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6 Posts
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585
Inspiron 7520 won't boot
Hi all,
I know this an old laptop which still runs Windows 7, but my kid uses it for watching youtube, so I would really appreciate any help with this.
It was working perfectly fine until a few days ago when I was looking for an empty USB stick and found what looked like at a bootable one. So I plugged it into this laptop, booted from it and it turned out that it was a Windows 7 installation media I used few years ago for reinstalling Windows on this laptop.
Then I wanted to boot back to the installed OS, but was welcomed by BSOD, which was not happening until now. Any further reboot attempts as well as entering recovery mode and executing "Startup repair" yielded nothing. "diskpart->list disk" revealed that it doesn't detect HDD at all!
After that I've booted from Hiren rescue disk, launched partitioning tool and it could see HDD and all it's partitions. It couldn't see contents of C:\ (i.e. partition containing OS), but after running chkdsk that problem was fixed, and I could see that all files and Windows folder was intact. However, attempts to reboot still ended with BSOD, and diskpart couldn't see the HDD if launched from Window's recovery menu.
Then I went to BIOS and tried changing SATA operation from IRST to AHCI and IDE. In those modes diskpart could see the HDD and all it's partitions, and I could browse the contents in repair's command line, but I was still getting BSOD (though, error code was different) on boot. Also "System recovery options" GUI was not listing any installed OS.
Executing "bootrec /fixmbr" yielded nothing.
Furthermore, now I cannot even boot from the very same USB disk which caused the issue - the boot seems to ignore my selection of USB as a boot device, and attempts to boot from HDD. So I cannot neither boot the existing OS, nor re-install it...
PS. BSOD error code in IRST mode is "STOP: 0x0000007E iastorA.sys - Addres ... base at ....". Error code in ACHI mode is "STOP: 0x0000007B"
ejn63
10 Elder
10 Elder
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23.1K Posts
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May 17th, 2022 08:00
Given the age of the system, before proceeding you should run an extended diagnostic (including a surface scan -- this will take several hours on a spinning drive of any sizes). If the drive fails, replace it before proceeding.
It sounds very much like the drive has bad or marginal sectors in the media.
kalyna
6 Posts
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May 18th, 2022 22:00
Thank you for the reply.
I run the surface scan, and it didn't find any issues whatsoever.
I've also tried renamin iastora.sys to .sys.old, as well as replacing it with freshly downloaded one, but the BSOD persisted nevertheless.
AdrianG001
4 Operator
4 Operator
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4K Posts
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May 19th, 2022 00:00
Perform a hard reset.
Turn off the computer.
Disconnect the AC adapter or power cable from the computer, and remove the battery (for Dell laptops with removable battery).
NOTE: For Dell laptops that have a nonremovable battery, see the Dell knowledge base article How to reset Real Time Clock (RTC).
For Dell laptops with removable batteries, see the User Guide for your Dell laptop for step-by-step instructions to safely remove the battery.
NOTE: On select Dell Latitude laptops, try to recover the laptop using the forced ePSA method from a POST or boot failure. To learn more, see the Dell knowledge base article How to Use Forced ePSA to Recover from POST or Boot Failure.
Disconnect all devices such as USB drives, printers, webcams, and media cards (SD/xD).
Press and hold the power button for 15 to 20 seconds to drain residual power.
Connect the AC adapter or power cable and the battery (for Dell laptops).
If your Dell computer can turn on but is unable to boot into Windows, identify the symptoms and follow the appropriate troubleshooting guide.
ejn63
10 Elder
10 Elder
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23.1K Posts
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May 19th, 2022 03:00
At this point, it's time to reload Windows.
kalyna
6 Posts
0
May 19th, 2022 03:00
Thank you for suggestion, AdrianG001. I removed the battery as described, but nothing has changed...
I've also performed virus scan, just in case, but no infections was discovered.
ann_droid
1 Rookie
1 Rookie
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223 Posts
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May 19th, 2022 03:00
Hi
If you can boot a Hirens USB, then I would suggest Linux Mint to see if it can mount any
partitions and access the USER data. NB: Mint probably does youtube.
https://linuxmint.com/download.php IT RUNS LIVE, so no HDD overwrite.
Substitute any reference to Lenovo to HP or Asus or DELL.
Cuz the screenshot is from my HP.
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Equally old and probably useless ....
The principle applies.
https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/?s=2c2cb36b834b3bf046fdc43bfab8a03f
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So, as I dont currently have a Dell, I ""recycled"" it recently as Dell did not recognise the service tag anymore, I am guessing a little bit.
But there ought to be a BOOT MANAGER screen option, pointing the the HDD ...
Which then passes over to the BOOT LOADER ....
That may be crossed/corrupted.
~~~~~
It is possible, hopefully from DOS, to assign a drive letter ..
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/manually-assigning-a-drive-letter-using/bbb3baf6-cda4-4d06-b431-eae9e975a5c7
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So please establish your ability to create a Bootable media, use AnyBurn preferably.
Then to find/mount a HDD.
Then we try to move forward from there .....
If in doubt please ask.
kalyna
6 Posts
0
May 19th, 2022 07:00
Looking at this partition table, I wonder if it is normal the IRST's 8GB SSD is not formatted?
kalyna
6 Posts
0
May 19th, 2022 07:00
The thing is, I cannot even reinstall Windows because it refuses to boot from Win 7 installation usb. It is extremely weird, because it can boot from multitude of rescue disks/usb I've tried, and other PC can boot from this USB. Moreover, this whole problem has started after I booted from this installation usb.
At this point it looks like the only option is ditch Windows and install Linux.
kalyna
6 Posts
0
May 19th, 2022 07:00
Thank you for reply, ann_droid.
I can access all partitions and their contents both from Hiren disk, as well as Linux based Kaspersky rescue disk.