This happened when I was trying to help someone with their ebook so i plugged it in and installed the drivers and software. Mid-way into installing the software I get the bluescreen and my PC restarts. I tried several things - startup repair system restore system image recovery windows memory diagnostic

Safe Mode doesn't work, the startup repair option doesn't work, the windows memory diagnostic couldn't solve the problem.

I'm trying to do the System Restore option now, I'm thinking my computer does an automatic system restore backup every so often but I couldn't find the option. When I click on the System Restore option in the menu, it tells me to restart the computer and choose the right operating system to do it, but I can't find that option.

I'm kind of stuck, any ideas?
Btw, I'm on Windows 7 Home Basic

if you still have the ebook plugged in, unplug it during start up. W7 will normally lockup if I have my cell phone plugged in while starting up.

otherwise I have no idea, i never ran into your issue. ask bit-tech.net's forums. They tend to me more useful for PC help then here.

I unplugged it immediately afterwards, my PC locks up if i have a flash drive plugged in at start up.
I'm stumped. Also if you reinstall Windows on your PC does it format your Hard Drive and delete all your stuff?

ya, but there should be a repair mode for the installer... i think its f9 during installers boot or something

seems windows 7 only allows a repair installation from inside the OS.

seems a bit stupid imo but i'll keep checking as soon as i can find my damned Win7 disk...

might have to do a full re-install into a new directory? hopefully not

wait, hold the phone...

from the horses mouth...

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/What-are-the-system-recovery-options-in-Windows-7

hope you have that install disk handy

No, it doesn't necessarily formats your hard drive. You can choose to retain the system, and it installs the Windows in another folder than "Windows" e.g. "Windows2", but it does delete your personal folders like "My music" "My documents" and so on.

Thanks but I tried that lol, it came up with an error and it couldn't find the file I created.
The thing is with my PC is that it originally had Vista, and MS sent me the W7 install disks.

I figure I could spend time using those disks, but what should be the simplest option is to just use system restore, I mean for this very reason system restore should be used. But I can't figure out how to use it without starting up windows. I get an error when I try to launch system restore from that menu but it tells me I need to restart my computer and pick the OS I need to restore. Which I guess means I actually need to log into Windows in order to do a system restore, so what the hell?

Also I ran different tests for about 2 hours and nothing showed to be wrong, I guess they aren't thorough enough to tell you that your PC won't boot into windows >_<.

Edit: I might need to use one of the Windows disks to repair my computer but I have:
Vista reinstallation disk
pre-Windows 7 Upgrade disk. It holds W7 Drivers and Applications. Also Dell Upgrade Assistant
Windows 7 Upgrade Option - completes the upgrade.

So I don't have a Windows 7 reinstallation disk, what now?

well, pretty much you're screwed it seems, I'm sad to say

seeing as you'll have to re-install Visa into a seperate folder first (a Vista DVD won't repair a Win7 installation for obvious reasons), load the prep tool and then re-install Windows 7 from that it seems that you'll be lucky to keep your data, let alone any installed apps or settings. This is providing the Dell setup disks let you do that at all, often its a customised installation process in which case you're probably going to be forced to format your drive.

MAYBE what you might be able to do - if it's that vital that you keep your data - is buy a full Win7 disk from the store.

It will cost a bit, but you stand the best chance with that imo.

The fact that your PC is an upgrade of Vista though might be an issue, but on the plus side, if the restore from the store bought install disk works, the next time you need to re-install or repair your machine you won't have to install the horrid Vista first!

I set up a Windows 7 re-installation disk and tried to repair my PC from it and it sent me to system restore but it couldn't find any files. So then I chose to re-install Windows but it told me I needed to restart my PC and load windows and then use the disk -wtf! The whole reason for this disk is to use it because I can't get into Windows! lol

So now I am on my desktop running Ubuntu off of a flash drive and I can see my hard drive from it, but I'm not sure if it is just not showing me all that is on there, or if it is really all that is on there. It tells me I have 100 GB free which sounds about right. This is a picture of what the files and folders are. I recognize several of them that belong in the C drive, but the program files and document files are all missing.
http://img375.imageshack.us/i/screenshotjy.png/

So.. do any of you guys know of a way for me to reach them?

seems to be missing quite a few (if not most) system folders - no Windows or Users folder for that matter.

also missing vital boot files. (see a pic of my boot drive contents below and compare)

http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/5923/92689772.jpg

Could be hidden/restricted as a result of Win7 disk security. also, I'm relatively surprised Ubuntu is seeing anything at all seeing as how the disk should be formatted NTFS by default (Owned by MS)

Is the drive labeled New Volume your flash disk? (it's been a while since I've played with OS on a stick) if it's not, that might be where your OS is hiding, in which case your boot has been scrambled

you could try plug your HDD into an existing Win7 system (add your OS drive as another drive) and try fetch your files from there.

still, imo the easiest might be to just get a full Win7 DVD...