Startup Repair On Computer

[hardy49]

When my husband turned his laptop on last night a window appeared "Startup Repair" and said it was checking the system for problems.It said it might take about an hour but it was on for the whole of the evening,and in the end we had to turn it off.Now this morning it is continuing again.
What sort of problems could there be and how long should we let it run ?

[rojash]

"and in the end we had to turn it off"
Why?

Have you by any chance left a Windows disk in the Optical drive?

You haven't said which version of Windows you are running. Try restarting the machine and repeatedly tapping F8. You should get a menu of startup options. Try "last known good configuration". If that's not available, choose safe mode. Sometimes, simply starting in safe mode, and then restarting in normal mode is enough to fix the problem.

It's possible that there's a physical problem with your disk drive - how old is the machine?

[hardy49]

The laptop is 4 years old and running Vista

I have tried to start up in safe mode and last good configuration but it only returns to the Startup Repair

Could this be terminal for the laptop ?

[pinkyboyid]

You could try a System repair using a Bootable CD which you will need to prepare via a download.

Info on how to do this can be found here:

http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/01/26/no-vista-installation-cd-you-can-still-download-a-vista-recover/

and here

http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/