PC Keeps Looping Startup

PC Keeps Looping Startup

I had a PC recently that kept looping at startup. I would see the Dell screen and then just a blinking cursor, white on black for a second, and then back to the Dell startup scree...again and again and again.

I ran the diagnostic and nothing was wrong with the PC, including the hard disk.

I suspected it may not be a drive failure at all but something to do with the partition.

I put a Windows 7 install disc in to see how Windows would display the hard disk - would it show the partitions?

But Windows 7 asked to "Install" and I didn't want to risk it. I was tempted to click "Repair" but didn't know which (32 or 64 bit) Windows was installed on the machine.

At this point, I was instead going to use Hiren's or Ultimate Boot CD to run TestDisk and view (and possibly repair) the partition table. But upon rebooting, the machine went straight into Windows 7, it was fixed!

Seems that the Windows disc automatically repaired the MBR or partition table on the hard disk without even asking me!