Windows 7 will not boot: possible corruption!

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This is going to be quite a post, but here goes nothing:

I am running Windows 7 Pro 64-bit with SP1 installed, and until yesterday it was working fairly well. As many of you may know, yesterday was April Fool’s Day, and

I’m afraid my computer played quite the joke on me! It was business as usual, and I was dragging a folder to the Recycle Bin when my desktop icons suddenly vanished. I decided to try a few basic troubleshooting tips to correct this: I disabled and re-enabled the “Show Desktop Icons” option, I changed my theme a couple of times, I set my desktop icons to default, and I rebooted the computer. However, nothing seemed to work. I knew the icons were still there, because I saw them in my Desktop folder, and my taskbar and Start menu were fine. The only way I could make the icons reappear was to use the trusty Winkey+ P, and switch the display option from “Computer Only” to “Parallel” or “Duplicate.”

Running out of ideas, I quickly jumped online and searched our incredibly helpful forum. I found another post which suggested rebuilding the icon cache. I entered in the following commands verbatim in an elevated command prompt:

taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F
CD /d %userprofile%AppDataLocal
DEL IconCache.db /a
shutdown /r

I know I should have changed the “userprofile” to my username, but I didn’t realize that at the time. Anyway, the computer rebooted, but unfortunately, the desktop icon issue persisted. I decided to ignore it for the time being, and began syncing music to my iPod. A while later, there was a power outage, and my comp therefore shutdown unexpectedly. When I rebooted, Windows was all right. After checking to make sure nothing was out of place (besides the missing desktop icons) I shut down and left for several hours. Upon returning, I rebooted the computer and received my next April Fool’s Joke – Windows would not boot! The machine would load up the GUI boot screen, but then, instead of displaying the login screen, I would see a black screen with just my cursor visible, and then the computer would reboot. It continued to do this in an unending cycle of failing to boot.

I used every single boot repair I knew, starting with the F8 options: I tried Safe Mode and Last Known Good Configuration, both with the same results as if I’d booted normally. I ran the kernel debugger with no result, and I ran a memory test, but that came back clean. Naturally, Windows suggested that I attempt to repair it at the boot menu, so I decided to run Startup Repair. It found and attempted to repair an error, but was unable to do so. Thinking that the pre-installed files could be bad, I ran Startup Repair again from my genuine Windows 7 install disc, but the result was the same. The following error report was displayed when I requested further details:

Problem event name: StartupRepairOffline

Problem locations (I omitted some because they were either blank or unknown):
1.) 6.1.7600.16385
4.) 21202109
5.) External Media (This led me to believe there was some sort of conflict with the iPod, but I made sure nothing was plugged in when I rebooted other than my monitor, keyboard, and mouse.)
6.) 2
7.) No Root Cause

That last bit is somewhat contradictory, because further along in the error report, one root cause was found, and was listed as “Unspecified changes to system configuration might have caused the problem.” Perhaps the error was caused my attempt at rebuilding the icon cache? That is my best guess, because my computer passed every other check the Startup Repair ran.

Since Windows couldn’t repair the system, my next step was to use System Restore. However, there were no restore points available! For some reason, Windows wouldn’t let me access them, although I knew I had them, since Windows had created a restore point when I installed SP1. Since restore points were now no longer an option, my next plan was to restore from a system image I had made a few weeks earlier. I decided to refrain from that option, because I am hoping I may find a solution here that will fix my boot issue, rather than setting me back a few weeks. If all else fails, I can use my system image.

Since the repair options from the Windows install disc hadn’t worked or uncovered anything, and neither had the F8 advanced boot options, I moved to plan B. I have a separate hard drive with Windows XP and Linux Mint installed on it, so I decided to check my Windows 7 drive from there. I booted into XP and ran several virus, rootkit, and malware scans, including an exhaustive scan with McAfee’s free anti-virus tool. Every scan came back negative, so apparently there wasn’t any malware infection that might have compromised my main drive. I checked the drive for errors with XP’s built-in utility, and that also came back clean. So the disc was healthy, which confirmed the Startup Repair’s report that there were no bad sectors.

