. It is very light on system resources and work alongside you regular AV.

http://www.threatfire.com/


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## DangerMouse

good post crawdoogie, i should mention another great freeware here---> www.avast.com

DM


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## sv9779

Thanks for the info. I just downloaded Threatfire and about to start a system scan.


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