Chapter 13. Bad System Boots and Lockouts

What You’ll Learn

In this chapter, I’ll show you:

• How to use the Advanced Boot Options menu to start your system

• How to start the Recovery Environment

• How to use the Recovery Environment to repair boot problems

• How to use the Recovery Environment to restore Vista to an earlier time

• How to use the Recovery Environment to test your computer’s RAM

• How to start Vista if you have forgotten your user password

• How to start Vista if you use BitLocker full-disk encryption and have lost your USB key or PIN number

• How to make sure Windows Vista can recognize your hard disk or other startup hardware

How to Boot Your System, When It Won’t Boot Normally

This is the chapter you hoped you’d never have to read. But if you’re here, you either have a morbid curiosity (and you’re the kind of person who finds old ladies approaching unseen banana peels pretty funny), or you’re really having a scary computer emergency.

I hope you’re just rubbernecking here, but if you are not, hopefully this chapter should help.

First, try to remain calm. Breathe normally and don’t do anything drastic. Panic can make you do stupid things and make things worse.

The good news is Vista’s Advanced Boot Options menu offers you a variety of ways to get your system started, so you can download updates, make repairs, or otherwise convince it to cooperate.

You may have seen a version of the Advanced Boot Options menu before (Windows Vista will display it for you if your system doesn’t start or shut down normally), but you don’t have to wait for Vista to scream, “Icebergs, dead ahead!,” before using it.

To display the full Advanced Boot Options menu on most systems (see Figure 13.1), press the F8 key when your system starts.

Figure 13.1. The Advanced Boot Options menu.

OK, now that you’ve opened the Advanced Boot Options menu, which boot option should you select? Table 13.1 knows all, and, more importantly, tells all.

Table 13.1. Selecting the Right Advanced Boot Option to Solve Startup Problems

Oops! If you realized you pressed F8 by mistake, select the Start Windows Normally option, and no special startup options will be selected. Hey, it can happen.

Running Automatic Startup Repairs

Windows Vista’s Recovery Environment makes it easy—very easy—to fix startup problems. Unlike the ornery Recovery Console in Windows XP, the Windows Vista Recovery Environment combines automatic repair options with a complete software toolbox. The Vista tool geeks in Redmond outdid themselves here.

If your system won’t start, gulp down some Rolaids, and go find your Windows Vista DVD. Use it to restart your system. Watch for a message telling you to press the spacebar (it’s also the famous “any” key!) to boot from CD or DVD, and when you do, the Windows Vista Recovery Environment’s in charge of your system.

Don’t panic when you see the Install Windows dialog first. Go ahead and select or confirm the language, time and currency formats, and keyboard or input methods settings you use, and then click Next (Windows Vista needs this info whether you’re reinstalling or just fixing a problem). On the next screen, Install Now, you see the prompt you’ve been waiting for—click Repair Your Computer.

After Windows Vista finds your operating system, click Next to continue. The next dialog is the System Recovery Options dialog (see Figure 13.2). There are a lot of system recovery options you can use in different circumstances (see the next section for details), but the first option, Startup Repair, is the one you want now. Click it.

Figure 13.2. System Recovery Options tools.

After Startup Repair analyzes your system, you have two choices:

• Click Repair and Restart to repair your system automatically and restart it (see Figure 13.3).

Figure 13.3. The Repair and Restart automatic system repair dialog fixes your system for you.

• Click the View Details link shown in Figure 13.3 if you’re curious about what was fixed (see Figure 13.4). Scroll through the repairs, and click Close to return to the Repair and Restart dialog shown in Figure 13.3.

Figure 13.4. No boot sector? This system’s not booting until Repair and Restart fixes the problem.

When the system restarts, don’t boot from the DVD—just let Windows Vista try to start normally. If it does, fantastic! You’re back in business! After the Windows desktop appears, eject your DVD, put it away, and then go redeem yourself by telling your spouse your wedding photos are not lost forever.

Using System Recovery Options

What if the Repair and Restart option doesn’t work? Don’t panic—grab your towel, restart your system with the Windows Vista DVD, and try other repair options. You have a quintet of repair options to use:

• Startup Repair—Use this one to fix a system that just won’t boot.

• System Restore—Sends your system “back, back in time” to a previous configuration; great for fixing a system that was A-OK until you installed a particular program or device, or for fixing a system that starts only in Safe mode.

