Windows 10: Dell Inspiron 530 in reboot loop

Today my sons Inspiron 530 tried to update in w10 and now it is stuck in a constant reboot loop. I can not get into safe mode no matter what keys I press. I get the splash screen, then says something, then says trying to restore previous os and then I get the windows logo and spinning dots and then shuts down and starts over again. I tried re-installing W10 but can not get out of loop. There is information on HD that needs to be saved. any suggestions will be appreciated. Tried windows repair with USB W10 and after 45 minutes said it could not be repaired.

:)

 

Window 10 won't progress past Welcome screen

I have just upgraded from windows 7 to windows 10 on a Dell Inspiron 530. On boot up the program proceeds to a Welcome screen then reverts to a black screen with a mouse pointer. After some time it reboots to the same point and then continues in a loop.
I am unable to access my computer.

 

Windows 10 USB Devices not working after installation

The make and model of my computer being an old Dell Inspiron 530

 

Assuming the hard drive is not corrupt, you could take the drive out and temporarily install it in another PC to try and copy data, or install it in an external USB enclosure.

Considering the age of the I530 (Dell only has XP and Vista drivers) the hard drive is probably failing and will need replaced. If you can get the user data off, you can try reformatting the hard drive during installation and that may work. But for an old system it may be better to just replace the drive with a new one.

Another reason to have a full hard drive (all partitions) backup. Not for "if" its ever needed but for "when" its needed.

 

Thanks for replying fireberd. I did clone the HD to another so I could have one to work with and not lose the original. I did try that one in another newer Dell computer. Dell Support runs and says I may have a corrupt OS or a boot device is not enabled in bios. setup. I checked bios and changed from dual boot to windows legacy and still get the constant reboot. It flashes "attempting to recover previous windows" & then flashes "restoring your previous version" & thenround & round I go. Is there a program I can D/L to a cd that may let me recover their files? My son & his wife think I can fix anything on a computer because they don't have time to make a clone of the HD.

 

I don't know of a program, if you can't just access the drive from another computer and copy off what you want.
From what you've posted, the drive will have to be reformatted and Windows installed (and other programs). It doesn't sound good for doing any other recovery of Windows.

I do some support on the Dell forums and there was a post there about a similar (not the same but similar) problem and it looks like that user is going to have to do a "clean" install of Windows 10.

 

Thank you fireberd. I just installed W10 on another HD and installed Recuva to it and have the other drive hooked up as secondary and trying to recover files from it. It says it is scanning the files now. I will report back if it works.

 

Recuva gave me a lot of files with a lot of names, however I am not a tech who understands tech language. I then used to old fashion way by opening the old drive and copying all docs, pics, and everything else and then copying them into the folders of the new install. I was able to restore just about everything when it started to update. I thought it updated everything and was running fine. But now I see it want to update more security, so I think I will be back where I started hrs. ago. I am cloning to another HD as a backup in case that is what happens. I don't know of any way to D/L 1709 without the fix at the same time.

 

OK--The new install updated 1709 without any problems. It did take a few hrs because of the D/L and a slow Internet. But I have everything installed and all programs updated. My son & his wife will have to D/L & install their programs & fine tune it back to their specs. I guess I have added a little more time to this old computer.
For those that may have the same problem of not getting out of constant reboot loop here is what I did:
First I cloned original HD to a spare & used that one as a test drive to save Docs & Pics on the original.
When nothing worked I used another spare to D/L a new install of W10.
Then I used that HD as Master & Test HD as spare & was able to see data on test drive & copy it to Master Drive. Then copied all data into proper folders on Master.
Then it was just time consuming updating everything. I did hold my breath until all Windows 10 updates were installed, esp. 1709.
Now I am cloning the HD so we will have a backup. I guess it will be up to me to keep it current.

Thanks fireberd for all of your advice. It was much appreciated.