Repair Windows Loop

I am trying to help out a friend. She was burning a DVD, the process got stuck, she forced shut down, now her computer will not boot all the way, goes into a Repair Windows situation where nothing is working to repair it. Of course she has data she does not want to lose and has not backed up.

It’s a Dell desktop, came loaded with Windows 10. Came with a thumb drive to restore but can’t seem to get that to work either unless we are not doing it correctly, but apparently it is not a bootable thumbdrive.

Have tried Troubleshooting, Repair this PC, boot from thumb drive, It also seems to not want to go into Safe Mode either which is the most troubling part to me.

Anyone have this happen and have a solution? I have tried searching some things but not sure what to safely try to not lose her data. Thanks in advance.

Conversation 5 comments

  • jimchamplin

    Premium Member
    12 March, 2017 - 3:49 pm

    <p>Have you generated a generic known bootable USB stick using the Windows 10 installer tool from another PC? Create it and boot your machine from it to make sure it works, then try it on the Dell. If it doesn't, you may have to disable Secure Boot. I cannot offer advice on how to do that. I don't have a Dell machine I try it on. </p>

    • jcshellyg

      12 March, 2017 - 4:16 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#89999">In reply to jimchamplin:</a></em></blockquote><p>We were trying to get it to read the supplied Recovery USB thumb drive but i am wondering if she did it correctly based on a screen shot she just sent. Thanks, will work on that.</p>

      • jimchamplin

        Premium Member
        14 March, 2017 - 3:01 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#90017">In reply to jcshellyg:</a></em></blockquote><p>Any news?</p>

  • xperiencewindows

    12 March, 2017 - 5:36 pm

    <p>I assume this has already been ruled out, but the computer may be attempting to boot off the DVD, and since there is no valid boot media, it will fail. To cover all your bases, I would check what the boot order is in the BIOS.</p><p><br></p><p>You could try removing the hard drive from the PC and connecting it externally using a USB to SATA adapter on a known-working computer. The drive will show up as an external drive. See if you can run diagnostic tools on the bad drive using the "good PC" this way. If you can access the drive from the adapter, all is not lost (in most cases).</p><p><br></p><p>Worst comes to worst, if Windows is corrupt and cannot boot, you should be able to offload important files (documents, videos, pictures, etc) and blow out the Windows installation and format from scratch.</p>

  • rameshthanikodi

    13 March, 2017 - 6:47 am

    <p>What happens when you try go into safe mode? Repair loop as well?</p>

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