Can't get Windows 10 to load to desktop

PraxxtorCruel · 15 Nov 2016 at 13:02

I'll just start of by saying that Windows 8 and 10 are the most buggiest operating systems I've ever used. What a disaster.

Okay now for the problem.

For some reason my computer is acting like there is no operating system installed at all. I searched the net for some answers and used CMD to execute a command which came back with "Windows installations = 0", something along those lines. Nothing works. I cannot get anywhere using any of the provided options such as system restore, rollback to previous build, safe mode etc. The only recovery disk I have is installed into the hard drive.

I'd rather not wipe the whole thing but it seems increasingly so that this will happen. Any suggestions?

Thanks

AHarvey · 15 Nov 2016 at 13:04

can you take it out and try it in another machine?

Can you create a linux live CD and try that?

Is the hard drive actually connected properly?

PraxxtorCruel · 15 Nov 2016 at 13:16

AHarvey said:
can you take it out and try it in another machine?

Can you create a linux live CD and try that?

Is the hard drive actually connected properly?

It's a laptop. I could try that but is there a less direct approach that I could try?

I've never removed anything and it has never been dropped so I'd like to think that everything is connected properly.

I'm not sure I have a empty disk at hand but is it possible to do it with a USB device?

AHarvey · 15 Nov 2016 at 13:43

PraxxtorCruel said:
It's a laptop. I could try that but is there a less direct approach that I could try?

I've never removed anything and it has never been dropped so I'd like to think that everything is connected properly.

I'm not sure I have a empty disk at hand but is it possible to do it with a USB device?

yep, just create a live USB with Ubuntu, lots of guides on line at least it'll let you do a disk check and check files are there. Otherwise, a reinstall will probably be needed.

PraxxtorCruel · 15 Nov 2016 at 15:54

AHarvey said:
yep, just create a live USB with Ubuntu, lots of guides on line at least it'll let you do a disk check and check files are there. Otherwise, a reinstall will probably be needed.

Is it best to install Ubuntu or just have it run from the USB? How would I go about attempting to repair Windows? I'm a little lost here. How will I move back and forth between Ubuntu and Windows if my Windows OS as far as the computer sees it, doesn't exist? I say this because when I get to the point where I can either install Ubuntu by erasing the disk completely or choosing "something else" I can't see any signs of an operating system installed on the hard drive. Image below

demonix · 15 Nov 2016 at 16:09

I might be wrong, but it looks like the whole boot record has been wiped which would explain the no windows OS installations.

As for the linux thing, you can select the live option which will run it from RAM and won't touch the hard drive unless you go through the installation process but there should be a tool that will show the current construction of the hard drives partition table.

However, I don't know if there is a way to fix this since I doubt that the old commands that could fix damaged boot records would work if the installation was installed on a GPT partition instead of the older MBR.

Edit: Looking at that image, it looks like the whole windows installation has been nuked since the larger NTFS partition shows nothing used of what looks like 460GB, so unless there's an option to access the recovery partition from the BIOS (on an option to activate access to the recovery partition) then a full wipe and reinstall of the OS seems to be the only option

PraxxtorCruel · 15 Nov 2016 at 16:25

demonix said:
I might be wrong, but it looks like the whole boot record has been wiped which would explain the no windows OS installations.

As for the linux thing, you can select the live option which will run it from RAM and won't touch the hard drive unless you go through the installation process but there should be a tool that will show the current construction of the hard drives partition table.

However, I don't know if there is a way to fix this since I doubt that the old commands that could fix damaged boot records would work if the installation was installed on a GPT partition instead of the older MBR.

Edit: Looking at that image, it looks like the whole windows installation has been nuked since the larger NTFS partition shows nothing used of what looks like 460GB, so unless there's an option to access the recovery partition from the BIOS (on an option to activate access to the recovery partition) then a full wipe and reinstall of the OS seems to be the only option

I had a feeling this was a lost cause as it has happened a few times before. I don't understand how this is occurring. The laptop is only used for creating documents and browsing the world wide web. Nothing else. This is the 5th time this has occurred and always seems to happen shortly after installing Windows 10 (upgrading from Windows 8). The system starts to crash more often and things just get worse. I might just have to stay at Windows 8. This is happening too often for my liking.

If you're refering to commands like fixboot mbr and whatnot I tried those and nothing changed. Any ideas what would cause this to happen? I blame it on the OS upgrade but that's just what I think it is.

jpaul · 15 Nov 2016 at 17:40

Do you have some kind of multi-boot environment (win8 + win10) since there seem to be a lot of partitiions/disks if you only create documents / browse the web (but I am not that familiar with expected GPT partitions)
There was a fixed problem with win10 anniversary update where some partitions became raw/unallocated - appeared deleted (I stopped using win10 at this point) this was discussed in win10 AU thread.

PraxxtorCruel · 15 Nov 2016 at 18:36

jpaul said:
Do you have some kind of multi-boot environment (win8 + win10) since there seem to be a lot of partitiions/disks if you only create documents / browse the web (but I am not that familiar with expected GPT partitions)
There was a fixed problem with win10 anniversary update where some partitions became raw/unallocated - appeared deleted (I stopped using win10 at this point) this was discussed in win10 AU thread.

No multi-boot environment that I am aware of. I was simply presented with the opportunity to upgrade to Windows 10, which I did and that's when the problems started.

But thanks for the information. Looks like Windows 8 is where I shall stay.

demonix · 16 Nov 2016 at 16:48

If you haven't done so before, I would suggest just installing just windows 10 (since you said that all the previous installations of windows 10 were upgrades, and upgrades do on occasion cause issues) and see if there's any windows 10 drivers for the laptop (even if there aren't any on the manufacturers website, a quick google of the laptop maker and model number and there should be a few places listed to download them) before going back to windows 8 as from what you've been saying that might fix the issue.