I was fresh out of ideas, so I decided to sleep on it and shut the computer down. When I rebooted this morning, I was unable to access my XP drive! When I selected XP from the boot loader menu, instead of booting XP up as usual, the screen moved to the Windows 7 boot GUI and then entered its boot failure cycle. So now, for some reason, the Windows 7 boot error has moved to my second hard drive and taken out my XP boot loader. I can still boot with Linux, so I can still access my XP and Win 7 partitions, in case I need to change anything in the boot folder or edit any configuration files.

Thus concludes my post; I’m sorry if it appears verbose, but I really wanted to cover the entire problem in great detail, just so that a solution may be found that much quicker. So is there a method I haven’t thought of yet that may yet save me from restoring or reinstalling Windows? I’m not sure what incited the issue in the first place, but I believe it was either my botched attempt at rebuilding the icon cache, the boot files becoming corrupted as a result of being unexpectedly shut down during the power outage, or even a delayed side-effect from installing Service Pack 1. I haven’t installed or downloaded anything recently (aside from updating Firefox) so I really don’t know the cause for this boot disorder. And why would Windows 7’s inability to boot suddenly afflict XP, which is on a separate hard drive? As I said, I’m completely out of ideas, and this April Fool’s joke has me entirely confounded!

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Hi Diogones,

Are you able to do a repair install as outlined in this SevenForums tutorial? If so, you can then create a fresh image backup before reinstalling Service Pack 1.

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I have to concur. A freash up to date Image may have restored your PC in about 10 minutes. Mine has too numerous times to count. The key here is Up To Date. When I make a change on my PC that I keep, I create a new Image and staore it with the older Images on my Ext USB HD. They when my “playing” muffs my OS, I pop in the Acronis Rescue media, reboot and restore my latest Image. Done in 10 minutes. How can you beat that.

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Thank you for the link Deadeye, but I’m afraid that solution – while very appealing- will simply not work. I must be able to log into an administrator account with Win7, and since I cannot even get it to boot up, I can’t complete that solution.

Do you mean a bootable CD when you mention Acronis Rescue media, Ted? I wasn’t “playing” with my OS, just simply using it. I was just trying to find out if there was a method to possibly undo the icon cache rebuild command, without having to resort to a full system restore. I can use my image restore, it just seemed like a blunt solution to me. Unfortunately, I simply don’t have the space to store multiple restore images, and I didn’t want to create an image before I rebuilt the font cache, since my desktop icons were missing by then. I’m not even sure if it was the SP1 installation that caused them to disappear, as I had installed it two weeks prior without incident. It just seems strange that my comp would be running fine, suddenly lose its desktop icons, and then fail to boot.

I suppose I will simply use my image restore, but I won’t install SP1 after I do so, just to be on the safe side.

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Yes, the Acronis Rescue Media is bootable, even if your OS is not. Simply plug it in and reboot. You will get the option to boot to Windows or to Acronis. Once you boot to Acronis you will have to point to what partition to restore (if your Image contains info on more than one Image, you can only restore one partition at a time), then point to the location of the Image (in my case that is a ext USB HD), then go for it.

You might try the Repair Installof Windows. Either insert the original installation DVD or a Windoes Rescue media (Repair media, not sure which is the terminology, can’t remember, sorry)

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Thank you for explaining Acronis and the restore process Ted. I think I might try it out as it sounds like a very useful program. Unfortunately, the repair install simply won’t work, as I can’t boot into Windows to log into an account to run the repair steps. However, I will use my image restore and hope that repairs the XP boot on my separate drive. I think it will, as XP isn’t damaged, it’s just that it defaults to the broken Win 7 boot sequence for some reason.

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I don’t think you have to boot into windows to do a repair install. Just boot from your Windows 7 DVD. Really what it amounts to is an upgrade install over your broken Win 7 system.

