Inaccessible Boot Device

Thanks Zbook,

Unfortunately I've tried the custom install and that failed. There is nothing wrong with the drive. It seems the problem is with corrupt files and I'm still wrestling with the system to find and repair them.

What was the failure message or code?

Indicate whether you had tried other troubleshooting steps:
a) startup repair
b) system restore
c) reset save files
d) regback (useful for older windows versions)
etc.



Open command prompt.
Post images of these results:

Code:

bcdedit /enum all
bcdedit | find "osdevice"
diskpart
lis di
lis vol
sel dis 0
det dis
lis par
sel par 1
det par
sel par 2
det par
sel par 3
det par
sel par 4
det par
sel par 5
det par
sel dis 1
det dis
lis par
sel par 1
det par
sel par 2
det par
sel par 3
det par
sel par 4
det par
sel par 5
det par

I've tried a, b and c and none of them have worked. I can't even get back to the advanced options anymore to access the command prompt. The error code is 0xc0000001.

Error code: 0xc0000001 = The requested operation was unsuccessful

These are some links for troubleshooting:


Boot to Advanced Startup Options in Windows 10
Run Startup Repair in Windows 10
System Restore Windows 10
Reset Windows 10
Custom Install Windows 10
How to Restore Files from Windows.old Folder in Windows 10
Clean Install Windows 10
Refresh Windows 10
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...covery-options

Thanks Zbook,

I'll give those a try and let you know how I get on.

Access to files often can be obtained by booting a flash drive:
a) Windows 10 iso
b) Ubuntu / Linux
c) Kyhi boot rescue

Popkiss said:

Free Booter - Thank you for all this information but I fear it is to no avail. I got as far as successfully creating boot files but then when I tried the DISM online cleanup I returned an error code 50 saying DISM does not support servicing Windows PE with the /Online option.
I tried skipping this and going onto the "Get-WimInfo code but wasn't sure where to find the drive letter for the sources. I tried the Windows letter D but it was obviously wrong as the system could not find the specified path.
I'm probably a bit out of my depth and don't want to waste any more of your time but I'm really grateful for your efforts.

My bad i have given you wrong command.

Please boot your computer with Windows Setup Media and from Windows Recovery Environment start the Command Prompt.

Please type below command into Command Prompt and press Enter key.

The following commands scans integrity of all protected Windows system files and repairs files with problems when possible.

Code:

Dism  /image:D:  /Cleanup-Image  /RestoreHealth  /Source:wim:E:\sources\install.wim:1  /LimitAccess
 
Sfc  /Scannow   /OFFBOOTDIR=D:\   /OFFWINDIR=D:\Windows

Please replace partition letter D: with Windows installed partition letter. When computer boots into Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) environment the drive letter assign to Windows partition may not be C: drive letter because Windows 7, 8 , 8.1 and 10 creates a separate system partition when it's installed from scratch. The system partition contains boot files WinRE assigns the system partition the C: drive letter and the Windows installed partition will be assign any other drive letter usually D: drive letter is assign to Windows installed partition. The Bcdedit /enum | find "osdevice" command can be use to find out the drive letter of the Windows installed partition the output of the Bcdedit command is similar to this osdevice partition=D:. The drive letter after partition= is the drive letter of the Windows partition.

Please replace E: drive letter with Windows 10 Setup Media drive letter. The following commands list all the drive letters detected by Windows 10:

Code:

Diskpart
List volume

I tried the code suggested by Free Booter and the error I got was "Unable to access the image." I then decided to reinstall Windows as a last resort and I was not able to use the option to keep my files. I have most of these backed up anyway so I decided to go the whole hog and do a clean install. I made an installation disk on a flash drive and started to install from there and it won't even let me do that. I get as far as "Where do you want to install Windows?" and hit another brick wall.

Drive 0 Partition 1 System Reserved Size=100MB, Free=38MB Type =System (Cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is has an MBR partition table. Windows can only be installed to GPT disks.)

Drive 0 Partition 2 Size=930.9GB Free=714.2GB Type=Primary (Cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, Windows can only be installed to GPT disks.)

Drive 0 Partition 3 Size=547MB Free=81MB Type=OEM(reserved) (Cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is has an MBR partition table. Windows can only be installed to GPT disks. Windows cannot be installed to this hard disk space. The partition was reserved by the computer's Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM))

So three partitions and it won't let me install to any of them. Where do I go from here?

So now we know the root of your problems - bios settings changed.

Enable legacy (non-uefi) & disable secure boot.
Or use diskpart to clean disk & set partitioning scheme.

If there is a BIOS UEFI option and you want the BIOS to boot UEFI with drive GPT:

Code:

diskpart
List dis
sel dis 0 (make sure disk 0 is where you want to install Windows, check twice)
clean
Convert gpt
exit
exit

Clean install Windows 2004 using MCT:


https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...load/windows10
Download Windows 10 ISO File
Create Bootable USB Flash Drive to Install Windows 10