Windows 7 Won't Boot - Blinking cursor

Hi everyone,

So I installed Windows 7 on my HD. The installation process went well. I chose my Username, password, etc, and then Windows prepares the Desktop for the first use, and then the PC automatically reboots.


The problem is that when the pc reboots after the final stage of the installation, Windows won't boot up and I get stuck with a blinking cursor. The only way I can boot up is when I turn on the PC and keep pressing F5 and then it takes me to a GRUB 0.4.4 Red Window like this one



When I chose the "alternative method", Windows boots with no problem. Is there a way to choose the alterative method as the default?

I reinstalled Windows with formating the hd for like 4 times and I keep getting the same problem.


I'm installing Windows through a USB Pen. Is that the problem?

Are you currently running Linux on the system, and if so, how is the system set up drive wise. Are both OSes on the same drive, or different. Was the other drive installed while you were installing Windows 7.

The Blinking cursor normally means the boot system could not be found. I have seen situations where the install media had to be present to boot, but have not been able to recreate.

Depending on your answer from the first question, the best thing to do would be to boot into the Windows Recovery environment and do a Startup Repair. Once the repair has opened, remove the pen drive so it will not be involved, just in case.

If you want to continue to use GRUB, that is out of my area, but you would probably have to check the differences between the default and alternative and set the default like the alternative.

No, I'm only running Windows 7, and as I said, I reinstalled Windows like 4 times and every time I did I formated the HD. It's really depressing. I bought a DVD Drive and installed through a DVD but I keep getting the same problem.

If you are only using Windows 7 and do not have any other drives in your system, it would seem the Grub loader is still on the drive.

A startup repair should have taken care of that, but you might try booting to the DVD, Repair your computer and use the command prompt to type the following command.

bootsect /nt60 /all

This should put the Windows 7 boot code on the system and overwrite any GRUB code.

But if you want to reinstall, when you get to the second window of the install, hit Shift+F10 to get a command prompt. Type the following commands and wait for each one to finish. And I am assuming you only have one Hard drive. If you have more than one, make sure which one you are looking at.

diskpart
list disk
select disk 0 <-- if only one drive
clean
exit
exit

You will now have a clean hard drive with no trace of any Grub loader.

There are always questions if you happen to be using an Upgrade version of Windows 7. Cleaning a drive may keep you from being able to activate, not really sure.

It worked! Thank You so much!

Glad it worked. You are certainly welcome.