Hello. I'm messaging here in search for help and I think it's related to the Avast security program I use.
My Sony Vaio laptop suddenly stopped working while utilising the computer internet. It displayed a black screen with a box in the middle with text but it disappeared too quickly to read what it said. After that, I get repeated lines saying it can't find the operating system before restarting.
When the system restarts, I get the Windows Error Recovery screen with the option to either 'launch startup repair' or 'start Windows normally'. When I select 'start Windows normally' option it hangs on the Starting Windows boot up screen (it says Starting Windows at the bottom, but no animated logo appears). If I restart the laptop and select 'launch Startup Repair', I see a progress bar appear stating that it's loading Windows files. After loading, I get a blue theme background and a mouse cursor and nothing else. Just stays like that.
I then restarted the laptop and pressed F8 to boot into Safe Mode, but none of the options work. It starts loading all the Windows files but then stops at:
Loaded: \windows\system32\drivers\aswRvrt.sys
I'm in the process of creating a bootable Windows 7 via a USB, but I wanted to also try a recovery software program (on another PC) to scan the hard drive that's now in an external caddy.
A quick scan results shows some files that were in the recycling bin, but the only program in the 'program files' folder is Avast.
Checking the aswRvrt.sys issue in Google suggests this has been a problem for other users.
Can anybody help me in this situation please? I really need access to my files.