• Windows Complete PC Restore—If you have Windows Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate editions, use this one to restore every bit and byte from the Complete PC Backup image backup you performed (you did perform one, didn’t you?); it’s a true “bare-metal” system recovery feature. Not to be confused with a “heavy metal” system recovery feature where you blare White Snake as you toss the computer off the balcony.

• Windows Memory Diagnostics Tool—Warm puppies make good bedmates, until they soil the pillow. So it is with memory. Use this tool to test your RAM and ensure that it’s working properly.

• Command Prompt—Remarkably, DOS lives in Vista! And it can help reanimate your computer! This mad scientist tool gives you full access to all Windows Vista command-prompt features and programs, including file and folder copying, system management, and many more.

Startup Bad? Startup Repair Good!

Use Startup Repair, and you get two benefits:

• You get intelligent, automated repairs to the system’s boot configuration.

• You don’t need to decipher mysterious command-line syntax as you did with Windows 2000 and XP’s Recovery Console.

Startup Repair isn’t just a one-shot deal, either. You can run it up to five times to solve a particular startup problem before Windows Vista decides to give up. If you have a new problem, the countdown is reset to five tries, so don’t worry about “using up” a lifetime supply of repairs with your first problem. Ain’t gonna happen.

So, if you’ve already tried it once and your system still won’t restart, try it again. Keep trying until

• Your system boots the way it should.

• Windows Vista reports it can’t perform any more automatic repairs.

If Startup Repair cannot locate a Windows installation to repair, you need to determine the cause of the problem.

“Back, Back in Time” with System Restore

Sure, System Restore has been around a while (believe it or not, it’s one of the few good features that debuted in Windows Me), but Windows Vista makes it easier to use than ever before: You can restore your system to an earlier configuration, even if you can’t boot it normally, thanks to the Recovery Environment.

If you suspect that something you recently installed (new hardware, new or updated software or drivers) has made Vista digitally shave its head and go Britney, choose System Restore from the System Recovery Options menu shown in Figure 13.2.

After a few moments, the System Restore opening dialog appears. Here’s what to do next:

1. The System Restore utility highlights the most recent restore point (see Figure 13.5). However, you can choose any restore point on the list (they’re displayed newest first), or you can click the check box to display restore points older than five days.

Figure 13.5. Selecting a restore point from the most recent restore points available.

2. Choose a restore point, and click the Next button. You will see a reminder that the boot drive (X:) is not included in the restore point. Don’t panic—after all, you booted from a DVD!

After the old files are restored, the computer will restart after you click the Restart button and will initiate the system restore.

3. When you click the Restart button, the system restore routine initiates and the computer will reboot.

4. After rebooting, your operating system will be restored to the way it was at the time of the restore point. Any changes made to the system Registry are removed. However, System Restore never deletes any of your personal information—your email and your documents are safe.

Doc RAM, Doc RAM, STAT!

Windows is RAM greedy—it likes as much as it can get (1GB or more makes Windows Vista’s multimedia features zippy)—but even a bit of bad RAM can cause Windows Vista to run erratically or prevent Windows from starting or even to stop completely. Thankfully, Vista includes a new Memory Diagnostics tool to track down RAM problems.

There are three ways to start the Memory Diagnostics tool:

• Run it from the Administrative Tools folder in the Control Panel.

• Press F8 when you start the computer, and select it from the Windows Boot Manager.

• Start your system with the Windows Vista DVD and run it from the System Recovery menu.

By running outside Windows, all your system’s RAM is tested before Windows Vista gets rolling. Figure 13.6 shows a typical test run.

Figure 13.6. The Windows Memory Diagnostics tool is a handy RAM tester in Vista.

The default setting (a two-pass Standard test) is suitable for most users. However, Windows wouldn’t be Windows if there weren’t some tweaking options. To make changes, press F1 to open the Options dialog box. Here’s what you can change:

• Test type—Choose from Basic (fewest tests), Standard (default), or Extended (most tests).

• Cache configuration—Choose from Default (some tests with memory cache on, and some with memory cache off; doesn’t change settings), On (turns on memory cache for all tests), or Off (disables memory cache for all tests).

• Number of test passes—0–99 (2 is the default; select 0 for infinite test passes; press Esc to cancel).

If the Memory Diagnostics tool detects memory problems, you will see information during testing. When you boot into Windows, you can look up the information with the Problem Reports and Solutions applet. Then, it’s time to order a new memory module and swap it in.

