Windows 8.1 laptop won't boot [Solved]

[Tone111]

Hi peeps, okay so now it's my 8.1 laptop that's playing up, only this one has a boot problem rather than an update problem 

It's a 64 bit Toshiba Satellite C50D and after being in safe mode the other day (doing nothing special to alter anything that I'm aware of) and trying to go back into normal mode it gave me the blue screen with message and an INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE error which it tried to repair, then went into Automatic Repair mode but couldn't fix anything. I've tried Restarting with no effect, then been into Advanced options and tried System Restore, but that wouldn't work, and also done a full chkdsk /r from the command prompt option which reported no problems (the HDD has always been fine on this machine so far!)

From a bit of googling I've tried the rebuild bcd command repair which had no effect, but I may not have done it all as the directories on my OS didn't correspond with the ones on the instructions. Does anyone have any ideas on this one please as my machine is unusable at the moment.... 

[Shane]

Grab the program called "WhoCrashed" and have it scan and it will look at the blue screen dump file and tell you what most likely caused the crash.

Shane

[Tone111]

Ok, thanks Shane - I've downloaded it on my (still working!) Dell desktop, but isn't it a Windows program?   

At the moment I can only access the RE Advanced options (inc. command prompt) on my laptop, so would have to run it from the DOS command line via a USB, if that's possible....   

[Shane]

Not even safe mode?

you should be able to get the dump file off the bad system and have the program look at it, its help file explains how to do that i think.

Shane

[Boggin]

It's possible that the SATA mode has been changed somehow.

Have a look at this article and boot into the BIOS to see what it is set at. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2795397

This article has some bits on your error as well https://neosmart.net/wiki/blue-screen-death-bsod-errors-windows-8/

[Tone111]

Nope, not even safe mode  - forgot to mention I'd tried that as well from the advanced options.

Thanks. Okay, I'll dig my flash drive out and copy the dump file to my desktop and analyze it there, and also have a read of those links as well and see if that leads anywhere promising, get back tomorrow as it's late here.... 

[Tone111]

Okay, to update - tried reconfiguring the MBR with one of those links but that didn't have any noticeable effect.

Tried to reboot into safe mode to do something related to the "Third Party ATA Miniport Driver" (although I've no idea what this is or why it should have changed!) but it wouldn't recognize the "shutdown" command  - 'not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file'; this command is also needed in the section about "Switching the BIOS from AHCI to IDE mode", so I couldn't do that either! Although I did go into the Advanced options UEFI settings (is this the same as the old BIOS settings in W7??), but I couldn't find a switch anywhere that mentioned 'SATA Emulation' or any options to change from AHCI to IDE, so I'm at a complete loss at the moment!

Also I was going to copy the crash dump file onto my USB to analyze it on my desktop, but I'm not sure which file to copy or the location - can anyone help me on this one or any of the others above? Thanks

[Boggin]

Not sure about the UEFI settings being the same as BIOS in Win 7 - you usually had to tap F2 as you switched on as you were outside of Windows.

As for the minidump files, try C:\Windows\minidump - Minidump files should have a .dmp extender.

[Tone111]

Thanks. No dump files present in that directory, did a search for any .dmp files anywhere on the OS drive (C:) and there's plenty, but mainly all related to crashes of various programs on the machine, and none from the date of the error - it didn't even "crash" as such, just wouldn't boot back into Windows normal mode after being in safe mode!

One of those repairs did manage to get the laptop into safe mode, but it still wouldn't boot into Windows and went into the same repair loop which couldn't so I'm back into the RE advanced options normal mode again. Also tried another full chkdsk /r, still with no errors, and a different restore point which also wouldn't restore...

Still at a loss - I'm guessing the Refresh PC option or changing any of the registry hives aren't going to make any difference if it won't boot into Windows??

[Boggin]

In Win 7's advanced boot options there's one to disable the auto reboot on failure which would produce a BSOD and a Stop Error code and message - but you would need to boot back into the advanced boot options to boot up into any other mode and as F8 doesn't work in Win 8.1 I'm not sure how you would do that.

