Windows 10: Windows won't boot or do a factory reset

I'm beginning to reach the end of the road with my laptop, and I'd rather get it working than get a new one, but I'm a tad bit of a noob, so please explain things clearly, thanks.

Upon my intense dissatisfaction with windows 10, I decided to switch to linux, and I therefore created another partition on my hard drive and installed linux on it. Things were fine for a while, I was using linux fulltime, and despite windows 10 still being on my laptop, I never booted into it. This remained the case for around 2-3 weeks, before I decided to switch back to Windows 10.

However, upon attempting to boot into windows 10, the bootscreen came up, but it just stayed there forever, without booting, so I held the power button to get out of it.

I therefore used a system recovery disk that I made a few months ago when windows 10 was still working to get into the recovery options (I can't access them from the OS itself because I can't get into the OS in the first place.)

I went into Troubleshoot and attempted a full system reset, which I hoped would also remove Linux and in general fix all of the problems. However, the reset failed, and I had no clue why it had done so, and so I attempted a startup repair. It searched for faults and before long was displaying the message "Repairing disk errors. This might take over an hour to complete." with the Toshiba logo above it (brand of my laptop). This made me suspect that there may be some kind of hard drive fault. It was running for a few hours before I stopped it by pressing the power button, because I really did not think it was doing anything.

I can't go back to a previous build of windows 10, because it's been a very long time since I did any major updates on there, and I can't do a system restore or system image recovery, because I have no system image from the past.

So, yeah, a tad bit of a pickle. Can anyone please provide assistance?

:)

 

Can't do a Windows update 1709 or factory reset

Hi,

Since the troubleshooter we provided wasn't able to resolve the issue, it's possible that a third-party program and services are causing the issue. If you're using an antivirus program, we suggest disabling it temporarily and check if the installation of the
update will be successful.

If the issue still persists even after disabling your antivirus program, we recommend booting your computer into a clean boot to disable third-party apps and services that may be causing the issue. Click this
article, then follow the steps on how to boot into a clean boot. After following the steps, try again to install
the update and see if it helps. You may reset the computer to start normally after clean boot troubleshooting, follow the steps on Reset the computer to start normally after clean boot troubleshooting section.

Get back to us with the outcome so we can help you further.

 

Can't do a Windows update 1709 or factory reset

Hi,

Corrupted system files are one of the possible reasons why this issue is happening. To help address the update issue, we recommend performing the Windows Update Troubleshooter to help complete the update. Click this
article, then click Download troubleshooter for Windows 10
link to run the troubleshooter.

For the factory reset issue, we suggest performing a repair upgrade to help resolve corrupted files issues. Click this
Forum Article by Andre Da Costa and follow the steps on
how to perform a repair upgrade.

Keep us in the loop with the result.

 

Hi Adam and welcome to Tenforums.
So, is your data backed up, and you're able to perform a clean install?
You can download the current W10 install media and wipe the hard drive and reinstall from scratch. Because W10 was on there before (and activated, I assume) you will not need to enter a key if asked, and it should activate once it's installed and online.

Windows 10 - Clean Install - Windows 10 Forums

I would choose the custom install, and delete all partitions, so you install to a completely unallocated drive.

If you think the drive needs CHKDSK run on it, you could boot to Kyhi's rescue media and run CHKDSK from there before doing the clean install.

 

Hi Simrick, thanks so much for the fast reply.

Yeah, it is. This entire situation isn't really that bad, because I know that ultimately, all of my personal stuff is still safe, but I would of course like a functional laptop as well, it would be a bonus.

Does that mean that I can modify the hard drive's partitions during the installation process of windows 10?

Sorry, what's a CHKDSK? I'd like to know so I can determine whether or not it's necessary. If so, then I'l look into Kyhi's recovery software. Thanks

 

Yeah, it is. This entire situation isn't really that bad, because I know that ultimately, all of my personal stuff is still safe, but I would of course like a functional laptop as well, it would be a bonus. Okay, as long as the data is safe, we can fix this.

Does that mean that I can modify the hard drive's partitions during the installation process of windows 10? Correct (well, you can delete them, or perform some very basic manipulation). Have a read of the tutorial for a clean installation; you'll see where it mentions custom install and unallocated:






You can delete all partitions on the drive completely, and Windows will create the ones it needs.

