Windows 10: Laptop no longer booting from HDD or recovery USB

Hello everyone,

My Acer Aspire V3 is refusing to boot to W10 after I forced shutdown when it froze whilst running some large video conversions. I have tried the following:

• Normal reboot results in the Preparing Automatic Repair on the Acer loading for a few seconds after which the screen goes blank with nothing further.
• The W10 recovery flash drive I made from the same installation a while ago doesn't boot in UEFI. In legacy it goes as far as the screen with the blue W10 logo before going blank with nothing further.
• I used HBCD v15 (running on a flash drive made using Rufus) to go into mini XP and try to run chkdsk, but my HDD isn't detected in the disk manager there.
• Parted Magic on HBCD does show my HDD and I can browse the files there, but as far as I'm aware, it's Linux and can't do chkdsk.
• None of the DOS based programmes on HBCD load because of a High Memory Area error, so I can't try any of the tools there.

Frankly, without a BSOD or any error message, I really don't know where to go from here. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

:)

 

fix MBR using bootable external hard drive

I tried to dual boot with andriod-x86 and windows 10. But messed up with something and windows 10 no longer boot.

I think it is the corrupted MBR that need to be fixed. I can no longer boot into recovery too.

My laptop does not have a DVD driver nor I have the windows installation media. I upgraded my hard drive to SSD a while ago, therefore, I have the bootable hard drive (HDD) comes with the laptop, which have the windows 8.1.

Is it possible to boot from the HDD and fix the MBR on the SDD. If so, how? I can google how to fix, but I am not sure whether I should mount the SDD after externally boot from HDD via usb.

 

Can't recover Windows 10 disk image to a new disk

Before my laptop HDD failed I used Windows 10 to make a disk image. Then I got a simple system working with a second hand disk by booting from a USB stick with Microsoft recovery on it and selecting Reset PC.

I booted again from the USB stick and it found my image on a portable USB disk.

However when I tried to recover the image the option to reset the partitions was grayed. Then after clicking next it started the recovery but soon stopped with the error 'Recovery to backup storage location is not allowed'

How can I get my original system on to the new HDD?

 

Hi and welcome to TF.
Maybe you could use this Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Forums if you have access to another computer.

 

Create a new Windows installer using Rufus. Under Partition Scheme, choose GPT partition Scheme for UEFI. or use the Media Creation Tool. How to install Windows 10 from USB with UEFI support

 

Thanks very much for your swift reply. My other device is a mac and I'm not sure if it would create the bootable USB correctly. I'll give it a go, else I'll try to borrow someone's PC for a few minutes.

Thank you for pointing this out.

 

That might not help in case HDD is damaged which seems to be the case. Disk could be checked from Hyhi's utility.

 

Im sure it was the Media Creation Tool I used to create the recovery disk...it was a while ago. I used Rufus for HBCD and probably selected the wrong partition scheme.

I'll try what you've suggested. Thank you.

 

Unfortunately i fear you may be right.

I'm not familiar with PartedMagic but came across GSmartControl which had some tests I could run. It says there was a read failure after completing 10%.

Not sure what to do with this information. I'll wait till I create the disk you suggested.

 

I'm not having any luck booting from this. It was written with Rufus using GPT and I've disabled secureboot on my laptop as I read sometimes this interferes with booting from external media. Still won't boot.

The recovery tools can't be written using MBR for legacy boot according to Rufus, so I'm a bit stumped...

