Windows 10 won't boot! Help!!!!

[George22]

I installed windows 10 two days ago and it was working fine (slow but acceptable) , I turned it off and the next day when I turned it on I wouldn't boot windows 10 and would take me to automatic repair and say your "PC did not start correctly" as shown in the image I tried restarting various amount of times but it will keep doing the same process, I also tried advanced settings and would select troubleshoot as shown in the other picture, went to advanced options and ttried all of them but none will work, please help, how do I fix this? Also tried resetting

 

[Melissa MacEwan]

i am having this exact problem. was running fine this morning. Please help!

 

[Trouble]

went to advanced options and ttried all of them but none will work, please help, how do I fix this? Also tried resetting

Not sure, but we seem to be hearing a lot of these or something very similar.
The only thing I might suggest if start repair cannot fix the issue, would be to try a command prompt
Boot from the install media and on the second page you should see a link to Repair Your PC.
Navigate through the screens

Select Advanced Options from this screen

Then select Troubleshoot from this screen

Then select Command Prompt from this screen

Then type
bootrec /fixMBR hit enter
bootrec /Fixboot hit enter
bootrec /rebuildBCD hit enter
exit hit enter

Click "turn off your pc"
Give it a minute and boot it up.

I'm a little interested in what happened when you

tried resetting

???

 

[Melissa MacEwan]

thank you for the quick response. followed your command prompt instructions... after the last prompt it says...
total identified windows installations: 0

 

[Trouble]

total identified windows installations: 0

I've seen that myself on multiple occasions. It never seemed to have an impact one way or the other on the command function that evoked it.
I guess the key question would be, are you still getting the error when you start your machine?

 

[Melissa MacEwan]

I've seen that myself on multiple occasions. It never seemed to have an impact one way or the other on the command function that evoked it.
I guess the key question would be, are you still getting the error when you start your machine?

yes. same error meessage

 

[Trouble]

And have you tried booting into Safe Mode from the Advanced Screen / Startup Settings / Change windows startup behavior??

 

[Melissa MacEwan]

And have you tried booting into Safe Mode from the Advanced Screen / Startup Settings / Change windows startup behavior??

yes. and after doing the command prompt... no longer gives me the option to choose safe made ...when i go to change windows startup behavior it just wants to restart. so frustrating. Its just a big loop. Everything leads back to same same error message.

 

[Melissa MacEwan]

yes. and after doing the command prompt... no longer gives me the option to choose safe made ...when i go to change windows startup behavior it just wants to restart. so frustrating. Its just a big loop. Everything leads back to same same error message.

I have tried resetting also...gets to 1% and says there was error and nothing was changed

 

[Trouble]

And I assume that the Go Back to xxxxx option is also similarly crippled or unusable?

 

[Melissa MacEwan]

And I assume that the Go Back to xxxxx option is also similarly crippled or unusable?

no... i can go back to previous options

 

[Trouble]

At this point that would be the option that I would seriously be considering.
I would first backup any critical data on the drive, just in case that made things worse instead of better.
Then I'd go back to your previous OS and maybe think, long and hard before attempting to upgrade again.
Personally, I think these problems will likely get sorted out over time as Microsoft is still collecting info and hopefully at some point in time (before the free upgrade option expires next July) it'll be safer and less disastrous to upgrade.
I just remember back when Windows 8 first became available and they were offering a much discounted upgrade option (pricing).
I was never, ever, able to get my Windows 7 Pro machine to Upgrade to Windows 8 and had to perform a custom clean install (which had its' own problems back then) and I've been doing this stuff for a living for over two decades now.

 

[Melissa MacEwan]

At this point that would be the option that I would seriously be considering.
I would first backup any critical data on the drive, just in case that made things worse instead of better.
Then I'd go back to your previous OS and maybe think, long and hard before attempting to upgrade again.
Personally, I think these problems will likely get sorted out over time as Microsoft is still collecting info and hopefully at some point in time (before the free upgrade option expires next July) it'll be safer and less disastrous to upgrade.
I just remember back when Windows 8 first became available and they were offering a much discounted upgrade option (pricing).
I was never, ever, able to get my Windows 7 Pro machine to Upgrade to Windows 8 and had to perform a custom clean install (which had its' own problems back then) and I've been doing this stuff for a living for over two decades now.

i can go back to all options..but they will not allow me to do anything. not even reset. nothing works!

 

[Trouble]

That's what I was asking, on the advance troubleshooting screen there should be an option to "Go Back To (your previous version of Windows)"?
I was trying to find out if that option was available to you and still worked.

