Windows 10: Laptop can't boot up - stuck in Windows Recovery

Hi all,


So a series of events have occurred in the past few weeks that led up to this point but essentially when I turn on the laptop (dell xps15) it boots instantly to Automatic Repair and says it couldn't repair the pc etc.


I have tried (almost) everything in the advanced options and nothing works. I do not want a complete wipe because my university thesis is(/was) on here (with no backup - I know it's incredibly stupid but this is the case), so it is ultra important to me to get my files.


Events - Win10 insiders fast track (can't remember what build but after the October update), due to computer crashing when on power saver and reports in the news that a recent Windows build was randomly deleting files, I decided I wanted to go into the slow ring of updates and get off this build, in late November. Switched to slow ring. No updates/reversions (as normal but I thought maybe it be put back on the latest slow ring build). Still had crashes every now and then started getting a pop up saying something like "this build will become obsolete on the 14th December. You are on a later build and will be updated when the slow ring catches up..." Lived like this for a while then after Dec 14th I realised that maybe the later fast ring updates were more stable than this one, so I'd update to that then wait until the slow ring update came. Changed back to fast ring updates a few days ago and it said there was an update. Tried to update, didn't work. Upon restart everything looked normal so I tried it again (it said redownloading and restart for update) failed again. I decided to see whether something was wrong and did stuff like sfc /scannow and a few other commands which didn't find any problems. Then clicked on updater troubleshooter which said "validity of troubleshooter could not be confirmed" or something like that, so tried to fix that. I wasn't allowed to open certain apps in admin mode for some reason (and stuff like right click on Computer was also not allowed) so tried to fix that with some tool some forum said to download and run. Ran that, it tried to change registry stuff (had to run it twice because my bit defender av quarantined registry for some reason) and completed its thing. Restarted then more stuff stopped working like couldn't connect to the Internet and it was taking a while to start up. So I thought sod it let's try to repair windows from the windows recovery menu. Before I did this I thought I created a backup but not sure if it worked and the Windows Recovery didn't find anything. Tried system restore, system image recovery uninstall updates and startup repair to no avail. Then tried reset the pc and to keep the files and then this started happening. It looked as if it got most of the way then at the last second it said it failed and now Windows can't start, not even to any safe mode options. When I choose the command prompt option it's on the x drive and I cannot move to the c drive. I've managed to probe a windows.old folder which has the folders of my thesis (but cannot know if there are any files in them). Tried to use notepad.exe to look for files but the open doesn't work.


When I click "Use another operating system" it shows "Windows 10 On volume 3" twice. The first one repeats booting to Windows recovery and the second just doesn't boot (its just a black screen straight away where sometimes I can see the cursor).


Sorry for the long post, usually I fix these things after a few weeks of trying but I seriously think I've cocked up majorly this time. Does anyone know if this is salvageable?


Thanks for taking the time to read this.

:)

 

How does Windows boot to advanced recovery option e.g. command prompt?

- that gives me a 454 'Unexpected error' This tells me that the BCD is partially corrupted.

The commands: shutdown.exe /r /o /f /t 00
or: %SystemRoot%\System32\Cmd.exe /c reagentc /boottore&shutdown /r /f /t 00
should boot into Recovery if everything is configured correctly.
FYI, If Windows is configured correctly:

1. If Reagentc is disabled, you still can get into Recovery but with limited options.
2. If Reagentc is enabled, you'll get all options.
3. If you boot Windows using Recovery USB stick, You'll get into Recovery with couple of options missing.

Here's my suggestion if you want to try:
OPTION 1: Will save the trouble of re-install Windows.

1. Download the image of my first 3 partitions (450MB Recovery, 100 MB EFI partition, and 16MB unformatted primary)
   EFI_Boot-00-00.7z - Google Drive
2. Run Macrium and restore the image from step 1, overwriting your existing 1st three partitions, leaving C alone.
3. Delete the 490MB Recovery partition.
4. From Macrium, run fix boot problems.
5. Reboot. Open Admin command prompt then run Reagentc /info to make sure that it is enabled. If not, enable it.
   if failed to enable, reboot and try again.

OPTION 2: Assuming you've already had Windows backup with Macrium.

1. Wipe out the first 5 parttiions. (450MB, 100MB, 16MB, C Drive, 480MB)
2. Fresh install Windows 10
3. Restore C drive from backup image, run fix boot problems
4. repeat step 5 from OPTION 1 above.

 

Windows 10 stuck on black screen after boot.


Hi guys, I'm having an issue with my laptop. Updated to Windows 10 Pro x64 about a month ago. Two days ago I shutdown the system just fine but just yesterday when I booted it, it got past the Acer logo during boot followed by a black screen as usual... BUT it stuck there forever. Restarted it multiple times, same result. Sometimes the cursor shows up but its useless as its just the cursor. *Confused

Tried the following things.

• Tried CTRL + SHIFT + ESC for task manager but nothing came up.
• Tried CTRL + ALT t+ DEL still nothing.
• Went through recovery options then selected safe mode but, to my surprise, the same result.
• Then used the chkdsk command through cmd in recovery options, didn't find any problem.
• Ran the sfc /scannow command from boot, didn't found any integrity violations. *Shock

Any suggestions? I still have to try system restore though. *Think

 

android recovery and kernel.img

For thouse who CAN help...:I can't enter adb (device not recognized), can't flash using stock recovery (don't really know the steps and stuck at triage and dead android when in recovery),