Windows 10: Inaccessible Boot Drive after Update?

Since yesterday (15 Jan 2018) I started to encounter this issue. At first I did not know what caused it, but this morning (16 Jan) it happened again and this time I was prompted to restart my PC for a hardware update.

When I restart my PC, Windows tells me that my Boot SSD is inaccessible! It then tries to fix it, but it fails. I am then stuck in this endless boot loop where windows tells me that my SSD is inaccessible and where it tries to fix it and constantly fails.

The only way out is to do a system restore which in my case is the 11th of January 2018. My PC then works normally until Windows downloads and installed what ever update it is trying to install and then the whole process starts all over again!

I have Windows 10 Home and I can therefore not turn the auto update feature off until MS has fixed what ever is causing this! Talk about being screwed over!

My SSD is about two years old, so it could be showing signs of wear and tear, but why only now and why only after an update. I can restart my PC as many times as I want, just not after this update what every it is that MS is trying to update.

Anyone has any thoughts?

:)

 

Inaccessible boot drive

Hello Patrick,

Since the issue occurs after an update, possible that corrupted Windows system files are causing the issue or this is
due to a boot device failure. To help you out with your concern, we advise performing Automatic Repair using Windows 10 installation media and check if the issue persists. To do so, you may follow the steps
provided below on how to perform Automatic Repair using an installation media:

• Boot your computer using a Windows 10 installation media such as a USB drive or DVD. If you don't have a Windows 10 installation media, you may create one by following the instructions on this link.
• On the Windows Setup Wizard, click Next and then click on Repair your computer.
• Click on Troubleshoot.
• Click on Advanced options.
• Click on Automatic Repair and follow the prompts.

Keep us posted so that we can assist you further.

 

inaccessible boot drive

i upgraded from windows 8.1 to 10. after doing so i decided to clean install windows 10 using a dvd with an iso burned with it. i waited for about 3 hrs for the "resetting this pc 99%" then it restarted and now i have the inaccessible boot drive.

steps i did.

-changed the boot priority to cd/dvd (not working)

-changed the boot priority to usb (copied the iso to the usb)

it still isn't able to let me install windows 10 and still keeps looping on blue screen.

btw, im using dell xps studio 8100. not sure if this is important.

any help will be appreciated.

 

What processor do you have?

Microsoft meltdown security patch makes some AMD PCs unbootable

 

It's and older Intel Core i7-2600K, so I don;t think this is it, but I will read it for interest sake.

 

You can identify and then hide the update (i.e. stop it).

Windows Update Minitool (free) is useful for this, or see
Hide or Show Windows Updates in Windows 10 Windows Update Activation Tutorials

However, whilst this will work for a time, a later update may cause the same problem.

- so is this a driver update that is causing the problem?

 

1) See what happens if you restore the computer environment with internet disconnected or the router off.
2) run sfc /scannow
3) run chkdsk /x /f /r
(This may take many hours)
4) Then turn off Windows updates of non-Microsoft drivers.
5) Then reconnect to the internet and perform Windows updates.

As Windows has upgraded some of the options in this link may no longer be available. Starting with option #3 should still work or be available.
Enable or Disable Driver Updates in Windows Update in Windows 10 Windows Update Activation Tutorials

 

Guys,

Thank you for all your help. I have tried everything and things seem to have changed, but not for the better! At least I know that My SSD is ok and that it has not plans to retire just yet!

What happens now is that my D-Drive (Hard Drive) disappears as soon as the system goes into idle. No, the hard drives do not switch off during that time, so it's not that the drives needs to start up again.

Restarting my PC brings up that old familiar Inaccessible Boot Drive message even after the drive has been working perfectly before.

Thinking of it, maybe I should just take the plunge and re-install Windows. It's a hell of a lot of work to re-install all your software again, but if that is the way out, then so be it! To repair your Windows on every re-boot is also not what I have in mind.

Thanks anyway!

 

also dealing with this morning..
T5500 Dell precision - older Dual Xeon CPUs

Updates as of ~4am this morning so should be Jan 13-15 2018 updates causing issues.

AV is vipre and is compatible and had correct flags in registry already - checked that last week.

attempted restore to prior to first update - no go...

attempted a few things via additional tools

cmd

bootrec /fixmbr - sucessfull
bootrec /fixboot - access denied
bootrec /rebuildbcd - 0 installs found.

doing cd c: found c: is nothing
cd d: is second drive - found correctly
cd e: is correct OS drive SSD -

chkdsk e: /F - ran fine (quick run)
currently running
chkdsk e: /R - longer run but moving - still waiting...

will try to update as I go along....
reading more of step 5 in this article currently as this I've done before - on other machines in the past...
glad I kept the office at Windows 7 vs upgrading to 10 with all this junk MS is doing...
currently running
How to Rebuild the BCD in Windows [10 to 20 Minutes]

ran 5-10 commands and still no go...

attempting to do restore on Jan 11 Update when C++ update was installed...
otherwise going the dism route to uninstall 2 updates installed on Jan 15 I believe...
GRRRR

 

Hi,
I have also been having the same problem since January 13, 2018 using Windows 10 at home. I was updating Itunes and when I had to restart after that update I started getting the BSOD and the "Inaccessible Boot Drive" message. It just keeps looping and won't get past those series of screens. None of my restore points were prior to January 13, 2018 for some reason, my fault for not setting up a better restore patter or having a backup on a USB drive.