Locked Out of Windows? Here’s a Crowbar!

Sooner or later, this might happen to you: You’re staring at the logon screen, and you can’t remember your password. You have absolutely no idea what it is. Wherever you left your brain that day, you left your password there, too.

Or, maybe you’re using a BitLocker-protected laptop full of top-secret formulas that will revolutionize the sandwich world. But horrors! Your USB thumbdrive that contains your BitLocker credentials is missing from your pocket. (I left my USB key in a hotel room in London once and only realized it was missing at 37,000 feet over Greenland.)

So, how can you get back into your system? I’ll show you how, but keep in mind that hopefully you’ve prepared ahead of time for this moment. (In other words, I hope you’re reading this before you have problems.)

Creating and Using a Password Reset Disk

Windows Vista gives you the ability to make a Password Reset Disk (sometimes also known as the Password Recovery Disk).

If you’re not in full in panic mode after a disaster has occurred, go make a Password Reset Disk now. If you don’t, you’re going to hate yourself later. Here’s why it’s important:

• If you have a brain burp and forget your password, and you don’t have a Password Recovery Disk, you won’t be able to log in to your system. That’s annoying.

• To get access to your files, you would need to have another administrator-level user log in to your system. That’s humiliating.

• If the only administrator your system has ever heard of is you, you can gain access to your files by using the command prompt option in the Recovery Environment. That’s painful.

• And, if all that isn’t enough, if you have files encrypted with Encrypting Files System (EFS), you can’t do anything with them from the Recovery Environment. Sure, you can see them, but if you attempt to copy or move encrypted files so you can use them elsewhere, you’ll just get Access Denied errors for your trouble. In other words, kiss your encrypted files goodbye. That’s catastrophic.

Convinced yet? I thought you would be. So, here’s how to make a Password Reset Disk:

1. Log in to Windows Vista as an administrator.

2. Click the Windows button, Control Panel.

3. Open the User Accounts and Family Safety category.

4. Click User Accounts.

5. Click Create a Password Reset Disk from the Tasks pane.

6. When the Forgotten Password Wizard opens, click Next.

7. Select a drive to use for the Password Reset Disk information, and click Next (see Figure 13.7).

Figure 13.7. Creating a Password Reset Disk.

8. Enter your current password, and click Next.

9. Windows transfers the password information to the disk you selected in step 7. Click Next, and then click Finish.

10. Put the disk or flash drive in a really safe place. And don’t forget to label it!

Now, if you forget your password, you can use the Password Reset Disk to bail you out. Here’s how:

1. Select your user account when Windows Vista starts.

2. If you have a brain freeze and can’t remember your password, click the Reset Password link below the password entry field.

3. The Password Reset Wizard appears. Click Next to continue.

4. Select the drive containing the password key disk. As before, you must plug in a USB flash drive before you can select it. Click Next to continue.

5. Enter a new password, and confirm it.

6. Enter a new password hint. Click Next to continue (see Figure 13.8).

Figure 13.8. Using the Password Reset Wizard.

7. Click Finish.

Remove the password key disk or flash drive and store it in a safe place. You do not need to update it—it works no matter how many times you forget your password!

BitLocker Recovery

BitLocker full-disk encryption is a new feature found in the Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista. It’s aimed directly at the plague of lost computers that contain secret and confidential information.

Companies love it because if an employee loses her laptop that contains unfiled patents for automatic avocado depitters (or customer credit card data!), BitLocker prevents anyone who does not have the appropriate credentials from starting Windows and gaining access to the drive and its secret stuff.

The drive remains secure even if it is removed from the system and connected to another computer. Using Recovery Console to access the drive won’t help a bad guy either.

Depending on how BitLocker is implemented on a particular system, you might use a USB flash drive, a PIN number, or a combination of these methods to provide credentials at startup time. But if you lose the USB flash drive or forget your PIN number, you’re kinda toast! You won’t be able to get into your system, and your guacamole empire will be doomed.

The good news is this is the time when the BitLocker Recovery Password feature can save you. Here’s how it works:

When you attempt to start or access a system encrypted with BitLocker, you are prompted to provide credentials at startup. If you don’t provide credentials, you are prompted to provide the recovery password (see Figure 13.9).

Figure 13.9. A BitLocker Drive Encryption recovery password prompt (in Recovery Environment).

