Windows boot issues

Hi there,

I wasn't quite sure where to start this thread, so I figured I'd just drop it here. My dad is having some serious trouble getting his computer to boot up. Basically, he keeps getting stuck with two choices: one is an option to "start recovery" or something similar (which doesn't actually fix anything and just loops him right back to the same menu), and the other is "start Windows normally." When he tries to boot normally, the system starts loading, but then the PC just restarts itself and lands right back at those same options again... It’s essentially refusing to load the OS entirely. Does anyone have any idea what might be causing this or how we could fix it without having to go through a full Windows installation? He's running Windows 7 on this machine.

Is anyone there?? :/ I need some help, please.

Windows is completely trashed. You’re gonna need a Windows 7 installation media to attempt a repair... but honestly, before you even touch that, you should probably boot into Linux from a live DVD or USB to rescue your files.

The boot data is fried. You could try running Fixmbr and messing with the bootloader, but last time I dealt with this exact mess, nothing worked except a clean reinstall.
If there's anything actually important on there, just pull the data using a Linux live USB or DVD and dump it onto an external drive.
Look, if you aren't really comfortable with this kind of stuff, you might want to just ask someone who actually knows what they're doing. Trying to mess with Fixmbr and all that other junk is a slow, agonizing process that'll just drive you up the wall... 😁 .

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S series via Reddit

Maybe give Hiren's BootCD a shot too - https://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd

A few years back, I ran into this nightmare with my Windows 7 / Linux dual boot setup—basically, once I wiped the Linux partition, my Windows drive just went totally MIA. Hiren's had this killer tool on it that let me recover that Windows partition without any drama, though I can't recall the exact name since that CD is packed with everything under the sun.

Look, your issue isn't an exact match to what happened to me, but honestly? It's worth a shot—nothing to lose, right? Just grab another PC if you need to download it and burn it to a disc.

Jamie Adams6 - the whole mess you're dealing with happened because when you wiped Linux, you basically nuked the bootloader you installed alongside it too. Windows doesn't exactly play nice with Linux... it just ignores it, which is why you've always got to install Linux last if you want things to actually work.

Another way to handle it—if you'd known ahead of time—would have been to grab a little utility in Windows called "EasyBCD" before deleting anything. That would've let you set Windows back as the primary bootloader so you wouldn't be stuck staring at a broken screen right now.
I've heard rumors that Microsoft has been making it easier to boot Linux directly from their own loader since Windows 8 rolled out, but honestly, I haven't had the chance to actually test it out myself...

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S series via Reddit

Yeah, that’s exactly what went down—and man, I didn't even suspect the bootloader was going to be such a massive headache. Hiren's tool fixed everything in a heartbeat, which was honestly the first and last time I ever had to touch it, but hey—maybe among those million different tools there's something that could help rustytrucker37 out. Probably not, but what's the harm in trying? He probably just nuked it and reinstalled Windows already anyway.

Thanks so much to everyone for putting in the time and effort; I finally got it sorted out! It turns out I didn't even need to go through the hassle of a clean macOS installation after all. A quick run of "fixboot" and "fixmbr" did the trick instead. Cheers!