I have a 1TB Seagate Barracuda HDD that Windows 10 was originally on. I had also just recently installed a 500GB Samsung SSD, however, I had not had the time to transfer the operating system to the SSD. I just had PUBG and another game installed on the SSD. Needless to say, after researching some topics, I decided to install my original Windows 7 from CD to my SSD to at least get something running. That worked and I can even access my 1TB Seagate HDD so I didn't lose any files, I just can't get the computer to boot using the Seagate drive.

I followed the steps the previous posters had suggested and none of those seemed to work either. At this point I am more concerned about conserving my files from my original HDD and getting those backed up online since I primarily only use my PC for gaming.

Not sure if anyone has seen a resolution out there on the internet that worked for them, if so please share so I can give it a try. Thanks,

Jamie

 

I also had SSD in mine -
the Jan 11 restore worked for me... the dism route removes updates that may have caused...
but yes a complete and total $*&T show by MS updates on these....

Currently have patches Paused on my 1709 Machine
only have about 5-8 windows 10 systems rest left all Win 7 64 due to the update process not being controlled...
MS new plan is web managed endpoints... pay for the ability to control updates... probably only enterprise licenses with SA as well... got angry and didn't read any further...

 

I have the same issue with a Dell Latitude E5570. This laptop has a newer CPU, here's the list of hardware components:

• Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6600U CPU @ 2.60GHz
• 8GBs memory
• AMD Radeon R7 M360 Intel(R) HD Graphics 520
• Intel(R) HD Graphics 520
• Micron NVMe 512GBs
• Wired and wireless network
• Windows 10 Pro, 64-bit

Both the Dell BIOS and drivers are the latest available. The system would run for a while and then, it starts to have issues with flash drive. Mounting the flash drive requires admin access, while earlier it did not. Booting up in the morning brings on Windows auto repair, that settles on the "Inaccessible_boot_device" error.

Restoring from a back up image, Macrium, didn't help. Dell sent a new Micron NVMe drive, but that didn't help either.

Then I see this thread and it's ARGH! *Mad time. You mean to tell me that the MS update broke this laptop? Say it ain't so...

What's the KB number that needs to be rolled back?

 

have to use the DISM via CMD in troubleshooting to find the most recent KB installed....
mine was a C++ but was able to roll back a few days on that one only... ~10/11th jan 2018 - still never checked which KB though and paused updates until mid Feb.

our AV is Vipre 10 Endpoint - which is compatible with all new cpu patches... supposedly.
figure ms should just use google approach to fixing their packages.. think NIX systems are using the opensource fix vs the MS performance impacting fix, but we'll see.

beyond that I have a lot of different packages loaded on this system - could be any one of them installed that "could" conflict with an update... but inaccessible boot - and non of the fixboot commands were fully working, nice work MS...

 

My computer also with an SSD is getting "The boot config data file doesn't contain valid information for an operating system"

File: \BCD
Error Code: 0xc0000098

Startup repair failed
Manual BCD repair failed

Tried the guaranteed Windows Recovery Disks which also failed.

Is this related. Can you point me in the right direction?

Recovery says I need to select an OS first...

 

Please boot your computer with Windows Installation Media and from Windows Recovery Environment start the Command Prompt.

Please type below commands into Command Prompt and press Enter key.

Following commands will repair Master Boot Record (MBR), Boot Sector and BCD Store.


Code: Bootrec /FixMbr Bootrec /FixBoot Bootrec /RebuildBcd[/quote] Restart your computer.


If above commands has not resolved the issue follow below instructions:


Since the BCD store exists and lists a Windows installation, you'll first have to "remove" it manually and then try to rebuild it again. At the prompt, execute the bcdedit command as shown and then press Enter:

bcdedit /export c:\bcdbackup

The bcdedit command is used here to export the BCD store as a file: bcdbackup. There's no need to specify a file extension.

The command should return the following on screen:

The operation completed successfully.

Meaning the BCD export worked as expected.

At this point, you need to adjust several file attributes for the BCD store so you can manipulate it. At the prompt, execute the attrib command exactly like this:

attrib c:\boot\bcd -h -r -s

What you just did with the attrib command was remove the hidden, read-only, and system attributes from the file bcd. Those attributes restricted the actions you could take on the file. Now that they're gone, you can manipulate the file more freely - specifically, rename it.

To rename the BCD store, execute the ren command as shown:

ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old

Now that the BCD store is renamed, you should now be able to successfully rebuild it.

Try rebuilding the BCD again by executing the following, followed by Enter:

bootrec /rebuildbcd

Restart your computer after rebuilding the BCD store.