How far into the boot cycle does it get?
Past the bios post, but not into windows?
Is there a BSD or 0x000 code?
Maybe try a temporary boot drive and run a check disk on that HD
The ill machine’s 1st screen is the Dell logo, then the Dell logo again, then something smallish flashes by too quick to read (might be that BIOS screen), then it goes to a “your device ran into a problem, we need to restart” screen, then it does an auto-restart, then the Dell logo comes back up, then it goes to a screen about “Auto-repair”, then it goes to a blue screen with multiple repair options, but none help (except potentially a complete reinstall of the OS, which I’ve not done yet, hoping to recover some of that stuff off the OS / Programs drive if I have to.) Everything else eventually dead ends. There IS a check of system components including drives and BIOS, which says all is well. However, attempting a Restore, I’m told there is no restore point to go back to, which seems impossible, because I’m sure restore points have been created for major updates in the past.
So, I’m pretty baffled anyway, and then I ran into this problem with the saved USB boot drive (flash drive), and the even weirder problem trying to make another one off my laptop by downloading Win 10 Pro from Microsoft.
The ill machine’s 1st screen is the Dell logo, then the Dell logo again, then something smallish flashes by too quick to read (might be that BIOS screen), then it goes to a “your device ran into a problem, we need to restart” screen, then it does an auto-restart, then the Dell logo comes back up, then it goes to a screen about “Auto-repair”, then it goes to a blue screen with multiple repair options, but none help (except potentially a complete reinstall of the OS, which I’ve not done yet, hoping to recover some of that stuff off the OS / Programs drive if I have to.) Everything else eventually dead ends. There IS a check of system components including drives and BIOS, which says all is well. However, attempting a Restore, I’m told there is no restore point to go back to, which seems impossible, because I’m sure restore points have been created for major updates in the past.
So, I’m pretty baffled anyway, and then I ran into this problem with the saved USB boot drive (flash drive), and the even weirder problem trying to make another one off my laptop by downloading Win 10 Pro from Microsoft.
Oh, golly, is THIS weird. I pulled out an “old” Win 10 Pro laptop and it WILL download the Win 10 Pro files to make a USB boot drive for the desktop. Download in progress.
Meanwhile, this 11 Pro laptop also fails to download Win 11 Pro files (to make a Win 11 Pro USB Boot drive.) It hangs up the download at the same point: “0% progress” forever, evidently.
Aha! It finally dawned on me that there is an old copy of the Win 10 Pro OS still on the data drive. So, I selected that drive as the boot drive, and, voila, less the update, the computer boots fine, I can read all drives, etc.
What I don’t have is the recent MS Security (by at least a year), most of the programs (apps), and recent bookmarks, etc., windows I’d left open last night, custom dictionaries of recent vintage, etc.
Also, the Win 10 Pro desktop wanted to do an immediate update with no possibility of delaying it once it becomes “inactive”. Update files were downloading — I just pulled the Cat 5e cable. Screw that, for now. And, I’ll shut down the entire machine when not in use. No carry-over from session to session - I’ll have to be sure to save everything. But, the laptop can take care of most of my web browsing until I get more goodies installed onto the new Win 11 desktop. A few of my most basic programs (apps) are on it already, and I can get more on there tomorrow. Today, I have to salvage today, what of it I can!