Vista pc boots to windows98 boot selection screen?

[woops]

Let me start off by saying thanks for any help i am truly stumped on this. I downloaded a  image burning utility(I think it was called ISOBURN) to my friend's VISTA pc. I then used this utility to burn one image to a disk and then uninstalled the program.Later that day the system was rebooted and it didnt boot to VISTA like it should it booted to what appears to be a WINDOWS98 boot selection screen that lists different booting options(such as NORMAL or SAFEMODE or command prompt).This system has never had WINDOWS98 on it and all selections from this screen result in an error stating the system couldn't find the appropriate files and to designate their path.It seems like the image burning program I downloaded somehow altered the system's boot file and now the system is trying to boot to windows98 but because there is no windows98 on it it goes to the boot selection screen where i get stuck.I have used the recovery tools on the Vista recovery disk  to get to the command prompt where i can see that the vista install and all my files are still there.I rolled back the registry from the command prompt and restored the computer to an earlier date but this didnt fix the problem.Once again THANK YOU for any help it would be GREATLY appreciated.

[Broni]

what appears to be a WINDOWS98 boot selection

How do you know, it's Win 98 boot selection. Vista has boot selection too.

[woops]

The screen I'm referring says Windows 98 Startup selection screen across the top.Thanks for any help.

[Geek-9pm]

All you have to do is restore the
system from your external backup media.
The people who sold you the funny
program told you that beforehand.
Don't you remember them saying that?

[woops]

The only external backup media i have is a restore disk but I already tried that. I have tried to use bcdedit but can not get it to work in the pre-envronment provided by the restore disk.

[Broni]

1. Create Vista Recovery Disc.

Option 1:
http://www.c4consulting.com.au/soluctions/vista/VISTA%20SOLUCTIONS.htm

Option 2:
Download Vista Recovery Disc iso image: http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/
Burn it to CD, or DVD: http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/G/Burning+ISO+Images+to+a+CD+or+DVD

2. Boot from created disk.
At first screen click on Repair your computer:

This will bring you to a new screen where the repair process will look for all Windows Vista installations on your computer. When done you will be presented with the System Recovery Options dialog box:

After this, it will present you with a list of options including startup repair, system restore and command prompt:

Try System Restore, first.
If that doesn't work, try Startup Repair.

[woops]

Thank you for the input unfortunately I already tried these options. The first few times when the system recovery dialog box appeared it would list the factory recovery partition  but now it doesn't list anything. Also as stated in the original post I already replaced the registry with a backup and rolled the system back to the middle of January. This didn't work.

[Broni]

You don't have Vista DVD by any chance?

[woops]

I have a OEM restore disk but do not have a aftermarket vista dvd.

[woops]

Does anyone know how to get BCDedit to work in the Windows System Restore pre-environment from the command line option?

[Broni]

I then used this utility to burn one image to a disk

What was that image of, and where did it come from?
Do you have any important data on that computer?

[woops]

It was Linux Mint from official website. The only data that is vital to retrieve are various pictures(Wedding, new baby!!) If i cant salvage them my friends are probably going to axe murder me.

[Broni]

Remove the drive, and slave it in another computer, or use USB enclosure.

[woops]

THANK YOU for all your help. Do you think I will be able to move the pictures off the hard drive to a usb flash drive(in other words will the computer be able to recognize the flash drive in the pre environment)

[Broni]

No, because USB drivers have to loaded, and it needs Windows to be up.
Did you actually try to restart, and keep tapping F8 key to see, if you can get Safe Mode option (not that fake Win 98 screen)?

[woops]

No i didnt but i will.

[Broni]

I'll wait for a few minutes before I go to bed.

[Geek-9pm]

Do you think I will be able to move the pictures off the hard drive to a usb flash drive(in other words will the computer be able to recognize the flash drive in the pre environment)

If most of the fie system is intact, you can put the HDD on an external power supply and USB adapter and read the data on a good PC running Windows 200, XP or Vista. Or anything the does USB and NFTS, which would include some recent Live Linux CDs. Ubuntu works.

[woops]

Where could i find a external power supply and USB adapter for the hard drive?Would that be an enclosure?

[Geek-9pm]

Maybe nobody wants to hear this.
Microsoft has left behind the old 'standard' for the MBR thing. Because it was not a real useful standard. Vista expects you to leave the boot sector information alone. Third party programs that try to do things with the MBR can really mess things up. Before using any of the old favorite disk utilities on Vista, make sue of two or three things.
1. Make a real backup of the Vista system mad your data on separate media.
2. Know what you are doing.
3. Ask somebody else anyway.
( Try for at least two our of the three.)
 

[Broni]

You can use enclosure....~$20...cheaper than being killed by your friend

[woops]

Solved, I used the pre-environment provided by the oem restore disk to access the files system using notepad allowing me to move the photos to a flash drive.I then  restored the OS. Thanks to all of CH and especially Broni for making my first experience with CH great.

[Broni]

Good news