Windows Vista 32-Bit (x86) Recovery Disc

Thanks to Nimrod and rick550 for all the help. Sadly, my laptop's still not functional.

I've got Vista Basic Home Edition on a Gateway model MT6821. It started crashing in early August, 2011, so I did a full factory restore from the recovery partition using the Repair Tools. After the restore I downloaded and installed all of the available Windows Updates and service packs, so it was current up to the beginning of September, 2011. It worked well after that for a few weeks, then it crashed. There was no new software or hardware added prior to the crash.

It displays the same problem everyone seems to have: if I try to boot normally, the rectangular green loading bar comes up and stays on for hours, sometimes ending with a Session3_Initialization_Failed error. If I try to boot in Safe Mode, it gets stuck on crcdisk.sys.

I've downloaded the zip file attached above, extracted it and burned the Vista_Recovery_Disc.iso file to CD twice, once with ImgBurn and once with Free ISO Burner (making sure to check the box to finalize the disc). When I boot from CD, there is a "Windows is loading files" message accompanied by a white, low-resolution loading bar. This loading bar completes and the rectangular green loading bar comes up, remains on for a while, then disappears. Then there is a blank screen. If I let the computer remain on for several hours, eventually an arrow-cursor comes up that I can control with the touchpad, but the screen is otherwise completely blank.

Any ideas?

 

Verification of contents of Vista Recovery Disc .iso file

When I unzip the attached Vista_Recovery_Disc.zip and burn the .iso file to a CD, this is what is on the CD:
bootmgr (unknown file extension) 325 KB
boot (folder)
sources (folder)

In the "boot" folder is:
bcd (unknown file extension) 256 KB
boot.sdi 3,096 KB
bootfix.bin 1KB

In the "sources" folder is:
boot.wim 119,106 KB

Can someone verify that these are the correct files? If anyone can explain what they are supposed to do, that might be helpful. This "recovery disc" has not yet produced advantageous results for my laptop.

 

stupid question time,, can i burn a vista dvd on a mac?
sorry if it really is a stupid question.
great site..very helpful

 

im not sure about mac software but there should be a free iso burner available for mac

@Kethersdad

if you want updates for vista i recommend you to download a iso of windows vista sp2 ,make sure its the same version your computer came installed with so you can use your key to activate it

 

new to the board,got a question my uncle has an hp #a6683w the hard drive went out and i put a new one in and he doesn't have the start up disc or a recovery disc.So i download vista recovery from here and it still wont load what can we do?

 

download a .iso of windows vista home basic 32-bit (you can find these on torrent sites)
then burn that to a disk using a iso burner
copy down the oem key from the sticker on the pc(it should look like this http://tips4pc.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/coasticker.jpg) and use that to activate it

 

thanks just found one from torrent

 

I am having the same issue with the blank black screen after the windows loading bar.. anyone found a way around this?

 

Get a windows 7 disc and install that instead, Should work fine, Might be something damaged in the recoverys that is stopping it rebooting.

 

Will i lose anything doing that?

 

Reinstalling will wipe your data
You can do one of these
Hook up your hard drive to another computer to copy data
Or
Use a linux live cd or usb and copy your data to discs or other types of storage
use this Download | Ubuntu

 

i guess i will try that if all else fails, thanks

 

merci beaucoup