Windows 7 Repair Disc won’t boot the system to run Startup Repair

Problem

I have a brand new HP Envy 750se desktop PC that runs Windows 7 Professional, which is fully updated.

My Repair Disc fails to boot the system so I can’t run Startup Repair.

The CD runs up until the point that it goes into the graphical interface with the box to select the keyboard type. But no USB keyboard will work. Nor will any USB mouse!

There is an AMI UEFI BIOS, but there is no option in it to enable legacy support for an old-style PS/2 keyboard and mouse.

I’ve even managed to get a startup options menu from the Windows System Repair Disk boot (it loads files then goes to a screen with options like start in safe mode with command prompt) – and the keyboard works up until
the point that the screen background goes blue and the box to select the keyboard layout comes up. The keyboard does not respond. There are 8 USB 2.0 ports and 2 USB 3.0 ports and I’ve tried every single one!

Answer

I take it that you are using a repair disc created with the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Pro that you probably have, not with a disc created on another computer that runs the 32-bit version or a different file system. There are two versions of Win7 Pro – 32-bit and 64-bit. The disc you used might have been created on a PC that uses the older NTFS file system and your new PC might have had its system hard disk or SSD drive formatted to use the new GPT file system, which is used on PCs with a UEFI BIOS. You need to have a Repair Disc that matches the version that you have on both counts – bittedness and file system, so make sure that you use your new PC to create the Repair Disc.

GPT File System – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table

NTFS File System – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS

I have often found Windows Repair Discs that won’t boot the system or can’t repair the system, so I use other repair options. You can create a Windows Repair Disc and find that it doesn’t work and then create another one on the same PC and find that it does work.

If I were you, I would upgrade to Windows 10. I have an 8-year-old laptop that runs it without any issues. It is a free upgrade for Win7 users until July 28 2016 and has already had its first upgrade. You have the Pro version so you will get the Pro version of Win10. It is like an enhanced Win7. I use it on a desktop PC and laptop and like it. Note that Win10 no longer creates a repair disc, it can only create a USB Recovery Drive on a flash drive that has sufficient capacity.

Windows 10 no longer creates a Repair Disc, it creates a USB Recovery Drive –

https://www.pcbuyerbeware.co.uk/blog/…

Then I would download and install the free version of Macrium Reflect and create its rescue disc and use it to create system images. It can also create file and folder backups. You can store system images on an external hard drive or flash drive that has sufficient capacity.

You can restore a system image to the SSD, but Macrium Reflect also provides an option to clone a disk.

If I were you I would identify your PC’s motherboard manually by opening the case or by using the free Belarc Advisor or CPU-Z and then download its user manual from the manufacturer’s website. It has a UEFI BIOS section that is useful, because the new mouse-accessed UEFI BIOSes, with a graphical interface, provide many more options than the old keyboard-only-operated standard BIOSes.