usb flash recognised in rEFInd latest, but doesn't boot

[Mihai]

I don't know if my issue is strictly win7 issue, or mac issue or rEFInd issue (system details are last in this post)
I chose to post here, trying to get some help.

Since yesterday, my win7 refuses to boot correctly.
I did 3 things, in the last good session, which could cause this havoc.
1. I use ccleaner with more options checked in windows section (mostly logs, but some other options which appeared safe to me). Maybe ccleaner deleted some windows files, i don't know.
2. I checked udefrag menu option for defragging at boot time. I use it frequently, i doubt udefrag did something.
3. I ran a sfc /scannow because a persistent nasty issue with languages and language bar. sfc command had some issues with drivers i believe, i'm not sure. unfortunately, i wasn't paying too much attention.

After these 3 actions, the following restart brought the havoc.
Win7 appears to boot, windows logo animation appears, then black screen, then restart.
In safe mode, drivers load and load, then long pause, black screen, restart. the same.

I could't see rEFInd menu either, it booted automatically from bootcamp/win7.
But I used Alt, booted from OSX, and installed rEFInd latest version => everything back to normal with rEFInd.

I tried everything I could, all F8 options (unfortunately, i lack a recent system restore point).
I tried startup repair, but win7 cannot repair automatically.
Unknown bugcheck.
Repair action: system files integrity check and repair
Result: Failed. Error code = 0x490

I wanted to try sfc /scannow from command prompt (from startup repair), but it says a system repair is pending, so no.

I wanted to repair win7, from my 2 usb win7 drives (created i believe with rufus, i don't remember exactly).
From these usb drives I've installed win7 in the past (I had rEFInd version 9, i believe, back then)
What's very weird is that rEFInd recognises them both, but neither drive boots now. My mac tries to boot from them, but it falls back to automatically boot from Bootcamp.

My main objective now is to somehow boot from those usb drives, to repair windows.
(even if i can't repair it, i cannot install win7 from usb drive now)

Anyone can have some idea about what is happening?
I tried to be as descriptive as I could.

Big thank you for anyone who can bring some light here.

My system is:
Macbook pro mid 2009
MacBookPro5,2
boot ROM version MBP52.008E.B05)
OSX 10.9.4
rEFInd latest version as of today

[Mihai]

up to now, very high probabilty is not refind issue.
it's windows issue almost certain.

and apparently my macbook pro doesn't actually support usb booting. When I installed win7, I tried all possibilities, including usb drives and an external dvd writer. And only the external dvd writer helped me, from what I recall right now.

nevertheless, I will add here the progress of my issue (maybe it will help others)

[Mihai]

I solved it.
It was a win7 registry issue.
Solution was to recover the working copy of registry from c:\windows\system32\config\RegBack folder

And the only way to do it, in my case, was to boot from an external drive (as laptop original dvdwriter is gone)
MacBook Pro mid 2009 (and probably all previous versions) can boot only from dvd.

Anyway, the method is presented in this article:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/fix-windows-7-infinite-reboot-loop/

I hope it will save some time and trouble to people in my situation.