Windows 7 won't boot?

So, I went to fire up my laptop this morning, right? Everything starts normally—the system begins booting, that classic Microsoft logo pops up... and then, nothing. Just a black screen staring back at me with this message:
Windows has encountered a problem communicating with a device connected to your computer.
This error can be caused by unplugging a removable storage device such as an external USB drive while the device is in use, or by faulty hardware such as a hard drive or CD-ROM drive that is failing. Make sure any removable storage is properly connected and then restart your computer.
if you continue to receive this error Message, contact the hardware Manufacturer,
File: \boot\cd
status: OxcOOOOOrt
info: an unexpecpted i\o error has occured

I'm kind of at a loss here. Does anyone have a clue what's actually going on or how I can fix this mess?

The way I see it, some Windows file probably got corrupted—so you might need to run a system repair using an installation disc.
You could also try jumping into the BIOS and setting your hard drive as the primary boot device, then just saving those settings to see if that does the trick.

Is there any way I can run ScanDisk to check my drive and fix whatever errors might be lurking in there?

You certainly can, but like I mentioned before—you’re going to need a Windows installation DVD to boot the computer from and then kick off the repair process.

Alright, I'll give the repair tool a shot and see what happens.

Same thing happened to me last month. Just popped in a USB drive with Windows, ran the repair tool, and everything was back to normal after that. 🙂

Or maybe the drive is just on its last legs and riddled with bad sectors...

That's an easy fix. Like I said before, I got the exact same error message and running the repair tool sorted everything out. 🙂

Looks like I'm staring down some bad sectors here. It’s got me wondering if there's a way to break into the command prompt since my Windows won't even boot up. I was thinking about typing in chkdsk /r C: to see if it can hunt down those bad sectors and isolate them.

If it gives you the option, why not try booting up into Safe Mode first? It might just save you a lot of headache!