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Hey Sierra,

Are you suggesting that I boot from my Win 7 DVD and select install, and have it install over my existing partition? Would that be the repair/upgrade install you are referring to? According to the Windows 7 repair install tutorial, I have to be logged in as an administrator in order to run the repair. I cannot repair with the disc at boot or in Safe mode. Additionally, I would either have to uninstall SP1 or get a Win 7 disc with SP1 installed on it, as the repair install with a regular DVD will not work if Windows already has SP1 installed.

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I don’t think you have to boot into windows to do a repair install. Just boot from your Windows 7 DVD. Really what it amounts to is an upgrade install over your broken Win 7 system.

The only way to do a repair/reinstall of Windows 7 is to launch the installation while booted into Windows 7.

What you are suggesting will turn the existing installation of Windows 7 into a file named windows.old, which will not boot. It is only useful for retrieving files, and nothing more.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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My apologies, I just checked the thread where I received advice about the repair process and you are correct.

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Great news, everyone! I posted my problem on the Windows Seven Forums (sevenforums.com) and thanks to the expertise of SIW2, I was able to get a working solution! First, I downloaded Paragon Rescue Kit 10.0 and burned it to a CD. After I booted from it, I selected Normal Mode, and then File Transfer Wizard. From there, I was able to access all my files from my broken Windows 7 drive. I copied 5 hives – Default, Sam, Security, Software, and System – from windowssystem32configregback to windowssystem32config, replacing the hives that were there. Afterwards, I rebooted and Windows 7 was restored! I’m completely overjoyed, as I was afraid I was going to have to restore from my older disc image. I would like to make an image now, before anything else happens, but there is still one problem: the disappearing desktop icons! They are still gone, and even their placeholders are missing. I know they are still there, because I see them in my Desktop folder. Is there anything I can do to recover them?

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Just found this thread as I am looking to help one of my Dad’s friends with what appears to be the same problem. However it appears that the only way to get a free download of Paragon Rescue Kit is to like them on Facebook! I am not on Facebook and have no wish to be on Facebook. There is too much of this going around where Facebook membership appears to be a requirement. How can I get this free download?

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I have the following batch file on my desktop. I saved it as Rebuild Icons. (don’t remember where I got it.) Copy this and paste it into notepad, then save as Rebuild Icons.bat

@echo off
cls
echo The Explorer process must be killed to delete the
Icon DB.
echo Please SAVE ALL OPEN WORK before
continuing
pause
taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F
echo Attempting to
delete Icon DB…
If exist %userprofile%AppDataLocalIconCache.db goto
delID
echo Previous Icon DB not found…trying to build a new one
goto
:main

:delID
cd /d %userprofile%AppDataLocal
del IconCache.db
/a
pause
echo Icon DB has been successfully deleted
goto main

:main
echo Windows 7 must be restarted to rebuild the Icon DB.
echo
Restart now? (Y/N):
set /p choice=
If %choice% == y goto end
echo
Restart aborted…please close this window
explorer.exe

:end
shutdown /r /t 0
exit

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I have the following batch file on my desktop. I saved it as Rebuild Icons. (don’t remember where I got it.) Copy this and paste it into notepad, then save as Rebuild Icons.bat

I think the batch file had some word wrap errors and a typo (“goto :main” should be “goto main”) in the first section. Here is what I think is correct:

@echo off
cls
echo The Explorer process must be killed to delete the Icon DB.
echo Please SAVE ALL OPEN WORK before continuing
pause
taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F
echo Attempting to delete Icon DB…
If exist %userprofile%AppDataLocalIconCache.db goto
delID
echo Previous Icon DB not found…trying to build a new one
goto main

Of course, as one poster noted, “userprofile” should be changed to the actual name of your profile.

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Foomer, I too worked on a computer recently which had ALL file attributes set as HIDDEN! This lady’s computer had been virus infected, so I’m assuming that’s what the malware did. After removing the HIDDEN attribute, everything else fell into place.

