Booting problem turned in to BSOD problem

Now I have a problem with Windows 10 booting that I believe that i made it only worse and seriously i need quick help as it turned in to a BSOD problem. I am sorry but it is a bit long
My laptop is dell xps 15 9530, originally with windows 8 , I upgraded to windows 10 64-bit
On Saturday I noticed I may have malware after seeing strange ads and sites appearing suddenly unexpectedly on my google chrome
I downloaded adwcleaner and I ran it. It showed that I got at least 7 or 8 malware files after the first scan.
I chose to terminate those files which I can not remember their names unfortunately. Then the application asked me to reboot to complete cleaning the laptop from those malware files.
I rebooted the laptop and since then I have not been able to log into my windows account.
At first, I got the dell screen while booting for a minute or two then I find a message that laptop is diagnosing the problem and attempting to solve it then after of couple minutes I am taken to the blue restart options page and asked if I want to reset my windows or try other advanced problems.

I did not have a windows 10 recovery USB then.
I could not restore my window to earlier time as it says that a restoration point did not exist which is untrue then I found out that I can not get into to safe mode.
I was able to find command prompt working though only to find that the c:\ became x:\windows/system32
Through registry I found out the the booting drive was now x.
Thankfully C drive is there and fine.
After spending two days reading different guides here and there on iPhone I managed to restore back c:/ using cmd commands and then I got the famous BSOD
The special reset and others options blue page disappeared. Only the F8 options were there.
I noticed that there was no response on the Dell boot page when I chose Safe Mode options "aka loading" but there was some loading reaction when I chose the "No drive signature" option but nevertheless it led to nothing.
I got a windows 10 USB on Tuesday and i attempted to fix the boot but it did not work.

I continued to attempt fixing the boot through cmd and its commands. I think I made it worse as now i have got two windows boot manager. Do not ask me how !!

I continued to read and mess around with CMD to find it is back to x: as x:\Sources.
What shall I do ? I do not want to have a clean installation for windows honestly .

What were the steps that you made to move from X:\windows\system32\cmd.exe to "restore back c:"?

Do you have your files backed up?

Do you have an image back up?

Do you have access to an external hard drive enclosure?

When you power on now what do you see?
Do you see a black screen?
Do you see "diagnosing this PC"?
Are you able to boot to wall paper or lock screen?
Are you able to get to the windows recovery or advanced troubleshooting menu?
If so what happened with each reset save files, reset remove files, restore, startup repair, image, startup options?
Were you or are you now able to get to startup options? For example safe mode with command prompt or safe mode with networking.

Are you able to boot to the windows 10 iso using a F key or changing the bios boot order?
If so which repair options were tried and what were the results of each?
System restore
Startup repair
UEFI firmware settings
Go back to previous version

If you have only X: and a bootable windows 10 iso you may be able to make a registry repair.


There is another option with a bootable rescue disk.

Yes , Most of my files have another backup but unfortunately I still got important documents on the C driver. I have got restoration points. I have got usb and two external drives.
I do not have an image back up.

When I power up the laptop , I see the dell logo in a black screen and a small loading thing underneath it. It does not land me on the Windows 10 login page but rather it takes to the same dell logo in a black screen with "diagnosing pc" , "checking drive , it will take time" and "attempting repairs".

After that I find windows recovery or advanced troubleshooting menu. I tried everything you said and mentioned here with no use.

I changed and I change x:/ to C:/ through cmd command cd C:/ or C: only.
I used diskpart commands and Boot repair commands to make thing worse , got two windows booting manager.

I have access to registry through X:// already but I do not know how or what to do to repair to be honest.

I got the usb windows 10 so I attempted to repair windows using it. Nothing changed

If you can help and tell me what to do , I will be very thankful.
I know there is still hope because the registry seems fine to me.

If you have a hard drive enclosure you can remove the drive from the computer and connected it to a working computer via USB and should be able to move the files. If something was done to make it a raw drive then this would not be possible. However this is your backup plan. Hard drive enclosures are inexpensive and are available on amazon, best buy,

You can either attempt to repeat some steps or try new steps.

