Windows 7 not booting - 0x0000007b - stuck in startup recovery loop

cubegame

I'm having a problem with my Windows 7 Dell netbook. Whilst running the other night I encountered a BSOD with a 0x0000007b STOP error (no other details).

Since, it won't boot to Windows (even in safe mode). Instead it goes to Startup recovery. This generally goes through the searching for problems and fixing problems stages. Sometimes it says it's repaired and sometimes it doesn't. Whatever the outcome, it still doesn't boot.

Having tried a few diagnostic boot discs it appears that the Dell recovery partition and the OS partition had somehow become overlapped. I fixed this using a partition utility and have run various other recovery type stuff (chkdsk, bootrec etc) to no avail.

All files on the disc seem to be ok but I would prefer to exhaust all avenues before reinstalling a new copy of windows.

Any ideas?

closed

Assuming no underlying problem with the hardware or hard disk, a reinstall is probably going to be the easiest cure, assuming your factory restore partition is working, or you have previously created or got the Dell W7 disc. If you have no backups, you can get your data off by using a bootcd.

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/rk-express/download_old.html

Overlapping partitions sounds strange, which piece of software identified and fixed this?

robmar0se

from your description the MBR maybe corrupted, have a read of this, but always make sure you have back ups available.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/20864-mbr-restore-windows-7-master-boot-record.html