Windows Vista not booting after SP1 install

Hi everyone. I'm repairing a compaq laptop for a friend as he said it was slow and various other things, so before i wanted to check it for viruses/spyware etc i noticed that vista SP1 was waiting to be installed. So, as you do, I started to let it install. So when i came back later it was on a black screen with this error:
0xC01a001d !! 37806/92416 (\registry\machine\components\winners\x86...)

I've searched for this but not found any real answers.

I've tried doing a system restore which hangs on the finalising stage and it wont boot to safe mode or anything. It hangs on the startup repair option too. I'm a bit stuck as I didn't back anything up (didn't think this would happen!) so I cant reformat it. Does anyone have any ideas? Can I do an installation 'over-the-top' as it were like you can with XP?

 

Does it have a full version disk of Vista? I can't find any laptops that are supplied with one, they all seem to use a Recovery partition. You would need to get a retail version of Vista and then go through Activation. I (highly) doubt it could "repair" the Compaq version.

Consider getting an external USB enclosure (if the laptop has e-SATA, get USB + e-SATA). You could take the HDD out and put it in the enclosure, then copy the data off using another computer, put it back in the laptop and re-image ( "recover ") it. Get another 2.5" HDD and put it in the enclosure, put the data on that, then that can be the backup drive.

Matt
PS I suggest you go to Compaq and software suppliers and look up any software and driver updates before going to SP1. It could have been due to malware, although I would rule out updates. Be careful not to end up in the same situation.