Windows 7 Doesn't Boot Anymore...Please Help!

[awer25]

Recently I've been having a problem. I have the MBP in my sig, and have Lion and Windows 7 x64 installed. Both were working fine, but I haven't logged into Windows for a few weeks. Now, when I restart into the Option menu (where you can select the OS to boot to), I select Windows and it just freezes on that gray screen with the OS icons.

I've used Windows for years, but on a Mac I have no idea where to start. I can't boot into Safe Mode, as Windows never starts. I'm guessing it has something to do on the Mac-specific side of things, but I have no idea how to troubleshoot Windows starting issues on a Mac.

My setup is an SSD with two partitions (OSX/Win7) and a HDD with two partitions (OSX home folder/Windows NTFS storage). Lion is working fine, and I can access data from the NTFS drives from within OSX.

Some recent changes that I thought may be an issue are the recent EFI update and a system clean from OnyX.

If anyone has any ideas besides reinstalling Windows (as a last option, I'll have to do that but would really rather not) please let me know!

 

[Freyqq]

I would try reinstalling windows. I can't imagine it being an OSX problem, as at that point during bootup, OSX hasn't even been loaded yet. OSX can't, by default, write to NTFS either.

 

[SkaarjHunter]

Have you tried booting from the Windows 7 CD and using the system repair option?

 

[wikus]

try a pram and smc reset. those two fix a lot of issues.

I had some issues with slow boot times until I did a reset of the two.

 

[awer25]

I would try reinstalling windows. I can't imagine it being an OSX problem, as at that point during bootup, OSX hasn't even been loaded yet. OSX can't, by default, write to NTFS either.

At the point it's freezing, Windows hasn't booted either. It freezes at the gray "choose an OS" screen the moment I click "Windows". I'm trying to avoid reformatting, so right now that's a last resort.

Also, I have Paragon's NTFS for Mac so I can read/write/format in NTFS.

Have you tried booting from the Windows 7 CD and using the system repair option?

I haven't yet, but I'll give it a shot.

try a pram and smc reset. those two fix a lot of issues.

I had some issues with slow boot times until I did a reset of the two.

I tried that but to no avail.

 

[awer25]

Update...

I can't boot to a disc. Clicking any option other than regular OSX (or the Lion recovery partition) freezes the system.