Windows 10: Identifying Hard Boots

Our users have somehow gotten the idea that it is okay for them to hard boot their machines whenever they think something is taking longer that it should. As you might imagine, this has caused us a lot of headaches, including needing to build replacement machines because people hard boot when Windows is installing updates (Even though the screen shows that Windows updates are being installed and instructs the user not to power off the machine). We are doing the best we can to educate our users, and word is starting to get around that hard booting at every little hiccup is a bad idea. Nonetheless, we still have people who hard boot their machines.


I have been trying to find a way to identify for certain when a machine has been hard booted. Thus far, all I have come up with is errors in the event log which indicate that the previous shutdown was unexpected (For example, a 6008 error in the System log). However, those kinds of errors can have many causes, including power outages, overheating, blue screens, and hard booting. I realize that when power is suddenly lost to a machine, it is basically impossible to log that error, but a hard boot is a purposeful action, and I am hoping that maybe some smart engineer has figured out a way to build a detection mechanism in to the hardware (i.e. The power button has been depressed for 5 seconds) and log the event before the machine loses power.


Does anyone know if there is a way to positively identify when a hard boot occurs?


Thanks in advance for any information that you can provide.


--Tom

:)

 

Boot Process

Hi,

Please suggest me a link that can explain the boot process step by step of ...

• Windows 7,
• Windows 8.1,
• Windows 10,
• Windows Server 2008 R2 and
• Windows Server 2012 R2

With Regards

InTech

 

Good surround sound headset

I know you say you're not that guy, but stepping into the $250+ range really brings a change in build quality that might have you never having to buy another set. Otherwise, getting 6 speakers with decent sound in a headset is hard, and that's what you are asking for, and I have no suggestions, but just a bump up the list. *Stick Out Tongue

 

Can't boot Windows 10, UEFI bootloader GPT partitioned system drive. Tried bootrec (Total identified Windows installations: 0)

Hi, I am trying to help a friend repair her son's computer so I don't have a lot of context as to what happened prior to this issue, but I will try to be as comprehensive as I can in describing what steps I've taken so far.

Initial Observations

This is a Windows 10 PC, with a 2 TB disk. It is UEFI enabled and GPT partitioned. Computer boots up and immediately begins
Preparing Automatic Repair. The computer reboots without going to the Choose an option menu and boot-loops through this sequence.

Method 1

• F11 to force boot options menu
• Boot into local disk recovery partition
• Launch cmd prompt in recovery environment
• Commands issued:
  • bootrec /fixboot
    • The operation completed successfully.
  • bootrec /rebuildbcd
    • OUTPUT: Total identified Windows installations: 0

Method 2

• Created recovery drive on my own Windows 10 PC
• Booted problem PC with the recovery drive
• Attempted startup repair multiple times (no luck)
• Attempted bootrec commands again (no luck)

Method 3

I attempted the solution suggested
HERE. At step 5, I got this error:

Path not found - C:\boot

So I changed the operations for steps 5 & 6 to target the system recovery volume on the disk: