Windows 10: Windows 10 won't boot, and automatic repair won't work

Nope, Macrium Reflect boot repair didn't work. After it ran, I restarted and the Windows 10 logo came up, then the little circle of rotating dots, then the logo disappeared and the little dots just kept going round and round and round and round.

 

In my #5 there are a couple of things you've not tried: for example

Boot from your Win 10 boot medium - try Startup Repair. (You can see where the option is in
Boot Windows 10 In Safe Mode When PC Is Not Booting
)

And did you try the cold boot (power down- disconnect power- reconnect- reboot) which was suggested?

If no joy, see
Fix the MBR – Guide for Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10
section
Fix the MBR in Windows 10

Finally, if none of the above helps, please list this small file:
C:\Windows\System32\LogFiles\Srt\srttrail.txt

 

First off, yes, I tried the cold boot without success.
Second, I can't get to safe mode using any option I've seen. One item however, my sign in page is back, still sans the sign in box.
I downloaded the easy recovery essentials, but for some reason I cannot boot from it. The bios says boot ready, but then bypasses it and continues on to the non boot boot. When trying to read the disk using Kyhi's boot disk it says something about not being able to read an image disk, or read from a disk not formatted in NTFS. The easyRE site says they have a video on how to burn the disk, but I can't find it. Also my system won't boot from a USB *cry

 

Hi, as far as I can see you've still to try

1. Boot from your Win 10 boot medium - try Startup Repair. (You can see where the option is in
Boot Windows 10 In Safe Mode When PC Is Not Booting

(You can readily download Win 10 - see the Tutorial section if unsure or you don't have one).

2. You can boot from your Win 10 boot medium and try booting to Safe Mode that way. - have you done that?

3. I'm not familiar with Easy recovery essentials, sorry.
Note it does say you can use the Win 10 bootable medium - all you have to do is use a command prompt. It just should be easier with Easy recovery essentials.

The article says:

4.

Bear in mind that when Windows is installed, it creates 4 partitions, only one of which is your Windows partitions. Are you perhaps trying to read on of the others?

5. Often people make a mistake creating bootable USB disks. Not something I've ever done, but there are plenty of references to that on this forum, and comments on how to, and a tutorial, if I recall.
USB Flash Drive - Create to Install Windows 10

There's also a video
Windows 10 instructional videos by Ten Forums members

====================================================

If none of the above works or is feasible for you, then last ditch before a clean install is:
1. Create a disk image of your Windows partition with Macrium Reflect (free)
2. Delete all Windows partitions using e.g. Minitool's Partition Wizard boot disk (free)
3. Install Win 10 to the unallocated space - make sure it boots ok.
4. Replace the newly created Win 10 partition with that from your disk image
5. Boot from your Win 10 install disk and run Startup Repair.

 

Well, I managed to EasyRE onto a disc using their link to imgbrn. On firing up the PC it loads to a menuwhich includes Automatic Repair and Browse/Backup files. When choosing Automatic Repair, it says to select an OS, but none are listed, only three volumes, the recovery partition, the boot volume, and the external disk I attached to use for backing up some files. When choosing the boot volume I get the message "The selected partition does not contain a valid Windows installation. You've either selected a data drive, or the volume has been formatted and cannot be repaired. Please select a different drive to continue". So, going back I selected backup, browsed to my User file and attempted to copy that to my external. The program froze. That was on normal startup.
Starting in safe mode, the program hits an error reading from address b66c and stops.
So, asy Recovery Essentials was a bust. I will have more time this weekend to search for a downloadable Windows 10 boot file and possibly contact EasyRE support. Right now I need to leave for my 12 hour a day job. Thanks for sticking with me in this.

 

BTW, I am back to square one with the Windows 10 start page that won't allow me to sign in, that started all this.

 

Hi, it sounds like your Windows partition may be damaged, or your disk is failing.

I understand you have a complete backup now.

1. Boot from Kyhi's disk, and use Crystal Diskinfo (free portable program - it doesn't seem to be on the disk already) to check your disk's SMART parameters. Post the result (blue/orange/red).

2. Boot from Kyhi's disk, and use Macrorit DiskScanner (free portable program - not on the disk already) to check your disk's surface. Post the result.

3. Use Minitool Partition Wizard on that disk to view your partitions. Post the screenshot.

If your disk is failing, well, that's clear.
If not, I suspect you'll need to clean install if you have no previously created good disk images.