The most options available are booting to the computers windows recovery or advanced troubleshooting menu.
That can frequently be accomplished by power on and as soon as you see the Mirosoft icon you power off. This is repeated once or twice and most often it opens the windows advanced troubleshooting menu.

If that is exhausted then you can attempt to repair using the windows advanced recovery on the windows 10 iso.
Do you know the Dell F key to boot to the USB or do you use the bios and change the boot order?

This is the method for a registry repair using the bootable windows 10 iso.
To boot to a device for dell computers it's the F12 key:
List of PC brands with their corresponding hot-keys


1) boot to the Windows 10 iso
2) it may take 5 minutes displaying the windows icon
3) Use the default settings for language, time, currency, and keyboard
4) click next
5) In the left lower corner click Repair your computer
6) click troubleshooting
7) click startup repair (it is expected to fail)
8) click system restore (it is expected to fail)
9) click command prompt
You should see a pop up with title bar: Administrator: X:\windows\system32\cmd.exe
This is the registry backup method:
For each step you must see sizeable file sizes for this to work.
If you see zeros the method will fail.
The command: dir
will be used each step to make sure you are in the proper location and check the size of the files
10) type: C:
11) dir
12) type: D:
13) dir
Choose the C: or the D: drive to proceed. It should be the windows drive and not the USB drive.
For this post I will use C: however you should pick the drive letter that you found that has the windows files on your computer.
The proper drive will display: perflogs, program files, program files (x86), users, windows, etc
14) type or copy and paste: cd \windows\system32\config
It should display: C:\windows\system32\config>
15) type: dir
It should display: bbi, bcd-template, components, default, drivers, elam, sam, security, software, system, vsmidk, journal, regback, systemprofile txr, etc.
All of the file sizes should be sizeable. If it displays zeros then abort.
Make a new directory and name it backup or something similar.
16) type: MD backup
Copy all of the files into this new directory.
17) type or copy and paste: copy *.* backup
It should now display: bbi, bcd-template, components, default, drivers, elam, sam, security, software, system, vsmidk indicating the files were copied.
Change the directory to regback
18) type: cd regback
It should now display: c:\windows\system32\config\regback>
19)type: dir
It should display: default, sam, security, software, system etc
All of these files must be sizeable. If it displays zeros then abort.
20) type or copy and paste: copy *.* ..
It should now display:
DEFAULT
Overwrite ..\default? (yes/no/all):
21) type: a
It should now display: sam, security, software, system and that the files were copied.
22) type: exit
23) click turn off your PC
Remove the USB flash drive if you had changed your boot order. Otherwise you can leave it and power on your computer.



If the above method fails this is another option: using a boot recovery disk:
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Forums

Thank you so so much Zbook , it worked like a charm and I am posting this from the laptop.
I owe you so much for real :))

That's fantastic! Your welcome.

Once you are able to boot to windows please open administrative command prompt and type or copy and paste these commands:

1) sfc /scannow

2) dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

3) chkdsk /x /f /r (plan to run this overnight as it may take many hours to complete)

Post the results of each scannow and restorehealth into the thread.

When chkdsk completes post the eventvwr log txt file into the thread:


Read Chkdsk Log in Event Viewer in Windows 10 Windows 10 Performance Maintenance Tutorials
CHKDSK: What is it and how do I run it? - Ask Leo!
How do I see the results of a CHKDSK that ran on boot? - Ask Leo!
How to find chkdsk results in Windows 10 - Winaero uses 26226 find





Make a Macrium back up image now of your drive as backup.
Once the studies have completed successfully make a new image.

1) sfc /scannow result : Windows Resource protection did not find any integrity violations.

2) dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth : The Restoration operation completed successfully.
The Operation completed successfully.

3) For now , Chkdsk can not run because the volume is in use by another process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts ? (Y/N). I chose Yes for now because it is nearly 4:20 AM in my country :)

Yes it should run for many hours so it's best to run it overnight.
Please post the results per the above links.

zbook said:

Yes it should run for many hours so it's best to run it overnight.
Please post the results per the above links.

Thanks again :)