Me too can't boot Vista. Stops on aswRvrt.sys trying to start in safe mode.

[Andrey,pro]

Do you have a Windows vista cd?

[lltrazom]

Hi Andrey,pro,

I have a Windows Vista Home Premium "Recovery DVD" from the company who assembled the PC.

If it may help I have cut and attached the CBS.log to report only the entries from the last two shown days (25/12 and 26/12).

[Andrey,pro]

Let's try to repair your PC using Recovery DVD.

Insert the Windows Vista Recovery DVD into DVD drive.
 
Select command prompt
At the command prompt type the following  :

Code: [Select]

notepad and press Enter.
The notepad opens. Under File menu select Open.

Open your DVD disk and find install.wim file (it should be in "sources" folder). Copy this file on the drive (don't use system drive!)
Create a folder named wim on the same drive.

Select command prompt
Type in the following command :

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Dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:D:\install.wim and press Enter.
where D:\ is a letter of drive (not system!)

then

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Dism /Mount-Wim /index:2 /WimFile:D:\install.wim /MountDir:D:\wim and press Enter.
where /index:2 is  your version of windows Vista, D:\ is a letter of drive where you saved install.wim file

Now we have all system files.

Type in the following command in command prompt:

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sfc /scannow /offbootdir=C:\ /offwindir=C:\windows and press Enter.

where "offbootdir=c"-directory with system files from recovery disk (in the "wim" folder)
"offwindir=c"- directory where your OS installed

After sfc finish it's job, type in the following command in command prompt:

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Dism /Unmount-Wim /MountDir:D:\wim /Discardand press Enter.

[lltrazom]

Hi,

sorry but could you please better clarify me what the /index:2 stands for ?

If I use the pen drive boot with (vista32 rc.iso) as done to use frst my system drive appears with the D: letter; if I boot from my Vista "Recovery DVD" at the command prompt my system drive appears with the letter C:.

So, before making a worse mess of it, please clarify me if I have to boot with my own recovery dvd (Systemdrive C:) or using the previous pen drive (inserting my recovery DVD only after the boot) (Systemdrive D:) and what implication this has on supplied commands.

[Andrey,pro]

you can find what the /index:2 stands for after typing in the following command :

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Dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:D:\install.wimIt should be looking similar (you need to choose Windows Vista Home Premium X86):


Use your pen drive with vista32 rc.iso, we need recovery dvd only to get a windows system files and then using this command

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sfc /scannow /offbootdir=C:\ /offwindir=C:\windowsto restore missing windows files.

[lltrazom]

Hi,

I used notepad file selction dialog to copy install.wim from sources directory on my recovery DVD to the non system "E" hard drive (more than 2Gb, so it won't fit the boot pen) and created a wim folder on it.

I closed notepad, opened comman prompt window, and tried to execute the first dism command: "Dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:E:\install.wim"

I'm not anyway able to have it working as dism is not a recognized command in my prompt window.

Am I missing something obvious ?

[lltrazom]

By the way, thanks also for updating the previous russian screenshot to an english one...

[Andrey,pro]

Try the same but boot with your own recovery dvd.

[jwoods301]

You might consider running Startup Repair if DISM isn't working...

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/what-are-system-recovery-options#what-are-system-recovery-options=windows-vista

[lltrazom]

Hi,

sorry for the late comeback (I had an unavoidable family party...).

DISM is not available also when booting frommy recovery dvd and running startup repair (apprently) didn't change anything as I'm still unable to boot in any way

[jwoods301]

You can install DISM as part of the Windows ADK (Assessment and Deployment Kit). See the system requirements and installation instructions...Vista is supported

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30652

If this fails, your options are limited.

Unfortunately, vendor recovery disks will re-install Windows and destroy all your personal files, folders, and settings. In other words, it restores it back to out-of-the-box condition.

If you can get your hands on a correct version and bit-ness (32 bit) of a Windows Vista disk, you can do a non-destructive re-install of Windows without losing your personal files, folders, and settings. Do a search for Fred Langa's article on how to do this. You will need your license key.