As you are in the advanced boot options do you have a Repair your Computer to navigate to the RE to run the Startup Repair, or have you already tried that and what does a sfc /scannow or chkdsk /f run from the cmd prompt give you ?

[Tone111]

Yes I've tried Startup Repair but it didn't fix anything (that I could tell!), and it does a disk check of it's own (/f I believe), in addition to the 2 /r that I've also done, and all have come up clean.

I have done an SFC as well, which I think said it found some errors but couldn't fix all of them, can't remember now - I'll run it again after the Startup repair has tried (again) to fix any problems and let you know...

[Rick]

Grab the program called "WhoCrashed" and have it scan and it will look at the blue screen dump file and tell you what most likely caused the crash.

Shane

Shane; sometimes, we need take a break from reality:) maybe offer a glimmer of hope here:)
http://god-answers-prayers.com/miracle_prayers/never_known_to_fail/index.html

hope you get the point!
thank you for all you do!

[Tone111]

Err, thanks Rick, but fortunately divine intervention wasn't required, this time at least!   

I managed to solve it by myself, but thanks for the inputs anyway, appreciate all the help I've had on here 

Just for info, I ran the SFC scan and it turned up some corruption that it couldn't repair, so I guess that's still outstanding and will need a look at now I'm running again, but didn't allow the machine to boot. I went all the way through a bcd rebuild from one of your links Boggin, and even though it completed successfully and did something on a hidden small partition of my disk that I knew nothing about, it still wouldn't allow the machine to boot. Also re-tried the full chkdsk /r and system restore (Again!) out of desperation, all with no effect. 

Just before I was about to try one of Shane's full registry backups I decided to just copy the SYSTEM hive from the machine's own regback, which was more recent than my full tweaking backup, and voila, it's only done the trick!!  So now I'm back running again, only I've still no idea what the hell happened to not allow my boot record to be read and my machine not to turn on (any ideas anyone??), but it underlines the importance of doing (frequent!) registry backups to me, as I've used this method several times on both my machines to get non-running systems back on the go again, so all good for now!

Now to update and check/scan everything and then do some more backups... 

[Boggin]

For us not so savvy (including me) how did you copy the System Hive and where is the regback to be found ?

[Tone111]

For us not so savvy (including me) how did you copy the System Hive and where is the regback to be found ?

Fairly simple really, but can't be done from within Windows as the registry files are all in use and can't be accessed, so has to done from the RE, either the machine's own or a recovery or installation disk.

(1.) Open the command prompt, and (2.) navigate to the OS drive (C: etc, check with DISKPART, list volume if not sure), then (3.) to the Windows\System32\config folder. (4.) Rename (ren) the SYSTEM file to SYSTEM.old or .bak or similar to create a backup. (5.) Navigate to the regback folder (cd regback) - this works in both W7 and W8.1, not sure about older (or newer!) OS.. (6.) Type dir SYSTEM - a file should be displayed with the machine's registry backup of the SYSTEM file with a date stamp and size - this will give an indication of when the registry was last backed up by the machine, unfortunately I don't know how often this happens or whether it will always work, but mine was less than a week old and newer than my Tweaking Registry backup so I went for it!  (7.) Finally type "copy SYSTEM c:\windows\system32\config" without the quotes, and with your OS drive if not C:, and your OS folder if not Windows, and this will copy the backup into the config folder. Exit out of the command prompt and restart the machine and if all's gone well it boots up again!

I have used this method before, but I guess it depends how old or compatible the registry hive backup is, and I don't know how to force a hive backup, so an alternative is to use Shane's Tweaking Reg Backup and navigate to the relevant folder there and use the dos_restore command to backup the whole registry from the batch file there - that was my next option had the fix above not worked.

Hope that's all clear...

[Boggin]

So do you have to navigate to Windows\System32 etc. from the cmd prompt ?

[Tone111]

Yep, wasn't that clear - it's all from the command prompt in the repair environment, using the cd (change directory) command, and others.

Some basic use of the old dos commands is required, fortunately I still remember most of it!  probably best attempted only if you're familiar or comfortable with dos and command prompts, if the syntax isn't 100% on the mark the commands won't work...

[Boggin]

Okay - Thanks Tone.