KVR Audio

MachFront · Post by **MachFront** » Thu Nov 13, 2014 10:18 am

So I updated a driver for the hard drive on my laptop. Rebooted.
Now it gets stuck on the Win logo and in Safe Mode it gets stuck loading the drivers.
I ran Startup Repair and after it went through "applying repairs" or whatever it says for about an hour it said to click "Finish" but it came right back to the screen that gives a choice between running Startup Repair or Start Windows Normally. I selected the latter and...same thing. Stuck on the Windows logo.

So, after much crying and yelling and gnashing of teeth I loaded a Lubuntu live CD and I can 'see' the drive and access my pics, music, movies, Reaper song files, etc.,etc.

So I'll assume I'll be able to attach a data transfer cable and grab my stuff and put it on my gal's laptop for the time being.

The real problem: my Windows product key.
Now...in Windows I could run Belarc Advisor and it showed me my Win 7 (OEM) product key.
But...now what? Is there a way/something I can run in a Linux live environment that would reveal my product key so I can successfully reinstall Win 7? Or am I now resigned to Linux or buying an OEM Win disc off eBay or...or what?

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Thu Nov 13, 2014 10:51 am

Google, thy friend doth be

http://www.howtogeek.com/64600/how-to-r ... -computer/

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Thu Nov 13, 2014 11:00 am

MachFront wrote:So I updated a driver for the hard drive on my laptop.

Something like EaseUS partition master ?

When I used that, I screwed up one of my laptops so bad, I needed to pull out the harddrive and reformat it using a HDD dock

UltraJv · Post by **UltraJv** » Thu Nov 13, 2014 10:31 pm

Did you go from IDE to SATA mode? Thatll do it. If you did, go back to IDE in the BIOS. changing HDD drivers will really mess things up. If it aint broke, don't fix it.

MachFront · Post by **MachFront** » Fri Nov 14, 2014 9:46 am

I wish I knew.
I was minutes away from going to bed. I ran Driver Booster simply to check to see if the program itself needed updating. I saw that some SATA-related driver needed updating so like a dummy I quickly and semi-reflexively allowed it to update. Incredibly foolishly I didn't even take full note of what the heck the driver was... Yes. Yes, I know. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. But it would seem the damage is done. Heck, I needed to reinstall anyway. It's been a massive pain having to transfer over all my files bit by bit by bit with a 8G thumb drive though (of course our data transfer cable wouldn't work because it didn't recognize the Linux live environment/OS.

Whyterabbit, thank you so very much for the link. That's just what I needed. Now there is only to see if this all works... tomorrow...later... uugghh....

Nielzie · Post by **Nielzie** » Fri Nov 14, 2014 10:38 am

This should be fixable. My advice would be to download and try the Ultimate Boot CD, which is being used a lot by IT Windows system engineers (at least when I was one):
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/index.html

It's a free-dos based boot CD and there are lots of /HDD/Boot Management diagnosis and recovery tools on there.
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/index.html

And like UltraJv says, first check if the BIOS still has the right settings of course.

Frantz · Post by **Frantz** » Fri Nov 14, 2014 10:40 am

Did you try booting Windows using the Last Known Good Configuration?

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... =windows-7

MachFront · Post by **MachFront** » Fri Nov 14, 2014 8:30 pm

Nielzie,
I considered a bootable rescue disc. I read through all the programs on a couple of them but I didn't see anything that could obviously fix the main issue (rolling back that particular driver...if I only knew which driver). I guess I was afraid of spending hours of trial and error and still having to reinstall anyway.

Frantz,
I did attempt that when I first had the intent of trying Safe Mode. I can't recall what happened (I was stressed and tired)... I believe it froze on the Windows logo as well.

I suppose I'll check the BIOS settings at least as a matter of curiosity.
It's probably good to reinstall this Windows anyhow.
I recieved the laptop for free when a friend of my folks' daughter passed away. The mother is in her late 80s, had no use for it and I offered to buy it one day while helping her and her husband clear out some of their daughter's belongings. She absolutely positively would not take any money. I thanked her profusely and humbly.