 

[Melissa MacEwan]

That's what I was asking, on the advance troubleshooting screen there should be an option to "Go Back To (your previous version of Windows)"?
I was trying to find out if that option was available to you and still worked.

very sorry. no there is not one of those options that work i have tried everything

 

[Trouble]

The way I see it now, is that you have exhausted everything that I could possibly suggest and you only have a couple possible options remaining to return your computer to a functional state, neither of which is particularly optimal.

The first thing I would recommend, if you have any personal data (files like pictures, music, documents, email etc.,) you need to take some preliminary steps to secure that data.
In order to do that you will need a second (working) computer, on which you can create, bootable media that you can use on your non-operational computer to boot that computer and either perform a disk image or simply copy off that data to an external resource such as a USB external hard disk.

Personally my first choice would be to download the free trial of Acronis True Image and install it on a second functioning computer and use that software to create the "Rescue Media" to boot your problem computer and create a Disk Image of the entire hard disk of your problem computer.
http://www.acronis.com/en-us/personal/computer-backup/
There are any number of other software options out there that will allow you to do something similar......

Acronis True Image http://www.acronis.com/en-us/personal/pc-backup/
AOEMI BackUpper http://www.backup-utility.com/
AX64 Time Machine - Snapshot Imaging Backup http://ax64.com/
EaseUS ToDo http://www.easeus.com/backup-software/tb-free.html
Macrium Reflect http://www.macrium.com/product/7/macrium-reflect-v6-home-edition.aspx
Paragon https://www.paragon-software.com/home/br-free/

I just prefer and have used Acronis for years and have found it to be reliable and relatively easy to use.

As a second choice you could, again, use a second computer and obtain a Linux Distro Live CD ISO
My personal favorite http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=191
OR
Some people prefer http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop (choose your flavor.... Pick 32 bit if you are not sure).
I find Mint MATE a little easier for Windows Users to use.
Once you have the ISO you can use something like ImgBurn to burn it to a DVD or Rufus to burn it to a USB ThumbDrive to boot your computer with
http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download
http://rufus.akeo.ie/
When you boot into which ever version of Linux you decide to use, you can use that to copy off your file to an external USB hard disk. Usually your C:\Users\YourUserName (that's your profile folder) if you have more than one user(s) you may want to grab any additional profile folders contained in C:\Users.
Those folders will usually contain most if not all of your critical data, unless you have moved them intentionally to another location, or created a non-standard data structure of your own.
In your case, you may also want to grab
C:\Windows.OLD (if it still exists) as this may contain files and folders from your previous Operating System, that you upgraded from.

After you have secured your critical data I believe you have three choices at your disposal.
1. Use your Computer Manufacturer's recovery partition to return your computer to its' former factory state, if that is an option.
2. Use the install media from your Original Operating System to reinstall the OS which you had previously been using
OR
3. And this will only work if your previous installation of Windows 10 had been running long enough to effectively been "Activated" on that machine.
Obtain (if you don't already have it) the Windows 10 ISO from either of these two resources.....
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/techbench
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
And perform a custom clean install of Windows 10
WARNING: All three of these potential options will assure that all your previous data and programs will be gone, so it is imperative that you make every effort possible to secure your important files in advance and confirm that you have them safe and that they are actually available to you from your external drive.

 

[Melissa MacEwan]

thank you .. i will try

 

[Trouble]

Good luck and please keep us posted as to how you progress.
I think it's a shame that the upgrade process has left you (your computer) in this condition and I know from reading this and other forums that you are not alone.
Obviously the Windows 10 Upgrade was not 100% suitable for all computers everywhere and consequently, many folks are left with a computer that is unusable.

 

[George22]

Not sure, but we seem to be hearing a lot of these or something very similar.
The only thing I might suggest if start repair cannot fix the issue, would be to try a command prompt
Boot from the install media and on the second page you should see a link to Repair Your PC.
Navigate through the screens

Select Advanced Options from this screen

View attachment 895

Then select Troubleshoot from this screen

View attachment 896

Then select Command Prompt from this screen

View attachment 897

Then type
bootrec /fixMBR hit enter
bootrec /Fixboot hit enter
bootrec /rebuildBCD hit enter
exit hit enter

Click "turn off your pc"
Give it a minute and boot it up.

I'm a little interested in what happened when you

???

Hey sorry for being late, I did the 3 command prompt and in the last one it says "Total identified windows installations:1" and "add installation to boot list?" Should I put yes, no or all?