Unable to boot PC even after using bootable installation media

Firefly1409 · 29 Mar 2019

Recently my PC crashed and I’ve been unable to reboot it despite my efforts.

I created bootable installation media and haven’t had any luck in booting my PC, even after using most methods advised by the following website: How to fix Automatic Repair couldnt repair your PC - Troubleshooter.

After they didn’t work, I attempted to use the command “C:\Windows\System32\Logfiles\Srt\SrtTrail.txt” and was given the message “The system cannot find the path specified”.

I’m not the most tech savvy person in the world so I apologise if I’ve missed anything obvious, but does anybody have any suggestions as to fixing this?

dalchina · 29 Mar 2019

I created bootable installation media

Hi, how did you do that? With the MS media creation tool? I.e. need to know that the medium is (probably) a genuine bootable one.

The link you quote lists some repair options, but I initially read your post as saying you couldn't boot from the installation medium.

Can you confirm you can do that? (Just to be clear).

f14tomcat · 29 Mar 2019

Same question. If it won't boot, how are you running any commands or anything else?

dalchina · 29 Mar 2019

An alternative reading could be that Firefly1409 has booted the PC from the medium, tried the repair options in that link, with no success.

A problem could be that it refers to 'C:' - but as viewed from a command prompt, the Windows partition may not be C:

And option 4 is no longer available (restoring the backup registry) as from 1709 on, MS broke that feature and the backup is typically no longer created.

What was the result of option 3 - chkdsk?

Firefly1409 · 29 Mar 2019

Hi, thanks for the replies.

Yep, I used the MS media creation tool for creating said media.

Just to clear things up a bit: I was unable to boot my PC after it crashed so created the installation media to boot it, however that still hasn't worked after trying the commands and methods suggested on the website I linked. Hope that helps!

f14tomcat · 29 Mar 2019

Sorry for repeating myself. If PC itself would not boot, how did you create using MCT? A different PC? Had it already?

Firefly1409 · 29 Mar 2019

Oh my bad for misreading, sorry about that!

The installation media was created on a different PC to the one that crashed.

dalchina · 29 Mar 2019

So you mean you have booted your PC successfully using the bootable medium,

And you've reached a command prompt.

Using that, can you identify the Windows partition?

You can try
DIR C:
DIR D:
...
and find the drive letter corresponding to the Windows partition.

If you got that wrong, that could explain why this happened:

“C:\Windows\System32\Logfiles\Srt\SrtTrail.txt” and was given the message “The system cannot find the path specified”.

If you got it right (and it is C: from the command prompt) then there could be some corruption of some sort.

See if you can identify the Windows partition correctly, then run chkdsk and report the result.

dalchina · 29 Mar 2019

You may well be better to get a live boot disk- I would have said Kyhi's available from the top of the Software and Apps section here... however this is now hard to download - hosting site problems- (needs Free Download Manager) and Kyhi now wants people to build their own- not that easy.

Firefly1409 · 29 Mar 2019

Thanks for the reply.

I found that C is the drive letter corresponding to the Windows partition, and ran the following commands:

C:\Windows\System32>chkdsk
C:\Windows\System32>chkdsk /r
C:\Windows\System32>chkdsk /f

All three of which yielded the message "The system cannot find the path specified"