Windows 10 Boot Loop !!!

Vanna said:

Hey, Ben.

Can I run this from an external drive? I cannot boot at the moment. I am stuck in the WinRE and the DaRT screens. FYI, the computer is OFFLINE and does not connect to the Internet at all. It is a work PC, so it has to remain off the web. No updates come through when the Internet is not detected (my XP).

You might try using "Go back to the previous version" in the Recovery Environment. If that can't be done or doesn't work, you may have to start over from scratch and try to catch the update installing or at least before it reboots the computer.

Ben

Boot loops can be very difficult to break.

Many times the drive needs to be placed into Windows RE to backup the files, then clean install, and then restore the drivers, applications, and files.
This may be able to be performed at a Microsoft store or a local computer store.
If you can boot using the Kyhi boot rescue then you should be able to backup files to another drive.
Alternatively if the drive is not in RAID you often can remove the drive and place it into another computer's secondary bay or a hard drive enclosure to transfer or backup the files.

1) Update the specs in the "My Computer" section:
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1735-system-specs-fill-ten-forums.html
In the left corner below in your post you find 'My System Specs'.
After clicking it you can find a link a little below that says 'Update your System Spec', click on this link to get to the page where you can fill in your system specs.
System Info - See Your System Specs - Windows 7 Help Forums
Include PSU. cooler, case, peripherals and anything attached to the computer by wired or wireless (mouse, keyboard, headset, printer, xbox, USB wireless network card, etc.)

2) Create a bootable Windows 10 iso:
Download Windows 10
As of today it could have been updated to 1809

3) See if you can interrupt the boot loop using a bootable windows 10 iso
Use the applicable F Key or temporarily change the BIOS boot order so that you can boot to the external USB HD
List of PC brands with their corresponding hot-keys

4) If you can interrupt the boot loop and boot to the USB HD report in the thread the outcome for each:
a) startup repair > if it fails indicate whether it created a srttrail.txt file > if there is a srttrail.txt file > save to the flash drive > post into the thread
b) system restore > start with the oldest restore point and keep repeating until there are no more restore points.

5) Open command prompt > title bar Administrator: X:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe and prompt X:\Sources> type these commands (comments will be in parenthesis)

(Use a camera or smart phone camera to take pictures of the commands and results and post images into the thread)

bcdedit /enum
bcdedit | find "osdevice"
diskpart
list disk
list volume
select disk 0
list partition
select partition 1
detail partition
select partition 2
detail partition
select partition 3
detail partition
select partition 4
detail partition
(if there are any more partitions continue in the same fashion)
select disk 1
detail disk
list partition
select partition 1
detail partition
select partition 2
detail partition
(if there are more partitions then continue in the same fashion)
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /scanos
bootrec /rebuildbcd
(reboot and reopen command prompt)
chkdsk /r B: (change the drive letter B: the partition displayed in the second step to find the osdevice
(this may take many hours and typically displays ETA)

Vanna said:

I created several USB drives. One was W10... then W8... then 8.1... and back to W10. A Windows.old file was created and- after the upgrade, I moved those Windows.old files back into the current Windows folder.

Is re-doing this going to create not only an installer, but also a bootable USB drive? What is going to change if I do this particular one? I ask because I keep having booting issues regardless.

Is it not the BIOS which has to be tweaked?

NO NO! Fatal mistake! You never copy-paste from Windows.old into current Windows installation, you most likely screwed your Windows installation! As said before, you cannot fix it no matter what you do. Take any files from Windows.old and then format the disk and install Windows 10 again. As with most backups, you can take your files, not applications. Any application has to be reinstalled. To make a full backup (take applications as well, assuming Windows work properly) you must either clone the whole disk onto another disk or create an image of the disk to a file and the restore to another disk (or to the same disk).

spapakons said:

NO NO! Fatal mistake! You never copy-paste from Windows.old into current Windows installation, you most likely screwed your Windows installation! As said before, you cannot fix it no matter what you do. Take any files from Windows.old and then format the disk and install Windows 10 again. As with most backups, you can take your files, not applications. Any application has to be reinstalled. To make a full backup (take applications as well, assuming Windows work properly) you must either clone the whole disk onto another disk or create an image of the disk to a file and the restore to another disk (or to the same disk).

The only files I copied were FILES, not apps. All the apps WERE re-installed every single time. Each application creates its own set of folders to which it will point. I would never just "move" app files unless I can use a prog specifically designed to do such a thing.

