Startup Repair -- how long is too long?

Anonymous
2010-03-17T13:27:39+00:00

I'm trying Startup Repair on a Windows Vista laptop that won't start up after having reportedly been shut down normally, after what sounded like a Trojan attack.  (Not sure what happened to it exactly, but my friend wasn't running antivirus software!)

Startup Repair says "Repairing disk errors. This might take over an hour to complete," but it's been running for about 9 hours now, and trying to Cancel it yields the message "The current repair operation cannot be cancelled" -- is it still actually doing anything? Would it be worth it to let Startup Repair run any longer?

Thanks

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Performance and system failures

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2011-02-04T04:23:51+00:00

Sorry for not getting back to this thread at the time. In the case of the laptop I was having trouble with, the hard drive had to be replaced. I don't know whether the HD was the cause of the original problem, or shutting down the Startup Repair process damaged the HD.

Was this answer helpful?

100+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

42 additional answers

Sort by: Newest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2010-03-18T05:46:28+00:00

    The laptop is a Toshiba Satellite A305-S6905 running Windows Vista Home Premium (32 bit, SP1). It went off warranty on March 6.  In attempting to boot up under Safe Mode, it seems to get stuck on crcdisk.sys, which I see is a fairly common complaint on the forums. I attempted to run the Toshiba Restore tool to run it back to its out-of-the-box state, but that appears to have made things worse! It still gets stuck on crcdisk.sys, but doesn't offer the same recovery options.

    I'm going to take it in to my work IT department (at a college--they deal with student machines all the time) and see if they can do a repair.

    Thanks for your answer though, Lorien!

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2010-03-17T17:27:15+00:00

    I think 9 hours is much more than enough time for Startup Repair to work - it may take a little over an hour but certainly not 9.  If you can't cancel the Startup Repair, power down the system by holding down the power button until it turns off.

    Then if the system still won't bootup, try running Startup Repair again (if it goes for more than 2-3 hours it's once again frozen and you'll have to power down again).

    Can you boot into safe mode by repeatedly clicking on the F8 button during bootup and then selecting startup with networking from the menu?

    Do you have a genuine Windows Vista Installation Disk (and if not, can you borrow one from ANYONE) or do you have only an OEM Recovery Disk (or perhaps only an OEM Recovery partition)?

    Is your laptop still under warranty?  What make and model is it?  What version of Vista are you using (bit size, SP number, name and version)?

    How we proceed depends on the answers to these important questions.

    Thanks and good luck!

    Lorien - MCSE/MCSA/Network+/A+ --- If this post helps to resolve your issue, please click the "Mark as Answer" or "Helpful" button at the top of this message. By marking a post as Answered, or Helpful you help others find the answer faster.

    Was this answer helpful?

    4 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments