Windows 7 not booting, bcd error

[jfd492]

Hello everybody

 

I'm trying to repair my mom's acer laptop. From what she tells me it was just sitting and idling and when she came back, it crashed and would not boot up. It is an Acer aspire 5749 with windows 7. It is giving a boot\bcd error. (0xc000000f)

So far i have tried following the directions on the screen, which was booting from the windows 7 cd and it doesn't help, the same problem keeps occuring. Adittionally, i have tried searching for a solution online and followed sites such as :

 

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/20864-mbr-restore-windows-7-master-boot-record.html

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/927392

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-windows_install/total-identified-windows-installations-0/52359f87-de4a-41dc-b0c3-cc275e1d9fbf

 

Here are some pics of the screens if they help. Right now i am suspecting 2 things that could've happened:

1) hard drive failure (however in cmd it shows as "healthy")

2) windows 7 is corrupted

I could simply re-install windows or get a new drive, however if possible i would like to save and restore the original files.

 

Here are some pics of the screens if they help:

 

 

 

Thank you for any help!

[mrswagbhinav]

If I were you I'd clear the drive and install Linux

[ionbasa]

You can do a repair install. Follow the guide here: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

 

The only deviation from the guide is that you will be booting from the DVD/USB. Once you boot from the install media continue at step 11.

You may lose installed programs, but all files and documents will remain intact.

[jfd492]

cant log in to windows, the system doesn't boot

 

 

[Tallix]

Does your mom need any files that are on the computer? If she does, then you can get them off using Linux on a USB stick. After you've done that, I would say just try reinstalling Windows.

Or, like mentioned above, you can try installing Linux if your mom's needs aren't too complicated.

[jfd492]

The files aren't needed, but i was going to try and save them if i can. It's mostly small stuff like pictures, music and documents. I haven't heard of using linux... would you mind explaining how i would do that? Do i install linux on a flashdrive and then boot from it? I'm wondering if there are even any salvageable files left because it looks like (C:) is empty

[Tallix]

Follow the instructions on this page and then boot from the flash drive you have created:

 

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows

 

After booting, it should be relatively self-explanatory to get to the files and save them elsewhere, or even upload them to a cloud backup service like MEGA (the flash drive should include Firefox).

 

If you're going to save the files to some external device, make sure you save them to another one besides the bootable USB flash drive, because the bootable flash drive will erase any changes to the storage on shutdown.