What I notice is that every time I downgrade/upgrade... a new file of "Windows" was created. ("Windows.old", "Windows (0)" and the current one: "Windows"). Only one of them would have the "Program Files", etc. Perhaps the installation is rewriting and confusing itself. All my FILES are backup already. All my apps are also backed up and ready to re-install.

When I ran one of the tools in the DaRT , I got a problem with a file called "ntoskml.wrong.symbols.exe". Is this a driver issue?? Does it have a rootkit virus? I cannot locate it via "Explorer" (in DaRT) in order to delete it.

I'm still stuck in reboot hell. I have no issue RE-installing Windows 10 for a FOURTH time, but I would like to know which BUILD of Windows 10 Enterprise I should place onto the USB flash drive. Which one is the latest one? What is the PROPER way to do this clean install? I used RUFUS 2.18 to create a USB bootable flash drive.

What should I SELECT??

Once I do a clean install, what should I do to make the USB bootable drive actually SEE the drives? What drive should I select?

zbook said:

Boot loops can be very difficult to break.

Many times the drive needs to be placed into Windows RE to backup the files, then clean install, and then restore the drivers, applications, and files.
This may be able to be performed at a Microsoft store or a local computer store.
If you can boot using the Kyhi boot rescue then you should be able to backup files to another drive.
Alternatively if the drive is not in RAID you often can remove the drive and place it into another computer's secondary bay or a hard drive enclosure to transfer or backup the files.

1) Update the specs in the "My Computer" section:
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1735-system-specs-fill-ten-forums.html
In the left corner below in your post you find 'My System Specs'.
After clicking it you can find a link a little below that says 'Update your System Spec', click on this link to get to the page where you can fill in your system specs.
System Info - See Your System Specs - Windows 7 Help Forums
Include PSU. cooler, case, peripherals and anything attached to the computer by wired or wireless (mouse, keyboard, headset, printer, xbox, USB wireless network card, etc.)

2) Create a bootable Windows 10 iso:
Download Windows 10
As of today it could have been updated to 1809

3) See if you can interrupt the boot loop using a bootable windows 10 iso
Use the applicable F Key or temporarily change the BIOS boot order so that you can boot to the external USB HD
List of PC brands with their corresponding hot-keys

4) If you can interrupt the boot loop and boot to the USB HD report in the thread the outcome for each:
a) startup repair > if it fails indicate whether it created a srttrail.txt file > if there is a srttrail.txt file > save to the flash drive > post into the thread
b) system restore > start with the oldest restore point and keep repeating until there are no more restore points.

5) Open command prompt > title bar Administrator: X:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe and prompt X:\Sources> type these commands (comments will be in parenthesis)

(Use a camera or smart phone camera to take pictures of the commands and results and post images into the thread)

bcdedit /enum
bcdedit | find "osdevice"
diskpart
list disk
list volume
select disk 0
list partition
select partition 1
detail partition
select partition 2
detail partition
select partition 3
detail partition
select partition 4
detail partition
(if there are any more partitions continue in the same fashion)
select disk 1
detail disk
list partition
select partition 1
detail partition
select partition 2
detail partition
(if there are more partitions then continue in the same fashion)
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /scanos
bootrec /rebuildbcd
(reboot and reopen command prompt)
chkdsk /r B: (change the drive letter B: the partition displayed in the second step to find the osdevice
(this may take many hours and typically displays ETA)

Thanks! I will try these steps in the morning. Appreciate you guys taking the time to help me through this.

The drives are all NTFS. The exception is one of the smaller 500 MB drive which I think is FAT.

Microsoft Windows Enterprise is availble as a 30 day trial:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsforbusiness/windows-10-enterprise
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-10-enterprise

• If you decide that you want to install Windows 10 Enterprise using one of the provided ISO files, you won't be able to uninstall it. In addition, after you install Windows 10 Enterprise, you won't be able to use the recovery partition on your PC to go back to your previous version of Windows. A clean installation of your former operating system will be required, and you will need to re-install all of your programs and data.
• If you fail to activate this evaluation after installation, or if your evaluation period expires, the desktop background will turn black, you will see a persistent desktop notification indicating that the system is not genuine, and the PC will shut down every hour.

The Windows Enterprise I've not used but it likely has the option to create a bootable flash drive like windows 10 home or professional. If it is bootable then you don't need Rufus. If it is downloaded to the desktop and then copy and pasted to a flash drive then you would need Rufus.