If you have the password on removable media, insert it, click Next, and select the drive from the next dialog. After you complete the wizard, the system starts normally. But, what if all you have is the printout of the password? Select Manually Input the Password, click Next, and enter the password on the next dialog.

The password is eight groups of six digits (0–9) each. Here’s the trick: You don’t use the normal 0–9 keys on the top row of typewriter keys or the numeric keypad to enter the password—instead, you use the function keys. Look, I know there’s no “F0” key—use F10 instead. It’s a lot of typing, but as soon as you finish, your system will start.

Reinstall Windows Vista

If your Windows Vista installation is so badly damaged that you can’t repair it, you can reinstall it. During a reinstall, the previous installation is moved to a folder called Windows.old. You will find user files and folders there, so you can retrieve any files not encrypted with EFS after the reinstallation without any difficulty.

Hard Disk or Vista? Which One’s the Culprit?

If Startup Repair can’t fix your hard disk because it can’t find your hard disk, don’t blame Vista. Chances are it’s a problem with your system’s hardware, especially if you have installed a new hard disk or another internal device, or you are recycling an elderly hard disk for one more go-around. (“You can do it, Rocky! You can handle this Vista punk!”) Here are the likely suspects:

• The hard disk itself

• The hard disk configuration (power and data cables, jumper blocks)

• The system BIOS configuration

Rounding Up “The Usual Suspects”

So, if it’s time to “round up the usual suspects,” who (or what) do you question first? It’s time to play detective and look for the following clues:

• Did your system shut down without being told to shut down? Turn it on again and listen for unusual noise inside the system. A bad fan on the case, processor heatsink, chipset heatsink, or graphics card chip can cause system overheating and lead to sudden shutdown. However, these devices make some noise at all times. Typically, hard disks are virtually silent when they’re working. However, if you hear a noise that sounds like a coffee mill grinding, but your honeybunny is still in bed next to you, you may be hearing the death throes of a bad hard disk. Make a backup now and prepare to go hard disk shopping.

• Did you see a warning of imminent hard disk failure onscreen when you started the computer? A feature found in many PCs called S.M.A.R.T. checks hard disks for signs of failure and warns you when they’re about to fail. The idea behind S.M.A.R.T. is to provide an “early” warning, but sometimes you see a message only minutes before the hard disk fails, taking your data with it. You can download diagnostic programs from the drive vendor to test a drive that displays a warning, but if you have a choice between downloading diagnostic software and making another system (or data) backup, I think you can figure out which one to do first.

• Did you see a “DISK BOOT FAILURE: INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER” or a similar message instead of the Windows desktop when you tried to boot from the hard disk? This type of message indicates that the system can’t find startup information on your hard disk. This could happen if your hard disk has gone Miss American Pie on you (sing it with me: “This’ll be the day that I die!”), but it can also mean that the hard disk isn’t properly connected to your computer or properly configured, or that somebody’s been tinkering with the BIOS settings.

What to do now?

First Things First

If you’re a pessimist and you see a “DISK BOOT FAILURE” message, you’re probably saying three things to the cat:

• “Fluffy, I haven’t made any backups lately.”

• “You know, I wish I could buy replacement data.”

• “Hey, no squatting in the paper shredder!”

However, before you angrily boot Fluffy out of the office and decide that today isn’t your day, cheer up and look for simple solutions.

“How simple?” you may ask. This simple: If your system has an internal floppy disk drive (yup, they’re still in some systems), you may have left a floppy disk in the drive. Eject it, restart your system, and your system will probably boot.

If you still see a “DISK BOOT FAILURE” message, restart with the Windows Vista DVD.

Run Startup Repair: It can correct missing or corrupt boot files. However, if it can’t locate the hard disk, you may have more serious problems. But before you borrow trouble, there’s one more possible solution involving the computer’s BIOS.

The BIOS is a chip on the motherboard that contains menus (some systems have lots of menus) that are used to configure everything from memory speed and built-in ports to...wait for it...the drive boot sequence.

Believe it or not, it’s possible to have a boot sequence that’s so fouled up, it doesn’t list your hard disk as a bootable device. This could happen if

• You’ve been fiddling with the BIOS settings.

• You have a teenage geek wannabe who likes to tinker with things.

• A friend recently “helped” you with your computer, and then got distracted by the football game.

• Or less likely, the computer’s battery (which provides power to the BIOS settings when the system is off) is drained and needs replacing.

