Windows 10 won't boot - fresh install

Hello,

On Sunday, I reinstalled Windows 10 Pro on my Dell Precision T5810 (1Tb SSD main disk and 1Tb HDD secondary disk). I had some problems afterwards, as it sometimes said it couldn't find a partition table. After a while, this seemed to settle down, and I was able to boot up and carry on installing my software. Subsequent reboots went OK.

I just started my machine again, and it won't boot. I see the BIOS messages, including the one that shows me the two disks, then I see the blue Windows logo, with the whirling icon telling me it's loading, then I get a blank screen. I can sit and wait, but it never goes any further than that.

If I keep restarting, then every once in a while, it will give me the log-in screen and allow me to log in. However, once I'm into Windows, very little works. The Start button doesn't work, not from the keyboard key and not by clicking the icon with my mouse. If I click in the Cortana text box to type, nothing happens. If I click the clock/calendar at the right end of the task bar, nothing happens. I can click icons on the task bar, and the applications will open. However, the machine is basically crippled.

I managed to boot into safe mode, but had all the same problems. I got the event viewer open, and can see lots of errors, largely related to Cortana. I exported the events during that first boot, which you can see here.

Anyone able to help? I'm unable to do anything at the moment. Thanks in advance

Hi there, Yossu.

Is fast boot and secure boot set to on in the BIOS? If so, try turning those off temporarily to see.

Most likely is, but to be sure > Is this a UEFI BIOS system?

How did you install Windows? e.g. From ISO thumb, DVD, etc.?

Did you clean the disk before installing? On the same drive as before?

Tony K said:

Hi there, Yossu.

Hello Tony, thanks for the reply.

Worth pointing out that I got this machine about 18 months ago, and installed Windows 10 probably 10-12 months ago. It was fine up until a few weeks ago, when I had some problems, and decided that fresh install would be in order. I haven't touched the BIOS settings at all, not ever!

Tony K said:

Is fast boot and secure boot set to on in the BIOS? If so, try turning those off temporarily to see.

OK, so I admit to being somewhat green about these things, so please bear with me if I give you the wrong info.

I got into the BIOS, which looks like a Windows app, unlike the BIOS I remember from last time I looked (years ago), which was like a full-screen command line. I'm mentioning this in case I'm in the wrong place here.

Not sure about fast boot, as I can't see anything about that, but I can see under Setting -> Secure Boot -> Secure Boot Enable that it's disabled.

Tony K said:

Most likely is, but to be sure > Is this a UEFI BIOS system?

Under Settings -> General -> Boot Sequence, there is a section titled Boot List Option, which has two radio buttons, Legacy and UEFI. The Legacy one is checked, so I guess it's not in UEFI mode.

Tony K said:

How did you install Windows? e.g. From ISO thumb, DVD, etc.?

I used the Media Creation Tool to create a bootable USB and booted from that.

Tony K said:

Did you clean the disk before installing? On the same drive as before?

It's the same drive (Samsung SSD), but I plugged it into my lap top and used Computer Management to delete the partitions before plugging it back into my PC and booting from the USB, so I guess it should have been pretty clean!

Thanks again. Does this help?

Yes, it helps tremendously. Thanks. Often we don't know how much people know, so thanks for that as well. :)

I assume this machine came with 8 or 8.1?

Is the Samsung SSD a USB exterior drive? The "main disk" is interior?

Tony K said:

Yes, it helps tremendously. Thanks. Often we don't know how much people know, so thanks for that as well. :)

:)

Tony K said:

I assume this machine came with 8 or 8.1?

If I remember correctly, I ordered it with Win7, as I had tried Win8 on my lap top and hated it! Win8 was the default, but you could choose to get Win7.

Tony K said:

Is the Samsung SSD a USB exterior drive? The "main disk" is interior?

Both drives are interior. I have an exterior drive as well, but I unplugged that when I had problems, just to take it out of the equation.

The Samsung SSD is the main (C:\) drive, and the other one (a Western Digital HDD if I remember correctly) is a data drive (D:\).

Thanks again.

Just in case it makes any difference, I just checked (nothing better to do as I can't do any work), and I bought the PC in July '16.

Technically, I still have support on it, but as I changed the HDD that came with it for an SSD, and added a second drive myself, upgraded the memory and installed a different OS, I doubt I'll get much support out of them!

I see. The machine is not that old then. You went through a lot of unneeded effort to hook the drive to your laptop. Did you have a USB conversion cable to do that?

We'll get you straightened away, but it looks like you'll have to reinstall. Main thing I think since you said it's in legacy mode is that the drive is formatted in a MBR scheme and not GPT scheme that it takes to run under UEFI. UEFI is a much safer and reliable system.

Are you advanced enough to run a few commands while installing? Familiar with Command Prompt at all?

Tony K said:

I see. The machine is not that old then. You went through a lot of unneeded effort to hook the drive to your laptop. Did you have a USB conversion cable to do that?

No, I have a dock, so I just unplugged the drive from the PC and dropped it into the dock. I wanted to clean the disk properly, and knew I couldn't do that via Windows.

Tony K said:

We'll get you straightened away, but it looks like you'll have to reinstall. Main thing I think since you said it's in legacy mode is that the drive is formatted in a MBR scheme and not GPT scheme that it takes to run under UEFI. UEFI is a much safer and reliable system.

So if I'm going to reinstall (those words make me shudder, I've spent the last two days reinstalling, and don't really want to do it again!), should I enable UEFI before I do?

Tony K said:

Are you advanced enough to run a few commands while installing? Familiar with Command Prompt at all?

Sure. I'm a software developer, so not shy of advanced stuff. I'm just not very familiar with the hardware/BIOS side of things.

Fire away, let's see what you suggest?

Think of UEFI as an advanced BIOS. That's really all it is.

Sorry, but I think this is the best route to go, especially if you use it professionally.

Do you still have your ISO install thumb? Are all your important files backed up?

I have the disk image I took on Sunday before I reinstalled, and I'm just in the process of copying some updated files from the SDD before I wipe it and start all over again

So to confirm, once I've finished copying the data, I wipe the SSD clean and plug it back into the PC, boot to BIOS and set UEFI enabled, then use my USB image to reinstall Windows?

If so, what guarantee do I have that the install will be successful this time? It seemed to go fine last time.

Thanks again