Disk boot failure after avast update

[mongii]

Okay. I woke up this morning and i updated my avast. While avast was updating, i was typing, and talking with my friend on chat, and as i press enter, an avast confirmation window popped up. I wasn't able to read it, and i accidentally pressed the OK button or whatever i pressed cause it restarted my PC. Now my problem is that my PC wont boot. I just gets stuck in "Disk boot failure".

I checked Bios boot options, and it was all fine.
I use XP x64

What could be the problem? im so sad, all my files was in there (((((

[justinlee]

Have you tried using your original restoration disc then restoring from backup? Sorry i am not the best to advise you on Windows XP as i have not used it for years.

[mongii]

yeah i have a windows XP CD, and when i checked to see if i can repair the setup, it viewed my HD as unparitioned, and i think avast deleted everything or something, im scared to continue since i hope someone can still help me adn recover my files

so i think my HD is alive and healthy, and working its just something messed up the files

i tried the repair option and it said:

the path of file specified is not valid

I type Dir C:, and still tahts what it said.

But i have 2 partitions. so i type Dir D:, and it recognized it there were some stuff it wrote down on my screen, and most of the important files were in that partition, and XP was installed in partition C


OMG, i try to reformat but after formatting and XP restarts computer to continue setup, it just returns to the Format step, and does not continue to the other step, WTF did avast do to my computer ?!?!?

[mongii]

someone please help me, i just updated my avast, restarted PC and then this fucking happened. im so confused that a program update can do this (((((((((((( omg

[justinlee]

What is the furthest point you can get to? Are you able to boot in safe mode? Are you able to clean boot?

[mongii]

no safe mode nothing, just disk boot failure

[simplynatural]

I have a similar problem. The first computer restart after requesting and downloading update (on June 4) to free Avast 6.0 failed to complete. My computer would show the Windows XP logo..flag screen, then restart again and show the HP Invent screen (have HP pavilion a400n desktop) and continually cycle like that. By doing a safe start (F8)...I got some normal operation. Windows explorer showed the Avast software was dated 6/4/11 but had revision level 5.1.889 . I right away made the link between the attempted Avast program (as opposed to virus definitions) update and my problem. I downloaded free Avast 5.1.864 from http://www.oldapps.com (too bad that Avast doesn't offer old versions?) and the recurring startup problem disappeared. I then read on the Avast website the system requirements for the new Avast....for Windows XP, it requires SP2 minimum. I only have SP1. Eventually Avast will probably not supply virus definition updates for
free Avast 5.x and I will have a problem again. I hope Avast reduces their SP requirement back to SP1 as before. I hate Microsoft and refuse to download their garbage that will only slow down my computer, take up more memory and introduce new problems...I'd rather go to Linux. Does anybody have an alternate solution...perhaps a change to the registry startup values.

[mongii]

windows logo does not show in my case. its like Hard drive got fucked

[mongii]

can someone help me pls? im at a loss, for no reason my pc just wont work all of a sudden. i used disk kill to super clean my hard drive, but it still wont install windows now omg avast what did u do to my pc!!!

[wormzilla]

Just my 2 cents, I think you're on the situation that comes from failing disk scenario.
Can you go to your computer BIOS to check whether the harddrive is detected or not?
If it can be detected, can you unplug your harddrive and plug it to another computer with working Operating System ( Windows, Linux, whatever ) and see if the content can be read?
If it cannot be detected, I don't think we can blame Avast for that, because the most possible scenario is that you'd been having a dying disk issue when you installed Avast.

[mongii]

yes my hard drive can be detected in my bios. unfortunately i cant test in another pc since i dont have one.

i have had avast for a long time now in this pc and when i update and restart today, this just suddenly appeared. it fucked up everything.


and i cant seem to stop my pc from booting and looking for CD when starting up even tho i remove CD-rom from the booting sequence from bios

any help would be appreciated

[wormzilla]

You can try booting with your Windows CD and do disk checking ( scanning ) from there.

[Nesivos]

Is the disk light flashing when you do a cold boot?

Maybe Windows is running a disk check due to error.

That can take a long time and look like nothing is happening since it takes place before you get to the Windows screen.

[Nesivos]

10 things you can do when Windows XP won't boot

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/10-things-you-can-do-when-windows-xp-wont-boot/6031733

[mongii]

how do u do a disk check with windows cd?

i have tried reformatting but after the first step, which is formatting the partition, it says windows will reboot to continue setup. but after reboot it does not continue, and returns to first step of formatting the drive.