INACCESSIBLE BOOT DRIVE

heartburnron · 25 Jun 2016 at 14:14

I'm trying to fix my mother in laws laptop. She upgraded from windows 7 a while back to windows 10. The laptop will no longer boot in to windows, it gives the 'inaccessible boot drive' error and reboots - it then continues in this loop.

She doesn't have the windows 7 disc and there is nothing in the laptop that needs to saved. She won't have a backup stored externally either. What can I do to try and fix it? Help please!!

PiKe · 25 Jun 2016 at 14:23

Get hold of a Windows disc and reinstall.

Chance are the HDD is goosed though.

heartburnron · 25 Jun 2016 at 14:27

Thanks. Ok, assuming I get hold of a windows disc. How do I do the reinstall. I can boot into the BIOS and then what?

bledd · 25 Jun 2016 at 15:31

PiKe said:
Chance are the HDD is goosed though.

That's a bit soon to say that..

Either take out the drive and connect it in a USB caddy or boot from a live Linux disc like 'Ubuntu' and copy the files from the local hard drive to a USB stick.

heartburnron · 25 Jun 2016 at 15:58

Can't take the drive out - it's a laptop. If I get a windows 7 download onto to a disc can I boot from that and install? Or would it need to be a windows 10 disc? I can't get into windows or the BIOS (asking for password which we don't know).

Mujja · 25 Jun 2016 at 16:15

heartburnron said:
Can't take the drive out - it's a laptop. If I get a windows 7 download onto to a disc can I boot from that and install? Or would it need to be a windows 10 disc? I can't get into windows or the BIOS (asking for password which we don't know).

Might be easier to hand the laptop over to some one who knows what they are doing.

groovesection · 25 Jun 2016 at 16:42

heartburnron said:
Can't take the drive out - it's a laptop. If I get a windows 7 download onto to a disc can I boot from that and install? Or would it need to be a windows 10 disc? I can't get into windows or the BIOS (asking for password which we don't know).

You are limited in options then, did she buy the laptop from new?
If so, contact the manufacturer and make sure you have the servicetag number (located on the sticker by the OS license key) - they might give you a sequence and code to unlock it.
Depending on manufacturer they may be able to help.

You could also 'guess' the BIOS password 3 times and get the system 'psuedo locked', then try brute force it:
http://dogber1.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/table-of-reverse-engineered-bios.html

Alternatively, take it to a shop

They will be able to get the HDD out lol

this_is_gav · 25 Jun 2016 at 19:24

heartburnron said:
Can't take the drive out - it's a laptop.

Chances are it's 2-4 screws, but yes, hand it over to someone who knows what they're doing and has what's needed.

bledd · 27 Jun 2016 at 05:36

Yes, you can take the drive out.