 

OK, let's see where we are. I downloaded Crystal diskinfo and it resulted in good status (blue). I couldn't get a program called reimage pc repair to work I got "Repair terminated unexpectedly! This PC cannot be repaired by Reimage - severely damaged registry hives". Macrorit DiskScanner couldn't install, "One or more files were missing or damaged, please reinstall the software". I redownloaded it from the author, Download.com, Major geeks, and a couple of other sources with the same result. In looking for a different disk scan program I came upon Seatools for Windows. This program passed all the basic tests, SMART, short drive self test, short generic read test, and the long generic read test. I then downloaded Minitool. I don't know how to do a screen shot, so I took a picture of the partition page, along with a picture showing there were no surface errors. I can't seem to upload the pictures for some reason. Oops, files were too large.

 

Hi, I can't comment on anything to do with Reimage as it's not a product I know.

Summary:
Your disk seems to be ok, so that's good. (Surface scan ok).
Macrium Reflect boot repair hasn't helped.
You did an AV scan and removed 9 threats.
You appear to be using legacy BIOS and MBR.
Your system reserved partition has a drive letter- it shouldn't.
Reimage says "This PC cannot be repaired by Reimage - severely damaged registry hives" "

You haven't attempted
- the MBR repair I suggested in #15
- Startup repair using a Win 10 boot disk as in #15

1. Please try this first and advise what it reports:
Boot from a Win 10 installation medium, click Repair Your PC when that appears, and navigate to Startup Repair.
Windows 10 ISO Download
You mentioned you can't boot from a USB drive, so burn the iso to a DVD.

2. If this reports it can't find an OS, then based on the report of a corrupted registry, please restore the backup registry.
The Windows 10 backup copy of the registry is under:
C:\Windows\System32\config\RegBack
Boot up the PC Kyhi's disk
(or if you prefer a Win 10 bootable installation disk and navigate to a command prompt)
and copy all files under RegBack to C:\Windows\System32\config

Then try rebooting.

If that fails, try a startup repair.

Screenshot:
Easy if booted normally.
From the tutorials here:
Screenshot - Take in Windows 10
Also on a laptop there's PrtSc (whole screen to paste buffer).

I would guess the Win 10 snipping tool is available when booting from Kyhi's disk.

 

Frustration level is mounting. I downloaded the Windows 10 iso from the link you gave me, but I couldn't burn it to DVD with the program windows supplied, or imgburn, a different error each time and I wasted four dual layer disks. Then I tried booting up with Kyhi's disk to use the cmd and try and replace the registry backup, only to be unable to find that folder. ugh *cry

 

I decided to bypass the cmd, went to This PC, and followed the path you laid out for RegBack. I found it, copied it, replaced the files in config, and rebooted. Updates were installed, providing me with a little hope, unfortunately shortlived as my sign in page without the sign in reappeared. I still need to find a Windows 10 install, as my computer was an update to an update online, leaving me with no physical disk.

 

Not sure I understand that- it sounds as if after using the backup registry, you could log in, then received some Windows updates, then were left with a reboot to a login screen without the usual box to fill in a password.

Is that correct?

You might be seeing the initial lock screen, which is just a picture after a restart.
Try pressing SPACE or ENTER.

If you see sthg else, please post a photo.

This might be relevant
No login prompt at login screen

(feel free to search for more related threads)

 

I had a very similar problem with my Win 10 pro. System would attempt boot and I would get the automatic repair option.
Tried all the options there including advanced. Could not get into Safe mode.
Booted using KYHI's flash drive and selected All Programs, Lazesoft, Windows Recovery and finally One Click Fix..
Rebooted using my SSD and I was good to go. This issue occurred intermittently for me because of a bad removable drive bay but I was always able to recover using the above KYHI Windows Recovery option.

In your case however, you have already made so many attempts to repair that this option may not work. I would however give it a shot as I don't think you have anything to lose at this point as long as you have an image or clone of your current C drive.

 

When I rebooted after reloading the registry a blue screen came up saying windows updates were installing with a percentage countup. then my signin page appeared. I'm attaching a picture of my sign in page. When I hit enter, or spacebar, or click anywhere with a mouse, I see my icon, my name, and a swirling ring of dots where my password usually gets entered, for a millisecond, then it's gone, the date, time and monitor icons scroll up, and return to their original positions. I couldn't capture the center icons because my camera isn't fast enough.

 

I suspect with you'll you've done now, you've little chance of recovering your system as is.

Can you log in in safe mode? (Using a Win 10 boot disk to give you the option?)

This might be relevant.
No password prompt at login screen. Can not login.

Else time to bite the bullet, back up any data you might need and clean install.

And when you do, start to use disk imaging routinely, as we repeatedly strongly recommend - to hopefully avoid disaster, wasting a great deal of time, effort and frustration- even if your disk fails.