Windows 7 only displaying "starting windows" screen but system still working

[kutmasta]

I'm running W7 Enterprise and this morning my PC has started hanging at the "Starting Windows" screen right after the startup sound is played. I'm not really sure whats going on because safe mode works fine and using the "startup repair" utility in the recovery options reports no errors. I have system restore turned off as I (used to!!) make regular backups of my boot partition to an external drive but it seems to have made a recovery point at some point this morning when it wasn't booting properly - however, restoring to this point doesn't fix the problem (unsurprising as it was made at a time when it wasn't working anyway)

I've since found that I can actually get past the login screen and load programs even though it still only displays the "starting windows" screen. If I type in my password I can get onto my computer (obviously all I can see is the windows logo) but for example I can hear that skype has logged on etc.

Any suggestions guys?

Thanks!

 

[Bubbaleone]

See if you can run this procedure in safe mode: Win7′s no-reformat, nondestructive reinstall. You won't lose anything; installed programs, pics, videos, docs, or custom settings are all safe, and your Windows installation will be like new.

 

[Puppies04]

See if you can run this procedure in safe mode: Win7′s no-reformat, nondestructive reinstall. You won't lose anything; installed programs, pics, videos, docs, or custom settings are all safe, and your Windows installation will be like new.

Nice! I didn't even know you could do this.

 

[Ketchup]

Nice! I didn't even know you could do this.

Neither did I. I guess that's why it's on a site called Windows Secrets. Don't know why it has to be a secret though.

 

[Bubbaleone]

I've used the in-place upgrade installation to repair Windows 7 installations many times. Unfortunately I'd never tried running it in safe mode, just tested that scenario, and it doesn't run.

@ kutmasta; I'd next suggest you boot the Windows installation disk and when you get to the Windows Install screen, look at the lower left-hand corner and select the Repair option. This will load the Windows Recovery Environment. From the WinRE, Windows will attempt to repair whatever is keeping your system from booting normally. If the first repair attempt isn't successful, run the repair two or three times before moving on to the Advanced repair tools.

The Advanced repair tools includes the command prompt. From the command prompt you can run the SFC (System File Checker) tool to replace any corrupt system files. Other useful command line tools include bcdedit which can be used to rebuild a corrupt BCD (Boot Configuration Data) store.

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