I renamed the user account. A couple of weeks later I realized I should have made my own and deleted hers. So I did that but somehow remnents remained. Some softwares will identify the computer by her name. There is still a user folder with her name despite deleting the user account. Some time later (and rather inexplicably) a lot of shortcut arrows appeared on various folders (app data, etc.). Some lead nowhere, looping back to the same place, others give a dialog box that state there is no access allowed to the folder (I assume it's somehow still tied to the previous user account, despite the fact that my account has full administrator privilages).
It hasn't caused any problems but it's been annoying. I've wanted to start over from scratch for some time.
But, of course I didn't wish to have it forced on me like this.

MachFront · Post by **MachFront** » Fri Nov 14, 2014 9:25 pm

Oh, for the love of...
Gah.
I can't even get into the BIOS because F2 brings me to "HP Advanced Diagnostics", which has a "BIOS Management" selection...which only allows updating or rolling back of the BIOS (one or the other). Now, I'll have to read a dozen things online just so I can find out how to truly access my BIOS. This...this...THIS is another reason to start from scratch. To get rid of the last stubbornly remaining HP crapware. I didn't even know that one was there....

MachFront · Post by **MachFront** » Fri Nov 14, 2014 9:35 pm

Nevermind. I got it. But I see nothing in the BIOS that tells me either SATA or IDE.

arkmabat · Post by **arkmabat** » Fri Nov 14, 2014 9:39 pm

Get a thumbstick and backup your project files quickly, inside a Linux CD.

No_Use · Post by **No_Use** » Fri Nov 14, 2014 9:49 pm

For the sole purpose of data saving (I mean if you plan to reformat afterwards anyway) I'd probably put the HD out of the comp, put it in a USB case and connect to another computer.

From my experience that's sometimes quicker than fiddling with various recovery tools and trying to getting it to boot which you never know if it works in the end.

edit:
Sorry, didn't read properly. Sounds like you're covered already with the data saving. Not sure if there's a tool or something you could get the Win key this way though.

fmr · Post by **fmr** » Fri Nov 14, 2014 9:59 pm

MachFront wrote:Nevermind. I got it. But I see nothing in the BIOS that tells me either SATA or IDE.

If it's an HP laptop, you should have a Restore/recovery partition that will put your computer back to factory status (you will not need a Windows key, I think, since your Windows will still be recognized as the original).

So, backup all your files and try to restore your computer using that partition. You should get information about this in HP site.

MachFront · Post by **MachFront** » Fri Nov 14, 2014 11:21 pm

It took some time but I have my files saved (except for my Reaper preferences, etc. and I'm not yet certain which files to grab).

I considered the recovery partition but it seemed like perhaps a better idea to start totally from scratch all fresh and clean. Is my assuption not entirely correct? Besides, wouldn't the recovery include all that HP crapware, etc. as well?

You guys are lifesavers. Thanks everyone for the help so far. (As much as I dig futzing about with computers, I'm always oddly over-stressed about computer problems.)

fmr · Post by **fmr** » Fri Nov 14, 2014 11:43 pm

MachFront wrote:It took some time but I have my files saved (except for my Reaper preferences, etc. and I'm not yet certain which files to grab).

I considered the recovery partition but it seemed like perhaps a better idea to start totally from scratch all fresh and clean. Is my assuption not entirely correct? Besides, wouldn't the recovery include all that HP crapware, etc. as well?

You guys are lifesavers. Thanks everyone for the help so far. (As much as I dig futzing about with computers, I'm always oddly over-stressed about computer problems.)

You can start from scratch, but then your Windows license is void (AFAIK these OEM Windows licenses don't come with a serial anymore - they are pre-authorized for THAT machine, and can only be restored using the Recovery partition). Using the Recovery, you have your license intact (at least it is my interpretation, but you can e-mail HP to be sure). Anyway, with Recovery, you are starting fresh and clean, as clean as when you bought your laptop.

If it installs things you don't want, uninstall them after getting the system up and running, before anything else. That way, if things get messy, you can start all over again

And be careful about what drivers you install. If in doubt, for the components that came in your machine you should only install drivers that you get from the support section of HP themselves. Otherwise, you risk something like what happened to you.

Need help recovering (via Linux live CD) from Win comp that won't boot. ARGH!