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I think the batch file had some word wrap errors and a typo (“goto :main” should be “goto main”) in the first section. Here is what I think is correct:

@echo off
cls
echo The Explorer process must be killed to delete the Icon DB.
echo Please SAVE ALL OPEN WORK before continuing
pause
taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F
echo Attempting to delete Icon DB…
If exist %userprofile%AppDataLocalIconCache.db goto
delID
echo Previous Icon DB not found…trying to build a new one
goto main

Of course, as one poster noted, “userprofile” should be changed to the actual name of your profile.

Randy, perhaps there are some errors in the batch file I posted, as I said I do not remember where I got it, but you know it seems to work just as written for me and for the original poster.

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Hooray! The batch file worked! Thanks a lot, Ted, it really saved me a lot of trouble! :cheers: I’m going to mark this thread as solved.

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Great to hear you got it fixed. It is especially significant for me as I work on other people’s PCs, and I have long been a fan of Acronis True Image Home and also bought the Paragon Rescue CD. All these are good products, but I have moved away from Acronis to StorageCraft’s ShadowProtect Desktop, combined with their free Image Manager, for the following reasons:

Acronis TM (=True Image) has been very bad at managing its destination storage space. In spite of my repeated attempts to configure it to delete older versions, it would ran out of space and stop working. ShadowProtect (SP) is the descendant of Norton Ghost, but it has come a LOOONG way. Their server grade products are powerful and complicated, however the Desktop version is inexpensive and works well.

I have a pretty meaty PC, with 1TB C: drive, 1TB D: temp drive (2x500GB in RAID 0), and a 1.5TB backup drive.

When I tried TM to do an incremental backup of C:, it would take about an hour to determine what needed to be copied, even if the PC had been idle. In contrast SP can complete the entire incremental backup in 7 minutes! The Image manager can consolidate incrementals, so that I have daily hourly backups for 3 days, which are then rolled up on the 4th day to 1 per day, for 14 days. They then get rolled up to weeklies and kept for 6 months.

SP can be tried for 30 days, so don’t take my word for it!

Oh, and finally, I have no commercial interests in SP or any other program that I mentioned.

God bless, and happy computing, folks!

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Great to hear you got it fixed. It is especially significant for me as I work on other people’s PCs, and I have long been a fan of Acronis True Image Home and also bought the Paragon Rescue CD. All these are good products, but I have moved away from Acronis to StorageCraft’s ShadowProtect Desktop, combined with their free Image Manager, for the following reasons:

Acronis TM (=True Image) has been very bad at managing its destination storage space. In spite of my repeated attempts to configure it to delete older versions, it would ran out of space and stop working. ShadowProtect (SP) is the descendant of Norton Ghost, but it has come a LOOONG way. Their server grade products are powerful and complicated, however the Desktop version is inexpensive and works well.

I have a pretty meaty PC, with 1TB C: drive, 1TB D: temp drive (2x500GB in RAID 0), and a 1.5TB backup drive.

When I tried TM to do an incremental backup of C:, it would take about an hour to determine what needed to be copied, even if the PC had been idle. In contrast SP can complete the entire incremental backup in 7 minutes! The Image manager can consolidate incrementals, so that I have daily hourly backups for 3 days, which are then rolled up on the 4th day to 1 per day, for 14 days. They then get rolled up to weeklies and kept for 6 months.

SP can be tried for 30 days, so don’t take my word for it!

Oh, and finally, I have no commercial interests in SP or any other program that I mentioned.

God bless, and happy computing, folks!

I have been using Acronis Disk Director and True Image Home since TIH version 8, and have never run into any of these problems. And the ability to use DD and TIH from CD media has more than once saved an unbootable Windows installation from the scrap heap. But I am sure Shadow Protect and Paragon are also nice backup and recovery programs, as is Ghost and Macrium and Easus. Did I miss anyone’s pet program?