 

1) perform a power reset:
How to do a "hard reset" on many laptops - Lenovo Community
2) find 3 flash drives that you can format (> or = 8 GB )
3) Create a brand new bootable Windows 10 iso
Download Windows 10
4) Create a bootable Memtest86+ version 5.01 flash drive:
Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool
5) Create a bootable Ubuntu/Linux flash drive:
Create a bootable USB stick on Windows | Ubuntu tutorials


Boot from USB Drive on Windows 10 PC Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials:
Boot from USB Drive on Windows 10 PC Windows 10 Tutorials

Note
If you have fast boot or ultra fast boot enabled in your UEFI firmware settings, then you will need to temporarily disable fast boot or ultra fast boot to be able to boot from a USB.
How to Enable Fast Boot or Ultra Fast Boot in UEFI Firmware Settings for Windows:
Enable or Disable Fast Boot in UEFI Firmware Settings for Windows Windows 10 Tutorials

1. Try another USB stick
2. Try all USB ports (2.0 and 3.0)
3. Maybe when using UEFI Bios you have to temporarily switch to Legacy in BIOS settings
4. Turn off temporarily fast boot, secure boot, CSM if enabled

 

According to this link: Booting to the Boot Menu and BIOS
Your laptop use F2 to access BIOS and F12 to access Boot Menu.

It will take a while to boot. Sometimes several minutes, Did you wait long enough ?

HBCD only works with MBR disk type and will not recognize GPT disk.

If still cannot boot from Recovery disk. Use your friend's computer and download Macrium Rescue disk from my G-Drive: MacRescue.iso - Google Drive
The iso is: MacRescue.iso, about 258MB.
NOTE: Use F2 to access BIOS: enable Boot Menu, disable Secure Boot, disable CSM.

• Connect the USB to the PC. Use Disk Management (Win+R->Disk Management) to find out the disk # of the USB
• Open Admin Command Prompt (Win+R->Command Prompt (Admin) and type:
  diskpart
  select disk # =====> where # is the disk number from step 1
  clean
  convert MBR
  create partition primary
  format fs=fat32 quick
  assign letter=R
  active
  exit
  bootsect /nt60 R: ====> This will updates the master boot code for the USB
  exit
• Double click MacRescue.iso. This will mount the iso as a virtual DVD drive with a letter assigned, seen in This PC
• copy the content of the virtual DVD to R: (Your USB)
• Reboot your PC and keep tapping on F12 to access boot menu then select the usb with UEFI prefix to boot into GPT mode
• Once booted. From the Macrium screen, click on Fix Windows Boot problems and follow the screen to complete
  
  
  
• Reboot your PC.

NOTE: If still does not boot then the problem is in the C drive, System file(s) corrupted. You would need to boot from the Windows Installation disk to perform custom upgrade. Use step 2 above to create a bootable Windows Installation. Don't use Rufus.

 

Thank you for your replies.

Thanks for this suggestion. I have just done this but still no luck booting to Kyhi in either UEFI or legacy.

It managed to boot to Memtest and ran a full scan reporting no errors.

I will try these steps now, thank you so much.

I have tried 3 USB sticks and all the USB ports. I have turned off SecureBoot. Thank you for these steps, it has helped rule out possible issues.

Thanks for your reply. I managed to find out it's F2 for BIOS and have set USB HDD first on the priority list. Before your post I had left it running for about ten minutes. I just left it for an hour with the same results.

I didn't realise that about HBCD, thank you very much for pointing this out.

Thank you so very much for these steps. I will get onto these now.

 

This is getting more and more like a lost cause. I couldn't boot to MacRescue after trying all 3 USB ports and drives I have. SecureBoot is the only problematic boot option I have, which I turned off. My friend's x64 UEFI W10 laptop (same as mine) did boot to MacRescue, so at least I know the USB is okay. Would corrupt system files also prevent MacRescue from booting? Memtest86+ worked.

Am I right to assume doing a custom upgrade of W10 using the Media Creation Tool will delete all my files? If so, are there any other boot tools you would suggest I try as a last ditch attempt before the inevitable?

 

I see you having same results as in rescue media topic...
Yes a clean install of windows 10 will remove your personal files....
Unless you can boot into windows installation media, and them use command prompt to copy your personal files..

Another option is to remove your drive and use an external HDD enclosure - then use other PC to read your drive..

PESE should boot the PC with the HDD removed..