Your last resort would be to copy all your personal files and folders to removable media, and then use the vendor recovery disk to do a complete re-install of Windows Vista. All of your programs would need to be re-installed, and you would be doing Windows Updates for a while, but a least your personal files would be saved.

This type of situation is an example of why you need disk imaging software, and a removable hard drive to back up your computer.  Some 1 TB removable drives are less than $100 US now. Disk imaging software like Terabyte Unlimited's Image for Windows (my choice) is $39 US.

I do a full disk image once a week, and backup individual files that have changed on a daily basis, or sometimes several times a day. So at most, I am one day behind on anything I'm working on.

It takes me 20 minutes to restore a full disk image, over a network connection.

Best of luck.

[Andrey,pro]

lltrazom, if you have another PC we can unpack files using 7-zip or other archive program.

Open your DVD disk and find install.wim file (it should be in "sources" folder).

Select command prompt
At the command prompt type the following  :

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Imagex.exe /info E:\Vista-All\Sources\install.wimwhere E:\Vista-All\Sources\install.wim is a path to install.wim file.

Here you'll find index of Windows Vista Home Premium X86.

Open this file using archive program (for example, 7-zip File Manager). You'll find 1-5 folder , copy one of them with the number of index Windows Vista Home Premium X86. on your flash drive.

Now we have all system files.

Type in the following command in command prompt on non-booting PC:

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sfc /scannow /offbootdir=C:\ /offwindir=C:\windowsand press Enter.

where "offbootdir=c"-directory with system files from recovery disk (in the "wim" folder)
"offwindir=c"- directory where your OS installed

Update Also you can try previous instruction, but you need to enter the whole path to Dism.exe. For example, 1st command will be looking:

Code: [Select]

C:\windows\system32\Dism.exe /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:D:\install.wim

[lltrazom]

Hi Andrey,pro,

sorry for being real slow http://forum.avast.com/Smileys/default/tongue.gif but it took an eternity to get all things done (carrying them out through a painfully slow cdless netbook..).

Anyway I executed both your commands and I got the same reply I got earlier: "... Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them.Details are included in the CBS.log...".

It appears that files cannot be restored as "source file in store is also corrupted".

I also noticed that sfc didn't log anything as my CBS.log remained the same, with old details.

Googling I found that I had to set an environmental variable (set WINDOWS_TRACING_LOGFILE=H:\TEMP\CBS.log where H is my pendrive) so I have been able at least to get a relevant log to analyze.

Further, as I'm still not sure to have understood what I exactly had to do with all that image extracting part, I've run the sfc command twice, with the following syntaxes:

1) sfc /scannow /offbootdir=H:\3 /offwindir=C:\windows
(where H:\3 stands for the name of the directory on my pendrive that is a copy of what came out to be index number and directory name for "Vista Home Premium 32 bit" files from install.wim file on my recovery dvd)

2) sfc /scannow /offbootdir=C:\ /offwindir=C:\windows

These commands were both run booting from my recovery dvd and going to the command prompt. Had I used the  pendrive to boot I'd have used "D:" for windows directory path on system path instead of "C:".

I cannot anyway understand why of this system drive recognition difference booting from the pendrive (with "Vista32 rc.iso" in English) or from my recovery dvd in Italian, but I don't expect I can have any different final result booting from the pendrive.

I tried to attach a zip file of the obtained CBS.log (about 2,5 Mb) but it's not an allowed format, so I don't know how to let you have the log, given size limits enforced

Thanks a million

P.S. There is no dism.exe file in my system32 (or other) directory

[lltrazom]

Hi jwoods301,

many thanks for your suggestions on backups of the whole system disk.

I'll have to seriously look into it, starting probably with some Acronis product.

Independently of how I'll end up with current situation, I'll also look for sure into quoted Fred Langa's article.

Thanks once more

[lltrazom]

@ Andrey,pro and jwoods301:   Happy new year to you guys !!

And my best wishes for a great 2014 to everybody