Vista not booting

T.F.S.B.I.G.W.S.

I have SP2 installed but, as regards a repair install, it looks like a bit of a minefield deciding which way I should go

Lucero_2

So there's nothing in the BIOS about setting the hard drive (SATA mode) to IDE or ACHI?

The only drivers you should need to install are those for your hard drive, available from the manufacturers website.

TakeThis

T.F.S.B.I.G.W.S. wrote: »

I have SP2 installed but, as regards a repair install, it looks like a bit of a minefield deciding which way I should go

The SP2 disc is needed to do a Repair Install on an SP2 installation.

T.F.S.B.I.G.W.S.

I felt this had gone on for long enough and I bit the bullet and did a full restore. The problem has not gone away - unbelievable after all that!

T.F.S.B.I.G.W.S.

Sorry I don't know much about setting the hard drive (SATA mode) to IDE or ACHI. I just hoped that the restore would solve the problem.

Lucero wrote: »

So there's nothing in the BIOS about setting the hard drive (SATA mode) to IDE or ACHI?

The only drivers you should need to install are those for your hard drive, available from the manufacturers website.

Lucero_2

A restore from your disks should really have worked.

I'm sure you have seen what keyboard button to press to get into the BIOS (normally, DEL, F2, or ESC, although can be F10 as well). It will tell you when you 1st turn the PC on. Look for something that says:

Press xxx to enter Setup

That's what you want.

In the BIOS, perhaps in one of the sub menus (depends on your motherboard) you'll see a setting similar to this:



Set it to IDE or ACHI (the opposite of whatever it is set at).

Save the changes and exit

T.F.S.B.I.G.W.S.

Thanks Lucero may be that's worth a try. As the discs took my pc right back to factory settings (I have downloaded countless updates - one which has failed to install is "Explorer 9 for Vista"; the install fail messages seem to coincide with alerts from Avast (I usually run AVG) which warn that it has blocked a trojan. I must create a restore disc from current settings to prevent all those updates in future recoveries) I could not help believing that this is a hardware issue

TakeThis

T.F.S.B.I.G.W.S. wrote: »

Thanks Lucero may be that's worth a try. As the discs took my pc right back to factory settings (I have downloaded countless updates - one which has failed to install is "Explorer 9 for Vista"; the install fail messages seem to coincide with alerts from Avast (I usually run AVG) which warn that it has blocked a trojan. I must create a restore disc from current settings to prevent all those updates in future recoveries) I could not help believing that this is a hardware issue

Can even be a BIOS infection. Read about a similar problem with AMIBIOS firmware in the past.
BIOS updates can be risky if you aren't suitably prepared.

Did you use Restore Discs or a partition?

T.F.S.B.I.G.W.S.

I used restore discs. They are discs which I created not long after I purchased the pc. They totally overwrite the hard drive. All files have to be saved to an external drive (mine were - of course). Do you advise that I do not mess with the BIOS?

Lucero_2

It's not the scare fest it used to be with most manufacturers making it suitably easy these days.

Confined to history are the days of writing to floppy disks and upgrading through the BIOS. Certainly depending on the machine (manufacturer and age) it will be a one click operation within Windows itself.

Check the BIOS version you have now, see if there is a later version listed on the manufacturers website, download, run