Windows 8.1 machine not booting

Post Reply New Topic

Woke up this morning to my laptop not wanting to turn on. Something about the start up being damaged or some such.

Every repair option has something to do with being able to get into Windows and make repairs. I can't. If you tell me to, I can't and won't be held responsible for what I say or do. I also don't have a CD drive NOR the Windows installation CD OR the key. Gave to get that...in Windows!

I tried restarting a couple of times. Only things that I got it to do was start in bios. It just bypasses the "windows startup is damaged" screen.

Running 8.1 on an Asus laptop.

Any help would be appreciated!

And you'd think that either one of my friends who know something about computers, one with a goddamn master's degree would be able to help. Guess they're not up yet, they're thinking, "not my monkeys..." or they're looking for the information. Odd they can recall where to find Star Wars RPG information instantly but when I need help with my computer...

s'pose that's what I get for having 18 friends on Facebook.

48 people looking, not a one has a clue...

1. Boot off the recovery drive that you thoughtfully created earlier and put on a usb stick.
2. Run Startup Repair off the recovery drive.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... =windows-7

Blue Windows logo with the circle of dots and black screen forever. I'm even more useless than I thought.

Your other option is to download Linux (ubuntu is the most popular, but any Linux will do) onto a CD (if your laptop has a CD drive) or a USB stick. You would want to download a "linux iso" (google it) and download and use an iso-to-usb (or iso-to-cd) program. There's a program called Rufus, which does this.

When you have Linux on a CD/USB, go into your boot settings and enable Legacy Boot Mode (whatever it's called), disabled Fast Boot if that's there, and move USB and CD up in the boot order list. Save and exit. You are then asked to enter a 4-digit code shown on the screen next time you boot up.

After that, you put the Linux CD/USB in your machine and boot from it. Some laptops make you press F5, F6, F9, or F-something-else to boot from a CD/USB. When you get Linux running, you can scan your hard drive for issues there and potentially repair it (I can't remember how to start a scan from Linux but on my version, there was an icon in the start bar at the top, which gave me things I could do with the hard drive), if the hard drive being corrupt is the issue.

Other than that, if you don't have a Windows install CD or recovery disk/USB then there's not a lot else you can do. Maybe a PC repair shop can install Windows for you.

Sorry, couldn't bother reading your post since you didn't read mine.

A master's degree has nothing to do with being a computer technician.

We're not the ones who think that a master's degree makes you a computer technician.

Get rid of Windows.

End of problem.

The steps in his post apply to your situation, too. every time he mentions CD, he also mentions USB stick. It often makes sense, when providing advice about a situation like this, to give broad advice so that other people who may be interested but have a different hardware setup can take advantage of the suggestion.

But if you just want to be angry and fight with people and not take any steps to recover your system, it's a choice you can make.

Agreed. In the rare case when I want to examine a Windows system, I'll usually boot from a Linux CD and use that to examine the drives.

The other option is to move the drive to another system as a secondary drive, boot the system, and use the OS from that computer to examine the drive.

Of the two, booting from a Linux CD seems to work the best.

Are you trolling us?

No surprise your feel your friends treat you "not my monkeys...". I wouldn't give a damn about someone who can only complain when people try to help them and acts as if everyone was obliged to help them when they need help. Noone owes you anything. Deal with it.

In any case - the best you can do right now is taking the laptop to a computer repair service. They will know what to do. But it will cost you money.

There are some tricks you could try before doing that but I am afraid of suggesting them because you will only attack me if I share my ideas.