Black screen on Vista install with new HDD

[diggauk]

I had a computer (Toshiba Satellite P200 17C) in last week which was failing to boot, which I suspected to be a BSOD. So I ran the chkdsk which found errors and fixed them.

Windows now starts to boot and stops at a black screen a few seconds after the Vista logo appears. So I ran some HDD diagnostics and found that there were bad sectors, and that SMART had been tripped.

I advised the customer that a new HDD would be needed, which he agreed to. I took an image of the drive whilst I could, and ordered the replacement.

HDD arrived yesterday. I installed it, booted with UBCD 4 Win and copied the image back. So far so good. Rebooted and still the same problem!!!

Ok, so I wiped the new drive and started with a fresh install, and here's the problem. The process starts normally, and goes through the black screen with the grey bar along the bottom loading files. Once the bar gets to 100% the screen goes black, and the computer locks up. The only way to restart is to hold the power button for 5 seconds.

I've tried the following:
Different memory
Different CD Drive
Different restore disk

All produce exactly the same thing, black screen and locked up.

I've reset the BIOS to defaults and tried changing the various limited options. There is a new BIOS available from Toshiba, but can only be installed via Windows!

Any suggestions would be a great help. Thanks

Pete

 

[Larry Sabo]

Try the following:
Step #1 - Boot to Ubuntu Live Cd or the distro of your choice…
Step #2 - Navigate to and Mount your harddrive
Step #3 - Navigate to windows/system32/winevt
Step #4 - Rename Logs to Logs_old
Step #5 - Create a new folder called Logs
Step #6 - Reboot to a working vista

 

[TechguyUK]

Are you using a Vista install disc or a recovery disc?

I had something similar the other day on a Sony Vaio where the Vista 'recovery disc' wouldn't repair or install correctly so i ended up using a Vista retail disc to do a fresh install which then went on fine.

--
TechguyUK

 

[diggauk]

Hi Guys. Thanks for the advice, sorry for the delay in posting a reply, it's been one of those weeks.

It turns out that there was a problem with the MFT (possibly viral). The first thing I done was to copy the image of the old drive on to the new one which copied the problem back across, and as soon as the drive was accessed, the problem showed up.

What I did in the end was to low level format the new drive and reinstall from the recovery disk. This got the computer back up and running smoothly. Once working, I could then load DriveImage XML and browse the mirrored image to get all the user files back in to their rightful places. I guess because I was accessing an image instead of the actual drive, the problem didn't appear????

SO the computer is working fine now. Before I returned it to the customer, I thought I would try Larry Sabo's suggestion of clearing the logs. So I put the old drive back in, booted with Mint Linux, mounted the drive and renamed the Logs folder, then created a new empty one. Unfortunately, this didn't cure the problem. Thanks for the tip anyway.

So has anyone else come across this boot problem? Is it viral? Forgot to mention as well that I booted with the Avast BART cd, and it didn't recognise the old HDD, so couldn't run a scan that way.

Anyway, thanks for the advice, and one to remember for next time.