Windows 10: Unable to boot into Windows - Disk Corrupted

I have a DELL Inspiron 17R SE 7720.
I was running Windows 10. A couple of weeks ago or so, I installed some Windows updates. Immediately after the update and subsequent restart, I noticed that my Disk usage started to fluctuate wildly, spiking with considerable frequency to 100% and then coming back down, before spiking again.
I tried to reboot my laptop.
However, when I tried to reboot, my laptop wouldn't boot into WIndows, after a long time trying to boot up, it gave me a message saying a device is not found and I should use a recovery or repair disk.
Using the Microsoft Media creation tool, I created a recovery disk on my USB and made it bootable using Rufus.
On my laptop, using my BIOS, I changed my boot to Legacy from UEFI, to enable a boot from USB.
After plugging in the USB disk, I tried booting up from there, which happened successfully, I then tried one of the repair options, i.e., trying to reset my laptop keeping the files. Unfortunately, it said that my Disk was locked and hence a reset could not be performed.
I tried the reset option again after a reboot, but I got the same error message. I then tried to bring up the command prompt with "Shift + F10" on the repair screen, and tried the following :
CHKDSK /R
This reported that the Master File table is corrupt and that it was unreadable, and it would try to get it from the file system. Unfortunately, after waiting a really long time, it failed to get the Master File table.
Subsequently, from the Command Prompt, I tried the following :
BootRec /FixMbr
BootRec /FoxBoot
These operations completed successfully, but as I was to find out, did not help at all.
I then tried the following BootRec command..
BootRec / ScanOs -This told me that there were 0 OS installations
BootRec / RebuildBsd - This also told me that there were 0 OS installations, and would not proceed.
I thought to navigate to the boot folder and rename or remove the existing boot record, in case it was locked or hidden...
So I tried to navigate to
C:\Boot - from the command prompt, but it said the file structure was corrupt and unreadable.. I got the same response if I tried to navigate to any folder on the C Drive.
My disk was functioning normally till the time I installed those updates. I don't think it is a hardware issue, even though my laptop is 3 years old.
I have no idea what can be done now. Apparently, there is no restore point.
I do not wish to re-install Windows, I had a lot of data on the disk, which I do not wish to lose.
Kindly advise.

:)

 

Unable to boot into Windows - Disk Corrupted

Excellent detailed post - sorry about the disk problem though. I would take the hard disk out of the laptop and connect to a working desktop computer (SATA cable) or USB3 caddy (cheap as chips). The former is better as there's no USB interface to complicate
matters.

Then see if you can access data before rebuilding. Preferably use a (host) Windows10 computer as this has a much improved "chkdsk" for fixing disks. There are various utlilites you can try if you go this route.

Hard disk recovery "experts" will say that the more you use the disk the worse it will get. This may be true (if its on its way out) but you have to balance that with how valuable the data is/how much you are prepared to pay to retrieve your data.

 

Unable to boot into Windows - Disk Corrupted

Hello,

We realize the inconvenience you are experiencing with not able to boot to your system. We will certainly help you.

As the error Master File table is corrupt and that it was unreadable itself states that the system files are corrupted and so you are not able to boot to the desktop. We see that you have tried all the options to recover but still
the issue is not fixed and also there is no restore point create, so in this scenario you will need to reinstall Windows 10 again so that you can boot to the desktop again.

Follow the steps from the link below and refer to the section
Use installation media to reinstall Windows 10:

Recovery options in Windows 10

Let us know if you need further assistance. We will be happy to assist you further.

Thank you.

 

• If your BIOS was set to UEFI then Windows was installed using GPT partition scheme. There are 2 modes to boot the USB from: Legacy and UEFI, you should not change the BIOS setting to Legacy.
• BootRec /FixMbr and BootRec /FixBoot only work with MBR partition scheme, yours is GPT
  

• Download: Rescue.V6.1.1311.iso - Google Drive and use Rufus to create a bootable USB with format: FAT32, MBR partition scheme for BIOS or UEFI
  
  
  
• set your BIOS back to UEFI and boot up from the USB (select UEFI boot mode).
• Click on "Fix Windows boot problems"
  
  
  
  

 

Thank you. I shall try this and let you know. I am concerned because my disk is coming as unreadable...I do not wish to lose any data.

 

On the screen in step 3 above. On the bottom, there are icons for Command Prompt, File explorer ...
Use File Explorer and try to open C Drive to see if you can save your data from it to another HD, if not try chkdsk /r again, it will take a while to complete depending how corrupted it is.

 

I tried the steps above, but with with very little success.
Even though I made the disk bootable with Rufus the way shown above, booting from USB was absent as an option in my BIOS UEFI boot options. Even when I wanted to create a BOOT option with USB under UEFI, it did not detect my flash drive.

On the other hand, it was perfectly visible in Legacy. So I turned Legacy options on, keeping UEFI Boot option. Aafter reboot, I chose the USB option from legacy. It allowed me to head over to the screen from where any of the above options were possible.

From the file explorer, I could not navigate to any folder within C Drive. Also, it did not show me any properties from C Drive. From the boot option, it failed to detect any OS installed anywhere in the system. However, I asked for a boot fix. Eventually that didn't do anything.

I used the command prompt to run a CHKDSK on C Drive. I got a message saying Master File table is corrupt and that WIndows will attempt to retrieve it from the file system. Unfortunately even after keeping it for 8 hours, nothing happened on this.

When I rebooted the next time, instead of saying that WinLoad.efi is missing, it said some other file within boot cannot be found, and repeated the same advice of using a repair or installation disk.

Any further suggestions, please? Is it a Disk issue? Would it change if I somehow manage to load from USB within UEFI, if so, I'll ry and see how I can make the USB visible as a boot option for UEFI.

 

Check the BIOS with UEFI enabled and secure boot disabled then try to boot the PC with UEFI mode. However, it sounds like your HD is corrupted and depending how corrupted it is, chkdsk will take a long time to fix, you'd need to let it run till finished.