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

CPU/GPU: AMD A10-7850K
MOBO: MSI A78M-E35
SSD: SanDisk Plus 120GB
RAM: EVGA 8GB 2133MHz
PSU: EVGA 80+ 430W
Monitor: Acer G237HL bi

I installed Windows 7 Home Basic and did all Windows updates; this went fine. Reserved Windows 10 and downloaded/installed it when it was ready; this went fine. Once in Windows 10, tried to "reset this pc" by choosing "remove everything" and "just remove my files"; this went fine until doing a restart after reaching 100%.
This issue being the "inaccessible_boot_device" error that many others have gotten which causes the PC to enter a restart loop.

Well, during this loop I made the (apparent) mistake of turning off my PC. Now, I can't even boot my PC at all. I get a black screen. I can't use the Windows 7 disc, can't use my MOBO disc, can't even boot into bios... nothing. All I see when I turn on my PC is literally a black screen with nothing on it.

What can be done to fix this? I've read that putting Windows 10 on a USB by using the Microsoft media creation tool and booting from that to clean install works, but if I can't even boot from the Windows 7 disc, how can I boot from a USB? And I can't even enter BIOS to force a USB boot.

PLEASE HELP ME.


UPDATE: Okay, my PC will now boot into the "inaccessible_boot_device" error blue screen and does the restart loop. Not sure what I should do now. I'm afraid to power off my PC again.

UPDATE #2: Not sure why, but I was finally able to boot into BIOS. My only guess would be that, maybe when I tried(but failed) to remove my MOBO battery, just from me wiggling it caused it to reset? Idk.

Anyway, once in BIOS, I changed boot priority to DVD and was able to access reinstalling Windows 7.

I am right now reinstalling Windows 7, on Disk 0 Partition 2(if that matters. wouldn't even allow me to install on partition 1 or 3).

So, from the looks of things, everything is back to normal? I should be able to finish reinstalling Windows 7, do the updates and redownload/reinstall Windows 10 without issue? Though, this time I will NOT attempt to "reset this pc".

UPDATE #3: I'm back into Windows 10. Wooo! So, I'm still not sure why I was finally able to boot into BIOS, but once I was able to, I changed DVD boot drive to top priority and was able to reinstall Windows 7 from the disc. I then did all Windows Updates. I then downloaded the Windows 10 ISO and mounted/installed it with Virtual Clone Drive. I am now back inside Windows 10, hoping nothing else goes wrong.

Hi PLEASE HELP ME and welcome to TenForums.
Sorry to hear about the problems you're having.

Now, are you able to get into the advanced start menu and try a reset?

If not, please try downloading an ISO, burn to disk or USB, and follow instructions here. Skip when it asks for a key.

Telling the computer to boot from disk or USB is done in the BIOS (usually by pressing the F11 or F2 key), so you'll have to do that first.

Sorry about that - you were updating your post as I was responding....

PLEASE HELP ME said:

CPU/GPU: AMD A10-7850K
MOBO: MSI A78M-E35
SSD: SanDisk Plus 120GB
RAM: EVGA 8GB 2133MHz
PSU: EVGA 80+ 430W
Monitor: Acer G237HL bi

UPDATE: Okay, my PC will now boot into the "inaccessible_boot_device" error blue screen and does the restart loop. Not sure what I should do now. I'm afraid to power off my PC again.

UPDATE #2: Not sure why, but I was finally able to boot into BIOS. My only guess would be that, maybe when I tried(but failed) to remove my MOBO battery, just from me wiggling it caused it to reset? Idk.

Anyway, once in BIOS, I changed boot priority to DVD and was able to access reinstalling Windows 7.

Oh good.

PLEASE HELP ME said:

I am right now reinstalling Windows 7, on Disk 0 Partition 2(if that matters. wouldn't even allow me to install on partition 1 or 3).

That sounds correct. Please post a screenshot of your disk setup in Computer Management>Disk Management so we can verify.

PLEASE HELP ME said:

So, from the looks of things, everything is back to normal? I should be able to finish reinstalling Windows 7, do the updates and redownload/reinstall Windows 10 without issue? Though, this time I will NOT attempt to "reset this pc".

Yes. There is some prep work you might want to review before trying again:

If you have any 3rd-party antivirus, uninstall it.
If you have any 3rd-party firewall, uninstall it.
If you have any hard drive monitoring program, uninstall it. (Speccy)
If you have any overclocking setup, go back to normal.
Disconnect any external devices.
Uninstall any theme modifications.
If you have Google Chrome x64 browser, uninstall it. (Use 32-bit or their Canary version after upgrading.)
If you've moved your User Libraries to a custom location, move them back to default.
Check for updated drivers for your hardware (especially video) from your manufacturer's website. (This is important, as upgrade failures early on usually indicate driver problems.)
Check for BIOS updates from your manufacturer's web site.
Run sfc /scannow from an administrator command prompt.
Run chkdsk as well.
Run Malwarebytes AntiMalware (free) to be sure the system is virus-free. (of course, you have a clean install so this is not necessary.)

Be sure you have a backup of your system, or at least your files. I recommend Macrium Reflect Free for a disk image and rescue media before upgrading. You could then just copy/paste your files to an external drive.

If all this checks out, and you're ready to try the upgrade again:

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)

Once the system is upgraded, disable Fast Startup and give it a few shutdowns/startups. If everything is working well, you can try enabling Fast Startup then. Then, be sure to turn on System Restore and create a restore point or two.

Let us know how it goes.

I'd like your pic actually posted in the thread - here it is: (have to go to advanced options to do it)

Something is not right. Your first partition should not have a drive letter. That is where the boot manager & boot configuration files reside. It will also contain Bitlocker startup files if you use that. To understand it better, you can read this.

I think you will want to remove the drive letter from the first partition (E:\).

If you already had W10 on here, and activated, you can just go ahead and clean install W10, using an ISO disk. Choose SKIP when it asks for a key. If you don't get the option to skip, you have download the incorrect ISO file.

I would format the drive and remove all partitions, then clean install. You said you have changed the boot order to make DVD first. If you are not sure if the OS was activated, then do an upgrade (don't wipe the disk).

Download the ISO from MS TechBench.

Failures due to drivers usually occur during the first reboot during installation. But, you said you already had W10 installed at one point, then tried to do a reset.

Edit: One more thing: after W10 is installed, turn off fast startup and give it a few shutdowns/start ups to be sure everything is working properly. Run sfc /scannow to verify integrity of system files.

Change, add or remove a drive letter in Windows 7:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...#1TC=windows-7

PLEASE HELP ME said:

Would it be a terrible idea to just wait until I'm back in Windows 10 and then delete the partitions/drives I shouldn't have? Because I'm pretty frustrated at this point from dealing with all this and the last thing I wanna deal with is yet another reinstall if I don't have to.

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.

acmanten said:

PARTITION Info - save this for me.