Running system repair while limited to WinPE cmd prompt - Win10


  1. Posts : 1
    Windows 10
       #1

    Running system repair while limited to WinPE cmd prompt - Win10


    Windows 10 - Version 10.0.19041.3803

    So my system decided to seemingly almost completely give up the ghost this morning while being instructed to restart, creating the following situations in order:

    > Windows logo appears with text - "Running Automatic Repair"
    > fades to blank black screen with HD light on case lit up, no cursor, keyboard non-responsive (no LEDs lighting for caps/numlock etc.)
    > Left this running for hours, no change
    > Manually restart, Windows logo comes up with spinning circle, loops infinitely, left this running for hours with no change
    > Create bootable USB recovery media using other PC
    > Go to BIOS, Boot from USB recovery media, select language/system/etc -> press next -> Press "Repair this PC"
    > Recovery media window disappears, leaving blank blue screen (darker shade than BSOD), mouse cursor responsive
    > Hangs on this for an hour or two with no response
    > Attempt to boot into Safe Mode or Recovery Environment by spamming f1,f2,f3, esc (basically all the f-keys that don't send me to the BIOS), doesn't work.
    > Create another bootable USB recovery media thinking USB might be faulty, check both USB's boot with working PC, both seem to work fine on working PC
    > At this stage when booting from either USB on problem PC, the windows installation box never pops up again (I.e. the select Language/Keyboard/etc dialogue box), it boots into WinPE (or what I assume is WinPE) with a blank blue screen (again, darker shade than BSOD), mouse cursor is responsive
    > Pain
    > Realise that Shift+F10 gives me access to command prompt

    So, I have access to command prompt, but it's stuck in this strange version of windows where the majority of my commands don't seem to work, I've tried

    <dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth>

    and it returns

    Error: 50

    DISM does not support servicing Windows PE with the /Online option.

    The DISM log file can be found at x:\windows\Logs\DISM\dism.log

    I then did some searching and came across this thread: How to use DISM in WINDOW PE environment?

    and tried the following command

    <Dism /Image:C: \offline /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:c:\test\mount\windows>

    I received:

    Error: 87

    DISM doesn't recognize the command-line option "\offline".

    <sfc /scannow>

    Begins the verification, and then responds with "Windows resource protection could not perform the requested operation."

    I'm not ultra-savvy when it comes to this sort of stuff, I would highly appreciate any help with this issue. So at this point, I have basically no GUI, cannot access proper Windows, cannot boot into Safe Mode (with or without networking), the automatic repair goes into an endless loop, and the regular boot goes into an endless loop, and the recovery media tool does not actually show the beginning dialog box of the recovery media. But I do have commandprompt!

    - - - Updated - - -

    So coming across this thread: How to use DISM in WINDOW PE environment? helped me a bit, I have come to learn that my Windows partition is located on my G: drive, and I put in the correct fields for sfc /scannow, and it shows "Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.", and finished with "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations." This seems strange, as my computer seems entirely busted, but I am kind of determined to see if I can manage anything else.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Running the commands:

    >DISM /image:G: /offline /cleanup-image /ScanHealth
    >DISM /image:G: /offline /cleanup-image /CheckHealth

    Both return "Error: 32. An initialization error occurred."

    - - - Updated - - -

    Managed to run dskchk on my drives, Windows returned no errors, disabled autorecoverystartup and then discovered the glory of navigating to different directories in command prompt, got into System32, ran shutdown /r /o, the advanced startup menu popped up, selected Safe Mode with Networking, and it's currently running an auto disk scan. Will update if it manages to boot into Safe Mode.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Success, it booted into Safe Mode with networking! Going to run sfc scannow and the DISM materials, will update.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Ran scannow and DISM CheckHealth and DISM ScanHealth, everything reported no errors, shut down, rebooted using the primary drive, autobooted back into Safe Mode, ran msconfig, unchecked "safe boot", and it boots back up just fine. Does anyone have any idea why any of this happened, what I could do in the future to prevent it, or just any tips in general about this?

    - - - Updated - - -

    So I began having issues a day later, I ran CrystalDiskCheck, and the D Drive is bad, with a health rating of 36%. The C: drive is the drive that has the windows OS on it, the D drive is just a HDD for storage and stuff, is it normal for a malfunctioning non-OS drive to affect the way that windows boots?
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 43,029
    Win 10 Pro (22H2) (2nd PC is 22H2)
       #2

    is it normal for a malfunctioning non-OS drive to affect the way that windows boots?
    That can happen - I hope you have a 3rd party disk image or full backup of your data.

    Clearly a disk replacement is needed.

    Seems you've been very lucky - this time- regarding your O/S.

    Please as a matter of urgency consider starting to use 3rd party disk imaging regularly and routinely - free and paid programs available, save image files to e.g. a large enough external drive, stored safely.

    Endlessly recommended here- just search tenforums.
    Useful complement- scheduled creation of System Restore points (tutorial available).
      My Computers


 

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