-- rc primak

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You can easily delete IconCache.db (and other files) with PureRa.
Get it from http://raproducts.org/wordpress/software

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Well I didn’t read through everybody’s reply post to make sure, but ummmmm? “As I said, I’m completely out of ideas, and this April Fool’s joke has me entirely confounded!” and “Sometimes you wish your computer were joking“… Started 4/2 ??? Diogones and Kathleen…

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Hi Diogones – wow, quite a story!

I have used “image for windows” from terabyte unlimited for about a year to image my 200gb Windows 7 Home premium partition, as well as other partitions as needed; they are imaged to my seagate freeagent 1.5 tb external drive nightly.
this program not only creates a complete image, but allows you to display any image available as a virtual drive, thus enabling one to copy any folder or file that has been corrupted or lost, as well as the entire system. I’ve had to do the former several times, and the complete system at least once, with no problems in any cases.

I have used bootit ng another terabyte unlimited program, since I first installed windows xp, in 2002. it allows dual boot, partition management, and imaging/backup. however the imaging/backup must be done under bootit, not windows. that’s why I got image for windows.

I have found support at terabyte unlimited *excellent*, with multiple email responses even over the weekend, there is no charge for program updates, and the programs do very well what they say they do.

I have no connection or relationship with terabyte other than as a happy customer.

Vern

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You can easily delete IconCache.db (and other files) with PureRa.
Get it from http://raproducts.org/wordpress/software

Once we knew what to delete, Windows itself, or a rescue disk if Windows is using the file, can be used directly to remove the unwanted corrupted file. No other software is needed.

-- rc primak

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For us Old Timers, all this is “Déjà vu”.

There are two, tried and true ways to recover from either a little Ooops, or a downright “OH NO, not again!”:rolleyes:

The first of course is the System Restore, found in Programs>Accessories>System Tools>System Restore
That can take you back several days to when things were working correctly.

Level 2 , is a full C: drive backup using either Ghost or Acronis True Image.
I’ve used both, but I still prefer Ghost 2003, for XP or Ghost 11.5 for Vista and Win-7.

I always run my backup software in DOS, from a boot disk of some type,,,,either a floppy disk, Flash Drive or CD. But never from within Windows.

With an up to date System Restore point, or a fairly recent C: drive backup, all problems with Windows seem a lot less traumatic, and easily rectified.

I download and test a LOT of software and some of it “does not play well with others”. So I wind up using my System Restore app once a week or so.

Just to insure that I have a fresh Restore Point when I need it, I run a script in my Startup folder, to force a new restore point every time I boot up my PC.

As a part of my cleanup procedure, before I do my weekly Ghost backup, I delete all the old restore points. A Ghost backup supersedes Restore Points.
But a total C: drive backup should always be preceded by a very thorough HD cleanup. I have batch files on my Ghost boot disk, to do this. I knock off about four gig’s of junk, before I do my actual Backup.

Cheers Mates!

The Doctor

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If you make an image it is a waste of time if you cannot restore it,
and you really need a bootable CD that can do the job even when Windows is totally dead in the water.
I have successfully used both Acronis and Macrium Boot CD’s for this purpose.
They can even restore a fully working bootable image to a brand new empty drive.
Other imaging systems should also provide corresponding Boot CD’s.

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I had a desktop PC 2 days ago that lost all it’s desktop icons (except for the main 3) … in fact, nothing showed up under the ‘All Programs’ option in ‘Start’ … AND nothing under the ‘Program Files’ folder in the C drive. It was as if everything was gone and a new user profile had been created. BUT … when I ran a scan for viruses, I could see it scanning all the programs and files that were on the PC previously. Ultimately what happened was that the ‘Hidden’ attribute had somehow been applied to all programs and file folders etc through (what I assume) what a Malwarebyte scan found (which did disinfect the PC). It did not make the icons, files, and folders reappear though, but did wipe out the infection. I then ran a System Restore far enough back to when I knew the system was clean and everything returned to normal … then ran a couple more malware scans to verify it was still ‘clean’. But it was surprising to change the Folder Options setting to show Hidden files (before the System Restore was done) and suddenly see the whole computer ‘re-appear’. Never had an experience like that before.