Sorry, what's a CHKDSK? I'd like to know so I can determine whether or not it's necessary. If so, then I'l look into Kyhi's recovery software. Thanks CHKDSK (CheckDisk) is the function is was doing for 2 hours when you stopped it because it seemed like it wasn't doing anything. Basically, it checks file structures, security descriptors, journals, etc. You probably don't need to do that if you're deleting all the partitions and starting from scratch. *Smile But it does check for and mark-off bad blocks, which would be good. But, I think your situation was not bad blocks, but more system file/structure problems.

The other option is, if you still have the Toshiba recovery partition, you could boot to that and restore the system to factory condition (usually F12 or something similar - it's different for the different OEMs). But then you would get all the OE bloatware back as well, and may need to install some major updates, (like the November update to v1511, and/or the Anniversary Update v1607 which came out last month). Personally, I'd grab the latest ISO from MS and clean install that way.

 

It all makes sense now. Thanks. My general assumption then is that doing a clean install of windows 10 won't fix bad blocks, but that's probably not an issue anyway.

Oh God, that sounds horrific. I got my laptop at the end of 2014, so it had windows 8.1, and so I'm assuming that it would go back to Windows 8, meaning that I'd need to upgrade to windows 10 with my product key and get rid of all the software and......... Yeah, soz, no. A clean install of windows 10 on a newly formatted hard drive is far better.

Thanks so much for the help, I'm gonna sleep soonish, so I'll leave the ISO downloading overnight and see to it tomorrow. Thanks again.

- Adam

 

Yes, I think in your case, CHKDSK is not needed.

Oh no! We don't want W8 on there! *Eek Yes, clean install and nuke all the partitions. If you have any questions, please ask before you begin. Cheers!

 

Hi, I do have one question, because after skim-reading the clean install tutorial on this forum, I found something about carrying out a slightly different process during one part of the installation, dependant upon whether you are installing in with or without UEFI. Can you please explain what this means and give a recommendation? Cheers.

 

UEFI was available starting with W8, so your system probably has UEFI and Secure Boot. I would use See option #2 here)

Secure Boot might need to be disabled in the BIOS, in order to get the machine to boot from the USB flash drive. However, I have read on one thread that it doesn't, so I would try booting to the USB drive first to see if it's working, and if not, start changing settings in the BIOS. But, the fact that you had Linux on here tells me that you had no problems booting to install that, so maybe I'm not addressing the right thing?

 

Maybe this will help?
What You Need to Know About Using UEFI Instead of the BIOS

What is the difference in - Super User

.

 

I'm referring to steps 12 and 13 in the tutorial here: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1...n-install.html

I think they provide two different methods of wiping the hard drive, dependant upon whether or not your computer is using UEFI. At least that's what I think those steps are talking about. Am I right?

 

Oh I see. In the case of MBR/Legacy boot mode, it's possible to install Windows to a specific partition, and have other operating systems already existing on the same drive (i.e. Linux). You're doing UEFI and Windows 10 only, so you'd want to delete all partitions until it shows one completely unallocated drive, then install W10.

 

Hi, at first, I tried downloading the iso, and took the course of action of telling it to delete every single partition until there was a single unified one, as is advised in the tutorial if you're using UEFI. Everything was fine, until during the installation process, I got an error about how it couldn't copy the files required for the installation (error code 0x80070017). And so, I tried burning another disk with the same thing, but this time downloaded the software that in turn downloads the ISO file for you, as opposed to directly downloading the iso. (All of the iso downloading and downloading of this software has been on a separate computer, obviously.)

I then burnt the iso that the software had given me to a disk, proceeded to attempt to install windows 10, and huzzah! I now have a fresh, brand new system, with unified partitions, no Linux in sight, that acts as though it came with windows 10 clean installed. No problems whatsoever yet, and I'm proud to say that I'm typing this reply from the laptop itself right now.

There are still a few somewhat daunting tasks of customisation, installing software and putting all of my personal data back on, but my laptop is now clean and running well. I haven't been able to say that for a very long time. Thank you so much simrick *Smile This is officially solved.

 

Brilliant! Glad everything's working for you. Cheers! *Thumbs