Vista is broken

Here is my situation.

I have a p-6860 fx that triple boots vista HP x64, xp pro x32, and ubuntu. I ran vista most of the time, and each time i turned off my notebook, i would turn it off with the 'install updates' shutdown. this always worked, until now. I set it to update, waited for the computer to shut down, and brought it over to my friend's dorm. I turned it on, and this is what happens:

It boots normally, and i can successfully get through the boot menu btw the 3 operating systems (xp and ubuntu still work perfectly). when vista starts, i get to the screen where it says 'configurating 3 updates: 0%'. It quickly jumps to 87%, and shows the password box for a second before it switches to 'shutting down' (as if i had logged in and shut down normally). I ran the vista recovery option, and it said there was a boot error. i chose 'repair and reboot', and it didn't change anything (as far as I can tell).

please help. i hate vista with all my heart, but i have never encountered anything as bizarre as this.

 

Is there something you're not telling us? Perhaps you turned the computer off while the update was installing. I've seen this happen before. If you turn the system off while the updates are replacing files, you end up corrupting the OS. If you did not do this, then have you tried safe mode? See if you can get into safe mode. If you can, then its wonderful news because I'm sure we can fix it.

Let me know. I'll be glad to help.

 

You use Vista's bootloader to triple-boot? If yes you can try to reinstall Vista's bootloader and set the triple-boot again using EasyBCD. No sure if this will solve your problem though.. so do it on your own risk

 

i did not turn off the computer prematurely in either scenario. the bootloader is not the problem. this is kind of a stupid question: how do i restart in safe mode?

 

I suggested reinstalling the bootloader because you said that Vista recovery detected boot error.

Anyway,

To enter in safe mode just press F8 right after you select Vista from your triple boot menu. Then select "Safe Mode" from the menu.

 

This is NOT a stupid question at all. i dual boot ubuntu and vista, and use the grub bootloader, and didnt realize that as soon as you selected Vista, all you had to do was hit F8. i tried f10 and f12 with no luck.

so, by you asking a simple question, i learned something important and very useful. up until now, i've just relied on msconfig to change setting to safe boot and then restarted.

So thank you for asking. because you did, i learned something new. thanks!



evers.

 

here is the situation now:

booting in safe mode did not work. it did not change the outcome.

when i run the vista recovery partition from the grub bootloader now, nothing happens, it never prompts me for anything,and just continues to boot as it normally does

here is my boot situation, as i am actually using two bootloaders as a result of bad planning:

first bootloader is the grub bootloader. this offers me the standard set, all the components of linux, and then a choice to proceed to the vista/xp bootloader. this bootloader is vistabootpro and simply offers a choice between vista and xp.

hope this helps.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROOykhFWAB4

here is the video of what happens to me when i try to boot into vista

 

Ok for Vista Reboot Cycle:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080924122737AAmxcqV

Similar problem but with SP1 -> http://www.msfn.org/comments.php?shownews=21969 and http://news.softpedia.com/news/Micr...date-Induced-Infinite-Reboot-Loop-79496.shtml

 

Ok this is from a really old thread(2007) but may work for you.

I guess by renaming the right pending.xml you remove the "pending updates to configure" so Vista starts normally without configuring updates at startup......

Source - http://www.microsoft.com/communitie...&tid=4e4995cf-71e9-45af-8ff5-e5a12d1854c2&p=1

EDIT: In case you want to try this and you don't know how to get to \windows\winsxs and/or to rename files using only the command prompt:

///Assuming you have your windows installation on "C:\" and in the default windows directory "Windows".
I have no idea where the command prompt drop you so I'll make it safe///

When you start the command prompt type the following:


c:
cd\
cd windows
cd winsxs
dir pending*.* this is a comment, do not type any of the following-->You should see only one pending.xml listed. If there are more post their names here/
rename pending.xml pending.old
exit

Every line is followed by pressing "Enter".

Then restart and try to boot Vista.

 

If you hate Vista SO badly, why waste the time to make a triple boot with it?

 

To the OP: I edited my previous post with some instructions, check it out.

 

words cannot describe to you how happy i am right now. i owe you everything. thank you to everyone who posted. the renaming of the pending file worked perfectly.

 

Great, glad you solve this out