"inaccessible_boot_device" - PC Won't Boot at All - Black Screen

simrick said:

Um, I don't want you to delete the partition, just the drive letter. It should not have a drive letter assigned and it shouldn't show up in "Computer".

Your Drive 0 is your whole entire internal hard drive, which is currently divided into 3 partitions. The first partition is where the boot info resides, the second partition is your C:\ drive where your OS resides, and your third partition is your recovery partition. In Disk Management, you can see it's all Drive 0, with three sections on it. In "Computer" using Explorer, only C:\ should be showing. Right now, I'll bet if you open Explorer and go to Computer, you will see drive C and drive E. So, E should not be showing - it's only showing because there's a drive letter attached to it.

So, something is not right, and I suspect you will have upgrade problems because of it.

Do you know how that E drive letter got assigned? You didn't do it on purpose did you?

The thing is, since you were already in W10 once, (by upgrading-I assume), and if the W10 OS was "activated", then you can go straight to a clean install of W10, and not deal with W7 at all. Because, once a qualifying OS has been upgraded and activated, you can clean install W10 as often as you like/need.

The reason I am leaning to a clean install (assuming your OS was indeed activated when first upgraded), is because it will avoid these inaccessible boot device errors you're seeing, which I believe may have something to do with your boot partition, which should not have a drive letter mapped to it.

Ah. Okay, then I mean: could I just wait until I'm back into Windows 10 and then remove/change the drive letter? I think I will eventually put W10 onto a USB and do a clean install that way, but I can't do so at this moment because I have no flash drive. But, I got into W10 last time just fine, it's just the "reset this pc" option that messed everything up. So, I'm assuming I could just get back in and not do the "reset this pc" option and be fine? Then just clean install by USB later?

I'm really confused about the drive stuff you're talking about. But now that I think about it, even on my old PC I'm pretty sure I had an E drive. I remember always seeing it and not knowing what it was. But anyway, this PC is brand new and was just built. Only thing I did was install Windows 7, upgraded to 10, then all this mess happened. Now I've reinstalled W7 again. And yes, currently under "Hard Disk Drives" I have a C and an E.

Someone on a different site told me I could deal with the extra partitions after I got into W10 by going to Device Manager... Is this true? I'd prefer to just do it that way if possible.

simrick said:

Whichever way you want to proceed - just let me know. We will be here to assist if you need it.

Hmm. Well, I think I'm gonna finish up updating Windows 7 and re-attempt to get back into Windows 10. If all goes well, I'll just not do the "reset this pc" option and instead, like a week or so from now, pick up a flash drive, put Windows 10 on it and do a fresh install that way. Does that sound good? Unless I'd still have to deal with the partition issue installing from USB, too?

I wonder if all this was caused by something I did/didn't do, but then again, many others have dealt with this same issue so I also wonder if it's just some sorta bug on Microsoft's end. Idk.

simrick said:

Whichever way you want to proceed - just let me know. We will be here to assist if you need it.

Got W7 updated, and even downloaded chipset/audio drivers from the MOBO disc. However, I didn't get the W10 icon this time. Any idea why?

Also, could I not just download the W10 ISO file and mount it using Daemon Tools Lite or similar software and install W10 that way?

simrick said:

It could take 24hrs to several days before the Get Windows 10 app comes through. You don't have to wait for it.

You could try downloading an ISO, burn to disk or USB, and follow instructions here. Skip when it asks for a key.

Or use the Media creation tool and upgrade from within W7:

Go to the Media Creation Tool site
Select the correct architecture for your machine (32 or 64 bit)
Select the option to make an ISO for upgrading
Extract the files from the ISO and select upgrade, keeping apps and files (begin at step 5)

Good luck!

I'm gonna try mounting the ISO with Virtual Clone Drive and fresh installing that way. That should work fine, right?

Also, during the installation, if I see 3 partitions again, should I delete 2 of them and only leave the C drive and install on that? Or should I leave them all?

simrick said:

Do not - I repeat: DO NOT delete any partitions!

Someone else on another site is telling me to delete all partitions, format then install. Now I'm confused. =/

simrick said:

Do not - I repeat: DO NOT delete any partitions!

It actually didn't even give me the option to mess with partitions. BUT I'M BACK IN W10. Woooo! =D I'll edit the OP and I guess this is now considered solved.

Just wanna say THANK YOU so much for helping me out.

If you feel like telling me how I can check to see if the partitions are how they should be and how to change them and all that, feel free to.