What boot order should you use? If your system has a floppy disk drive and you sometimes (make that occasionally) need to run floppy-disk-based diagnostic programs, the boot order should look like this:

1. Floppy disk

2. DVD drive*

3. Hard disk*

*These may be listed by drive brand and model.

If you don’t have a built-in floppy drive, a boot order like this works well:

1. DVD drive

2. USB drive

3. Hard disk

Figure 13.10 lists a boot order (boot sequence) similar to the first example. Note that most BIOS menus list a DVD drive as a CD drive (as far as the BIOS is concerned, they’re the same thing).

Figure 13.10. By placing the “CD” drive ahead of the hard disk in the boot order, you can boot from the Windows Vista DVD for installation and repair.

After you change the boot order (if you need to), save changes to the BIOS (in Figure 13.10, you press the F10 key to save changes, but other BIOS versions differ), and restart your system (if the BIOS order is OK, look for the menu option to exit without saving changes). If a botched boot order was the only problem, now you’re all set.

Hopefully, one of these simple solutions will solve your problem. If you’re still seeing “DISK BOOT FAILURE,” though, try running Startup Recovery one more time. If it still can’t see your installation, it’s time to turn off your system, unplug it, take out your screwdriver, and take a look inside.

Bad Hard Disk, Bad!

If you have been tinkering inside your system, there is a good chance that you’ve unplugged a cable or knocked something loose. So, let’s open up the patient again and take a look around.

First, be sure to unplug the power, crack open the case, and touch a metal frame with your finger to safely discharge any static. This is especially if you are wearing bunny slippers on a nylon carpet.

Once inside, check the power and data cables connected to your hard disk. Desktop computers typically use either ATA/IDE or SATA hard disks.

The wide 40-pin ribbon data cable and four-wire power cable used by an ATA/IDE hard disk are difficult to remove accidentally. However, if you removed them to gain access to a different part of the system, they must be plugged in correctly (see Figure 13.11). If you forgot, no wonder you can’t start your system. Don’t feel bad—I’ve done this before, too!

Figure 13.11. Connecting data (left) and power (right) cables to the rear of an ATA/IDE hard disk.

From the “Why I hate ATA/IDE hard disks” department: Whether you have only one hard disk connected to an ATA/IDE cable, or two drives, each drive must be jumpered correctly or the drive(s) will not be recognized by the system.

This can be an issue if you just added or removed hard disks or other ATA/IDE drives (such as DVD drives) right before restarting your system.

The rear of the drive (between the data and power cables) has several groups of jumper pins, and either one or two jumper blocks (usually white plastic, but sometimes other colors). Figure 13.12 shows you a close-up of a typical setup. The metal pins will be configured in two rows. The jumpers are bits of plastic that bridge them.

Figure 13.12. An ATA/IDE hard disk configured to use CS (Cable Select) jumper setting.

On many (but not all) disk drives, the jumper legend is shown on the bottom of the disk drive, as seen here.

If you have either one or two hard disks on a single 80-wire/40-pin ATA/IDE cable, you can configure both drives to use Cable Select, and the system will properly recognize them.

What about the jumpers marked Slave and Master in Figure 13.12? That’s old-school ATA/IDE configuration, and it’s a lot trickier. If you use the Master or Slave settings, you must configure one drive as Master and the other as Slave. Believe me, the Cable Select method is easier!

Serial ATA (SATA) hard disks use different types of cables than ATA/IDE hard disks. The power cable is at left, while the thick single-strand cable at right in Figure 13.13 is the data cable. These cables are also keyed to prevent incorrect installation.

Figure 13.13. Connecting power (left) and data (right) cables to an SATA hard disk.

Only one SATA hard disk can connect to an SATA host adapter. So don’t worry about jumper blocks. That said, some types of SATA hard disks do not have secure locking mechanisms on their data and power cables, so they can fall off the drive and prevent the drive from working.

If your hard disk appears to be properly connected to power and data cables, but you are still seeing a “DISK BOOT FAILURE” (the computer is using all caps to yell at you here), here are a couple more things to check:

• Make sure the data cables are properly connected to the motherboard (or to an add-on host adapter card). Carefully follow the cable from the drive back to the motherboard, with the AC power disconnected, of course.

• Make sure the host adapters are enabled in the system BIOS program. This is especially important for SATA hard disks.

If you still see a “DISK BOOT FAILURE” message but the System Recovery Options dialog can see your hard disk, it may be able to fix it. Remember, you can run Startup Repair up to five times before it gives up.