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Ted, I think the errors come from the way you copied the working batch file to the forum. For example, in your post you have two lines reading:

echo Please SAVE ALL OPEN WORK before
continuing

The first line would run correctly. The second would give an error message saying “continuing” was not a recognized command. This looks like a line wrap error.

As for “goto :main” vs “goto main”, both are ok. I’m just used to seeing it without the colon. You might notice that even in your batch file, one goto doesn’t have the colon and one does.

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Sorry, I must be going blind, I do NOT see 2 of the referenced lines. I guess the copy/paste format wrapped text in the attached, sorry again. Also sorry for the extra colon. As I stated I do not remember where this came from. I have attached the actual file with all formating as it actually is on my desktop:

27736-RebuildIconBatch

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The notepad version looks exactly correct. Just an oddity in the first post, maybe because it was in a box. No need to apologize.

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Hooray! My thread got popular! Thank you all for your multiple software image backup suggestions – clearly, there is no shortage of them in the Windows community! If there is one thing this thread has taught me, it is to keep a more concurrent image available at all times, no matter what.

That’s a good point you brought up about image backups dan.b: they have to have a bootable media tied to them, or there is no way to access and restore from that image.

That is a very interesting situation you both had hdulak and foomer; a virus infection that marked your files as hidden? Thankfully, I did not suffer from such a malady, and needed only to follow Ted’s icon rebuild script.

Yes, Bob, you did miss a pet program – Dr. Who’s Ghost!

Speaking of which, I ain’t afraid of your Ghost, Doc! But I’m happy you are sharing it with others. :^_^:

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Read my post again, Diogenes. I did mention Ghost.

To each their own, but I found that after about Version 10 or so, Ghost began losing features and the interface became increasingly difficult to use. That’s when I switched to Acronis. No offense intended, DrWho.

BTW, since 2009, True Image (Acronis) has also adopted an increasingly useless interface, and this is rather annoying. Why can’t vendors stick with interfaces which work?

-- rc primak

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batman79, welcome to the Lounge as a new poster.

Try this link.

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Excellent Solution!!

DIOGONES you and your solution from sevenforums.com were the answer to a prayer. I had become infected with a few nasty viruses and after several attempts at removal (and perhaps overkill on my part) I was confident they were removed, but ran a few more AV/Anti Malware tools to be sure. After doing so, my computer became completely inoperable beyond the Win 7 Startup Screen and the reboot cycle continued. I attempted recovery console repairs, system/startup repairs etc. that either failed or were fruitless. I’d actually create a Paragon 10 rescue CD that I’d used only once a year or so ago (and I actually considered removing it from my “arsenal” due to lack of use.) I’d spent the bulk of at least 6 hours (albeit tired and at 3am in the morning before giving up) scouring the “internets” for a solution as I refused to do a full OS reinstall (and hadn’t created a viable backup in years.. I know.. don’t say it).

After inserting the Paragon 10 Rescue CD and following your exact steps as listed (my primary partition was D: not C: so switching the directory) I was skeptical that it would work. But I tried it a few minutes ago (after a half good nights rest and some fresh eyes and a clear head). After a few moments and a blank screen…. my original OS started up, I was able to login and now I am back in business and in the process of creating a backup using Clonezilla Live (free linux based imaging tool) to completely backup my system as is and will schedule incremental backups going forward.

Thanks again for posting this solution, as after all my years of babbling and now working in the IT field, I’ve always been a “taker” from communities and this is the first time I’ve responded to a solution, but I will start contributing more now.

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Well that’s great Von, I’m glad I was able to lend you a helping hand! :^_^: That fix has saved me on more than one occasion. I don’t know if this fix would work on an XP system, as I’m not sure if XP has a regback file directory, but for Vista and 7, it is one for the books!

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