Computer fixed

[micky]

After a lot of help from Paul in one of the newsgroups on the list, I fixed my win10 computer.

I had been getting Inaccessible boot device

and also as a result, 0x000000c, or something like that. If you google Inaccessible boot device. youll see the exact error mentioned.

It took 30 elapsed hours and 6 to 8 hours of work.

I almost wish it had dragged on longer so I could have learned more, by fully understanding Paul's posts, and reading on the web.

I don't even know what fixed it, but I think there were only two possible things I did.

I ran: bcdedit /store C:\boot\BCD /set {bootmgr} displaybootmenu True

Paul susggested this. Paul, after I ran this line, it just said "Operation concluded succefully" but it didn't say what it did!! Any chance this fixed it, or was it just supposed to display the boot menu?

Lazesoft was just as confusing. I used one particular thing** in: Lazesoft Windows Recovery which is contained in Hiren's Boot CD.

I installed it on a flashdrive which is much better that a CD, because you can copy or dl software to it, and run the software from flashdrive, like Forte Agent. You can make a file for notes, save it on the flash drive and then use the flashdrive on your laptop or the broken PC after you fix it.

Hiren's includes Firefox, but afaik it doesn't save bookmarks or prior sessions. It forgets everything it knows when you close Hirens. Because it was first written for a CD and I don't think they made changes when people started putting it on flashdrives.

So in a notes file, I kept a list of urls that might help me fix the problem, to read on the laptop after I closed Hirens.

Back to Lazesoft Windows Recovery, the home edition is free. It's organized pretty well. There are lots of things included that I didn't try because I only did things related to "can't boot". I tried Repair MBR, then rebooted with no success. Then I tried Fix Boot Sector, then rebooted with no success. Then I tried Rebuild boot Menu and rebooted with no success. The next step, something like Replace Windows system files, it said was not available in the Home edition (at least for win10), and I was considering buying a better edition, but I was also following Paul's suggestions and leads. Then I tried Chkdsk and it ran too quickly for me to take it seriously, under 45 seconds, but it didn't find any problems.

Many/most of the operations have Undo ability. Plus it seems you can't run twice the ones with Undo-ability, because the 2nd time the button won't even depress, even if it's not the same Hirens session (because of the presence of the .bak files I'm sure.)

** Finally after hours of reading and trying other things, mostly related to Paul's posts, I tried One Step Repair. It said that was for novice users and of course I'm no dang novice, plus I figured it wouldn't tell me where the prolem was and I wanted to know. So I'd saved it for last.

But I tried it and this is what it said. I copied it to my Notes.txt:

System Volume: System Reserved,(*:).1.00 GB NTFS

Check and Fix the MBR Check and Fix the boot indicator

Check and Fix the boot sector parameters Check and Fix the boot sector boot codes

Check and Fix the BCD file Check and Fix the file system for the boot partition

Check and Fix the missing critical Windows system files Check and Fix the registry files -- end quote --

Note that afaik I hadn't done the 2nd, 5th, 6th, 7th or 8th tests, because it didn't list them separately. The 7th line about windows systems files, it specifically said was not in the home edition. Was that incorrect or is the 7th line there by mistake? Who knows. (I looked at the list of files in the System Reserved partition, but I didn't look for a complete list to compare it with.)

And it doesn't say what it fixed, if anything.

Hirens is great. I can't speak too highly about Hirens. Even if it's not the most recent version of Lazesoft (no version number is given), it's much better than just putting Lazesoft Windows Recovery on a flashdrive because Hirens has loads of other freeware and shareware, for just any purpose, like administrative-level CMD, partition managers, ImgBurn, Firefox, notepad, wordpad, MyComputer (file manager). See this list:

I hadn't even noticed thise tools that might have helped: BCD-MBR Tools BootIce v1.3.3 EasyBCD v2.3

I think Knoppix is supposed to be similar but I didn't understand it. I know Hirens works. They're up to version 15.2 now, but old versions are good too if they have Lazesoft.

[gfretwell]

Don't you image your C: drive? I would have started by restoring an old image from when it was working before I tried anything else. Maybe just plug in an old C: drive and see if it loads. That is a good reason to always keep your C: as small as you can, software only and load your data on another drive. The images are not going to be that big then. I use Acronis True Image.

[Clare Snyder]

I recently had a customer computer (an Acer all in one) that was sporadically giving the "innaccessible boot device" error.Going into the "bios" was often impossible and when you could the hard drive did not exist. I pulled it apart and put Stabilant 22 on the connectors to thehard drive, re-assembled it, and it has not miss-behaved since (over 2 weeks now) The stuff is about $200 an ounce - and worth every penny!!

[Tekkie©]

On Fri, 12 Mar 2021 10:20:48 -0500, [e-mail] posted for all of us to digest...

+100 on True Image

[Tekkie©]

On Fri, 12 Mar 2021 11:55:07 -0500, Clare Snyder posted for all of us to digest...

Better than Deoxit?

[Paul]

It occurs to me, you could still do

bcdedit

while the computer is running and compare the output to the previous output. Just to see how they differ and how a working one looks.

There is likely to be more lines, with GUID strings in them.

Paul

[Clare Snyder]

WAY better. At least for the application. It makes a plug-in connection electrically equivalent to a soldered joint - and can't short fine pitch terminals - and it is basically invisible and non-staining. It's even good on potentiometers and in switches.

[micky]

I did think the connections might be a problem. I opened the case and tried to jiggle the ones I could reach but they were firm.

And the problem started just after I used used a couple unusual programs, PCUnlocker and PassFab 4Winkey. Neither of them worked completely, so that too made me suspicious. OTOH, they are just supposed to read and maybe write the SAM directory in Windows\system32\config\... and were not supposed to do anything to the boot files, so it's a strange coincidence.

Both get pretty good reviews and complaints are mostly about not getting their money back when it doesn't work. Not about it screwing up the computer.

[gfretwell]

Talked me into it. I just bought a 5ml bottle of concentrate for $55US from amazon. Says it makes 30ml

[bruce bowser]

Have you thought about sending Microsoft a copy of the above?

[micky]

Good idea. They probably don't know this stuff.

[bruce bowser]

Or at least, not enough of the tech company knows.