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[MrsTiff]

I'm battling to help my husband who is visually impaired, He has a Compaq PC and is getting a message on startup.

The message he get's is Windows Boot manager, Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the problem..............etc

Status Oxc000000f
the boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible.

Also he doesn't have the start up discs as the PC was a gift.

Can he reformat it and put something more up to date on it. I have no idea, I'm a computer novice

Please help

 

[TrainableMan]

MrsTiff, Do you have a W7 Installation DVD for YOUR computer? If so put it in your husbands computer and boot up to it. Then select W7 Installation and from the install screen choose "start-up repair" in the bottom left corner.

If you don't have a W7 Installation DVD but you do have a DVD burner and a blank DVD then you can use your computer to download the W7 SP1 ISO from the links HERE. Be sure to get the version that matches his OS bitsize: 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) and version: Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate your husband has. You will also need software like IMGBurn which understands an ISO is an image; use it to burn a W7 Installation DVD.

 

[MrsTiff]

Thanks TrainableMan,

I personally don't have Windows 7, but let me see if I understand. If I download the W7 SP1 ISO, making sure the version matches his OS bitsize and version and burn it, then I should be able to use this as a startup/repair disc??

 

[TrainableMan]

It's a W7 Installation disk which includes a start-up repair option. This should not be confused with a recovery disk which would have come from Compaq OR you would have been instructed to create one when the computer was brand new and first booted.

But yes,, create this Installation DVD and then boot his computer to it. Hopefully his only problem is a bad startup boot sector and the DVD can easily repair it. The other possibility is that his hard drive is going bad; in which case the DVD won't really help.