Hard disk problem? Windows 10 does not boot on HDD or USB


  1. Posts : 3
    Windows 10
       #1

    Hard disk problem? Windows 10 does not boot on HDD or USB


    My friend's computer recently had an issue where Windows 10 would not boot. He said the last thing he did before this issue occurred was installing "ElectraX," a program I didn't recognize. When the issue occurred, the loading screen with the HP logo and the rotating circles loading icon would show, but then the screen would turn black and nothing more would happen, that is if it actually loaded. After a few boots it would attempt to boot in Automatic Repair mode, but the same issue would occur, where it would get stuck on a black screen.

    I then tried to recover Windows 10 by using a USB flash drive Windows 10 installation medium. However, it also did not boot on this computer, as it showed the loading screen then a black screen, yet when I ran it on my computer, the purple screen where you start the Windows 10 installation process appeared. I verified that it was in fact loading from the USB by ejecting it from my friend's computer when it was loading, which resulted in a blank blue screen appearing. Yet, when I did it after the loading icon appeared, the loading process continued and then went into the black screen. This seems inconsistent with the other results.

    After a while, I guessed that something might be wrong with the hard drive. To try and diagnose the issue, I used a USB flash drive with Parted Magic to check for S.M.A.R.T. data on the hard drive. The hard drive reports itself to be a 500 GB 5400 RPM mechanical drive. Apparently, the hard drive had over 5000 errors recorded. In addition, some clusters were labeled as bad and their locations had to be changed, suggesting hard drive damage.

    Something that further suggests hard drive issues is that when I boot into Fatdog64 to inspect the hard disk partitions, there was a one minute delay for the partitions to be mounted, which is abnormally and extremely long as it normally takes about 5 seconds to do on my own computers. I tried to back up data on the hard drive to an external hard drive but were only able to back up some of the data as I accidentally unplugged the drive during the backup process.

    The issue is still occurring, and I need advice on where to go next to try and repair the system. Please give your thoughts on what I should do. Thank you.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 45,910
    Win 10 Pro (22H2) (2nd PC is 22H2)
       #2

    Hi, checking the disk sounds a good move. If you've not done it you can get a pictorial representation of the damage using
    Download Portable HD Tune 2.55
    - Scan tab (Health reports SMART params).

    Assuming your friend has not discovered the value of disk imaging (e.g. Macrium Reflect -free-paid) which would let the whole of Windows be transferred to a new disk -assuming all of Windows' partititions had been imaged- an option the prog. provides, then all you can do is recover some files.

    That leaves a clean install on a new disk, and a recommendation to start using disk imaging routinely and periodically.

    As to your USB drive not booting, that depends how it was created and on settings in the BIOS, other hardware issues aside.
      My Computers


  3. Posts : 3
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Is "Portable HD Tune 2.55" usable on Linux? That sounds like a program that could be useful. Also, I don't believe the user has in fact used an imaging program.

    I did configure the BIOS to let me run Puppy Linux and Fatdog64 on USB, by enabling Legacy Boot, through the issue occurred before I changed it to allow for Legacy Boot.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 45,910
    Win 10 Pro (22H2) (2nd PC is 22H2)
       #4

    Windows only- there's an installable version too. There are many of those tools of course.

    As you can't boot the PC from anything I'd assume you'd remove the drive, put in in a caddy and connect it to another PC, for example.
      My Computers


  5. Posts : 18,500
    Windows 11 Pro
       #5

    The black screen when booting from the Windows USB flash drive could be it trying to load the partition information from the very obviously failed hard drive. Sounds like it's time to upgrade the computer with an SSD....
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 7,278
    Windows 11 Pro - Windows 7 HP - Lubuntu
       #6

    NavyLCDR said:
    The black screen when booting from the Windows USB flash drive could be it trying to load the partition information from the very obviously failed hard drive. Sounds like it's time to upgrade the computer with an SSD....
    Agree,
    The fact that you have a HDD issue explain why you can't boot from it.

    Download Windows 10 Recovery Tools and make a USB boot able drive.
    Boot from it and you can download and run any HDD diag program
      My Computers


  7. Posts : 3
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #7

    For clarification, I was able to boot Fatdog64 and Puppy Linux on the computer with the supposedly failing hard drive, but not boot Windows on that hard drive, nor could I boot Windows off the flash drive on that computer. I'll try one of the methods you people described.
      My Computer


 

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