Windows 10: INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE after upgrade from Win 7

Hi,

A friend turned his computer (Dell Vostro) on this morning to find that it had tried to upgrade itself to Windows 10. Now when it starts, it gets an INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE blue screen and tells you to restart. I've tried changing the AHCI/ATA setting in the bios, but that doesn't help. I've also tried booting from Win 10 install media to get to the recovery environment. When I do that, it shows a screen that says that it is in the middle of an upgrade and that I should remove the media and restart if I want to continue the upgrade or otherwise do a clean install. I would prefer not to do a clean install, since everything was set up the way he wanted it and working fine before this 'upgrade'.

I've read that sometimes booting into safe mode or removing certain drivers can resolve this problem, but I can't figure out how to do either one. Any ideas?

:)

 

I upgraded my system from windows 7 to windows 10 and do clean up my pc after that my sys is unable to boot displaying inaccessible_boot_device error.

How to fix this issue inaccessible_boot_device in windows 10? This happens after upgrading my system from windows 7 to windows 10 and when I use resting my device.

 

Windows 10 Start-up Error "INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE"

I have the same issue. Upgraded to Windows 10 from Windows 7. Windows not working exactly correct, so tried to reset it. Then I get the message "INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE." . Haven't tried the suggestions.

 

You will need to follow it: Troubleshooting stop 0x7B and stop 0xED. - Windows 7 Help Forums

Edit: Check the Point 6 at first.
For running startup repair, follow this link:
Startup repair: Startup Repair - Run in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

 

The bios is set to boot from the HD first. Tried both IDE and AHCI modes - same result. Ran disk check from a Win 10 PE environment - no problems found. I ran SMART tests on the HD and it checks as OK. There are three partitions:

1. <unnamed> FAT16 38.98MB Primary
2. Recovery NTFS 18.57GB Primary
3. OS NTFS 447.15GB Primary

Partition #2 is set as active. If I set #1 as active it boots to a Dell utility prompt. If I set #3 to active, I get a message saying that it can't find an OS. I can't find a way to run startup repair, since I don't get any option to do so when I boot off of the HD or from a Win 10 installation DVD.

Thanks.

 

Can you post a camera snap of the full computer screen with Partition Wizard running?

About Startup Repair .... do you see such an option there when you boot form the installation media?

Startup Repair will be there.

 

When I boot from installation media, I get a dialog box with the following message:

It looks like you started an upgrade and booted from installation media. If you want to continue with the upgrade, remove the media from your PC and click Yes. If you want to perform a clean installation instead, click No.

Here is the partition map:

 

The 39 MB one is the OEM partition. It should not have a drive letter.
The 18.57 GB one is the recovery partition, and it also should not have a drive letter there.
The F one should be C.

First rectify it. Remove the drive letters E and C (Drive Letter: None), then Assign C to the OS. Follow these:

• How to change drive Letter - partition software Partition Wizard Help
• How to Change Volume Letter | MiniTool Partition Wizard Tutorial

Keep the Recovery partition as Active; it is a must.

Now try to boot the computer. Does it work?

If not, rebuild MBR.

• How to Rebuild MBR | MiniTool Partition Wizard Tutorial
• How to Fix MBR for Windows 8 When Operating System Cannot Boot

The computer should boot now.

If still not, boot into the BIOS. Make it sure that all the boot options are set to "Legacy" and secure boot is turned off.

Report back after that.

Its midnight here at my place. I will go to bed now. In the morning I have to go to work. So it will take 17-18 hours for me to get back to the forum. In the mean time I hope the other members of the forum will guide you in case of a necessity.

 

Was the upgradation completed?

A closer reading gives a hint that it was not. A restart in between the upgrade caused the stop 0x7B.

If so, you have to complete the upgradation, or perform a clean reinstall.

 

Thanks again. I did everything that you asked but it didn't help. I would continue the upgrade if I knew how, but I think that something may have become corrupted. I'm still open to suggestions though.

 

There might be a chance that the UEFI settings have kicked in during the failed upgradation process. Start a few more things .....
► Delete the 39 MB FAT32 partition. It will not hurt anything.
► Boot into the BISO. Make it sure that there is no UEFI option is enabled. If anything over the entire BIOS setup is set to UEFI, set it to Legacy only/legacy first. If there is any option for "CSM", enable/launch it.

Report the result back.

 

Sorry, that didn't help. I also tried booting off of the installation media again after deleting the partition and rebuilding the MBR. Nope.

 

Hi there
I've found two problems when trying to install W10 that have nothing to do per se with Windows.

1) If you have any SD cards in your system - remove them while doing initial Windows install -- they can be put back into the system after install.
2) More than 4 HDD's or 4 Partitions -- Windows also goes Bonkers with "Cannot install Windows to this partition.

Another possible problem -- If you've got some sort of RAID controller and the driver isn't loaded ad Windows install time.

Disable secure boot too - it's just a HASSLE. You can still use UEFI if you want to - then ensure boot HDD is GPT formatted.

Cheers
jimbo

 

IMHO we should check it (just to be sure) that the disk is not failing itself (which is a major cause of 0x7B).
Try Seatools for DOS. It is the best bootable disk check.
* If you see that Seatools for ODS is not booting, pay attention to this caution for AHCI users.
If it also comes clean, then (in the present situation) it would be best to attempt for a clean install.

 

That was one of the first things that I mentioned - the disk looks fine. In fact, I've already been able to copy all of his personal files off to an external drive. Thank you very much for all your effort.