Tweaking.com Reparse and Environmental Repairs

[DaveSlinger]

Hello,
I have an HP computer that won't boot- inaccessible boot device.  I pulled out the drive and put into an external USB box and plugged it into another computer.  It's showing up as a drive and I was able to copy my data from it.  Now I want to know if Tweaking.com check / repair reparse points and enviro variables can be set to run on an external drive?
Thanks

[Boggin]

I don't think that will do it.

With the USB hub plugged into the other machine, open a Command Prompt (Admin) or Powershell (Admin) and perform a chkdsk /f

On my machines the USB drive is drive E: so I would enter the cmd as chkdsk e: /f and see what it reports.

If it has failed or has numerous KBs in bad sectors then you will need to replace the hard drive.

If the chkdsk comes back clean then it could be that the BCD has become corrupt.

Instructions for that are in this article - http://woshub.com/how-to-rebuild-bcd-file-in-windows-10/

This has a sub link for UEFI based machines.

Refit the HDD but as you can't boot the machine to use the WRE you will need install media to boot up with.

Assuming you are using Win 10, you can create either a bootable DVD or USB after reading the instructions at -  https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10

Tap F12 as you switch the machine on then use the cursor keys to select the media you have created - insert the media and press enter.

Instead of pressing SHIFT + F10 to get to the cmd prompt - navigate to the Install screen after changing/confirming the Time and currency format and click on Repair your computer.

Click on Troubleshoot then on Command Prompt.

By this method you can enter exit twice to close the cmd window, remove the install media and select Turn off your PC to see if it will reboot normally.

However, before doing all of that and if the chkdsk comes back clean, you could try booting with a Hiren's Boot Disk -

https://www.techspot.com/downloads/6966-hirens-bootcd.html

Use the 15.2 download button.

I use Imgburn to create bootable DVDs - https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/imgburn.html

Let me know how you get on.

[DaveSlinger]

Hi Boggin,
Thanks for the detailed response.  When the drive was still in the HP computer I ran some Win10 repairs and chkdsk /f and it came back with some problems it could not repair.  I'll try that again now that the drive is externally mounted and on a different computer via USB.  Maybe I'll get a different result. 

You're right, I also suspect the BCD is damaged and thank you for sending the tips and links. 

Another problem I'm having is the with the Bios.  There is no option to boot from a USB stick so I can't run a host of tool on it when it was in the HP.  I have to boot Legacy and with a DVD.  The latest WIN10 is too large to fit on a DVD no matter how I try to shrink it.  I'm working on maybe trying to see if WIN PE will fit on a DVD or Windows to Go.

Other than that my recovery options do come up (i.e. command prompt, system restore, etc. but they are not doing me any good).  My next option it to try to reinstall Win10 saving my files but I don't trust it.  So that's another reason why I took the drive out, to copy my files to a safe place before trying this option.  I'll follow your suggestions first since it's already out and in an external box.

I appreciate your help.  I guess this will be my weekend project...
DAVE 

[Boggin]

I see what you mean that a DVD is now too small.

However, you can create a System Repair disk through Control Panel to boot up with.

This will give you the recovery options including Start-up Repair which can tell you if there's a problem with the HDD.

Go Start - type control panel and press enter when it comes up.

Click on Back up and Restore (Windows 7) where you will see the option on the left.

It's a pity you hadn't created a system image to restore with should you need to replace the HDD.

Can you post the chkdsk report.

I believe you can use the Update now button in that Win 10 IS0 page to reinstall Win 10 which should digital activate as you've already had Win 10 installed, although I don't know what you would need to reinstall, although you have backed up your personal files which is half the battle.

[DaveSlinger]

Hello,
Again, good tips and links you sent.  I wound up having to reinstall a fresh copy of windows then boot with Aomei backupper disk and find a backup that was relatively close to the date when the problem started.  The last backup I made was about a month earlier. 

It was a pain though, the backup was on an external USB 3.0 hard drive that was not recognized by the older WIN10 version (no drivers installed).  So I had to copy the backup to a drive that the older WIN10 version could see.  Once that was done I installed the backup and I'm back in the ballpark at least.

Now I have to figure out what I installed / did before the crash.
Thank you for your help.
DAVE

[Boggin]

Thanks for the update, but sorry you had to reinstall.

How did the chkdsk go ?