Posted on 01/05/2020 6:31:29 AM PST by CatOwner
Gotcha!
Unless, a more knowledgeable freeper expert in Win10 comes in and can point you in the right direction, then I’d say you will not be able to repair the boot record. I don’t know if it’s the exact error message or issue but it’s eerily similar to my coworker’s laptop issue. I threw some heavy command line tools at her laptop to rebuild the boot record manually and I came to conclusion that a Win10 update completely hosed it up beyond repair.
TL;DR
I’d reinstall Windows 10 with a USB/DVD Disc using the instructions from my previous post. Choose the option to save your files.
I read threads on other forums about the original 1909 update bricking the OS. That’s why 1909 didn’t get fully pushed out until late Novmeber to fix underlying issues. Evidently, there are still some nasty Gremlins.
As I said, my personal laptop takes 8-10 minutes to boot! Before the December updates it was literally 30 seconds tops. I’m just happy I haven’t been forced to reinstall. Although, if it’s not fixed with the January updates I will probably wipe it and reinstall Win10.
Thanks for the replies.
Since I can’t get the machine to boot off the DVD repair disk, I’m attempting to create a Win 7 Pro USB repair disk now, using my reserve machine. This is a bit spooky as the instructions include formatting the USB drive to NTFS “in a few seconds” — well, it looks like it’s gonna take more like half an hour, for the 8 GB flash drive. I sure hope something else is not reformatting, tho’ I was VERY careful in following the DOS style instructions. (I used to do a lot in DOS including writing batch files, so, I should (cross my fingers) have it right...)
If THIS doesn’t work I suppose I could try to create a Win PE disk, or, really go drastic and see if a DOS boot disk would let me reformat the SSD and REALLY start over. PITA...
Good spelling there, Paul R.!
Put Ubuntu 19.10 on a 6 year old Dell laptop. Runs clean and tidy. and fast. Better than Mint 19.2. First time I’ve preferred Ubuntu.
Just did a Win 7 Ultimate upgrade to Win 10 Pro that gave me some of the same symptoms. When I initiated the process it all seemed good and then it asked to install some critical updates before proceeding although Win 10 upgrade was still running. Bit the bullet and restarted the system and it started off by installing updates and then restarting the upgrade. I noted that at the turn around I got a BIOS error (501) an hit the enter key and went through the process until the reboot after the upgrade where I saw the message again and on subsequent boots. Looked it up on HP site as the manufacturer of the system and it showed that the location of the boot media was wrong but proceeded with the Enter key.
Now, I will redo the whole thing by migrating the boot media to another drive or possibly using Minitool Partion wizard to re-write the MBR.
But first I want to let you know of a Win 7 recovery tool that really works and helped me on a upgrade attempt to recover the Win 7 environment available from Amazon and it worked great to get you back to the core environment
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QPWH5QS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Also look for Recuva (free) to look through your disk and find files that you can save.
Other tools are Macrium and Acronis which allow you to migrate a copy of the whole drive to another so you have minimal impact to the drive you started with. That ios the path I would take
Clone the drive to another on and use the copy as your test mule. Once you clone the whole drive use the copy and try booting from it as the MBR (Master Boot Record) should be rebuilt in the process.
Now the disk I first mentioned will help you repair the Win 7 drive to a bootable state, but I would make a copy first using the cloning software mentioned above. Possibly the Rescue disk will get the system disk you started with in shape enough to get back to Win 7.
I will be doing a similar exercise tomorrow with the 501 error drive starting with the MBR utility on MiniTool Partition Wizard
I will be monitoring online so message me if you have any questions.
Semper Fi
100American
Hi, thanks for the info.!
I don’t know what to do if I can’t get ANY drive to usefully execute anything.
At present I have a new frustration: Using this reserve machine to try to create the USB (flash) repair drive from the repair disk, following the instructions I found online*, the file copy process smoothly and fairly quickly gets 46 or 47% complete and then just stops. The data transfer rate goes to zero and stays there for as long as I wait (an hour, on the last try.) I’ve tried 3 times with the same result. Chkdsk returns no errors on the USB stick, and the DVD player / recorder seems to work just fine otherwise.
I’m just about to swear off computers and take up something like litter collection. It’d be less hassle and more rewarding.
Sheesh.
Clarification:
The DVD drive on the failed machine won’t go anywhere with either the factory Repair DVD Disk or the one I made (yesterday).
The DVD drive on my reserve machine appears to function just fine*, but, per the previous post I can’t create a USB repair disk.
*I just now popped in a music CD and it plays as usual (ok) in the reserve machine.
Well, even weirder:
I tried copying the folders and one standalone (root) file from the Repair DVD to the USB stick, one at a time. All appeared to transfer normally, and the one folder that appeared to be over 300 Mb on the earlier copy on the USB stick is now 258 Kb (as it is on the disk.)
I’ll give the USB Repair stick a whirl in the wounded machine...
Up until now, that Win 7 machine has been the best computer I've ever owned -- and I was pretty darn happy with the XP machine that preceded it, until XP just got too dated to use regularly on the Internet. I am thoroughly mystified, and discouraged...
I stuck with Mint 18.3 Cinnamon, the 19.x is having some issues. I also just tried the new Ubuntu, but didn’t like it as well. I didn’t notice much difference in speed between the two, it all depends on the size of the app and app features you are loading and if the hard drive is SSD or HDD.
So, after a couple hours sleep I got up, determined to research this further. Found an 8 page discussion of a similar problem with a Toshiba laptop (mine is a HP 6300 desktop). (3 pages on initial thread, then 5 on a thread created for whatever reason to continue the discussion. Looks like problem never got solved (other than at the end, OP apparently was going to have to send machine to Toshiba.)
WTH? I would have thought one could boot from a factory supplied repair disk even if the HD (actually a SSD) had been smashed by one of Hilarity-Hannity’s hammers. The BIOS seems to work ok, as I can change boot order successfully and have it “stick”, etc.
And what on earth about an update could cause such a problem?
???
“I was pretty darn happy with the XP machine that preceded it, until XP just got too dated to use regularly on the Internet.”
You still have that machine Paul? Sounds like a perfect candidate for linux. An up to date up to speed version of linux can bring older 32 bit machines back to like a new one again.
Heck, that OP (link @ my #114) was at least getting to Startup Repair. I can’t even do that.
Win 7 Pro USB Repair Drive also gets me nowhere - it never loads / I still get message regarding BCD file problem. BIOS appears to be functioning ok, allows me to put the DVD or USB drives @ top of boot order, and changes “stick” properly. See discussion above.
Hope you don’t mind me dropping in with this Paul, But I have had the additional “boot device option” menu option override the BIOS boot order on some HP machines. Does that also have a boot device loader option like mine does? Keep hitting esc as you power it up, should get a menu that lets you go choose what device you want to boot from. This can sometimes “remember” what device it was booted from last and override the BIOS order. It has been an HP issue for years now.
Oh, heck, I still have an old and working DOS machine - a full tower to accept a “full length” board used for electronics testing. I still use it occasionally.
I have at least 3 other Linux possible old computers around here: Win 2000, Vista, another XP machine...
Yeah, I should learn Linux, but, where would I find the time...
I’ll take a look, but, thing is, I can change the boot order to any drive I want at the top by changing the boot order list in the BIOS, and NONE of the drives when set and “sticking” at the top of the list load the repair software.
Are you saying the boot order change appears in BIOS (F10 when booting up) to take effect, but in actuality does not?
This would make sense, as I never was able to get this machine to boot off the SSD 1st, without going into BIOS and resetting to default when it powers up. (I just kept it on or hibernating most of the time.)
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