Hello everyone.
In this video,
you will learn the effective and ultimate solution
fix the blue screen of death with
inaccessible boot device error
in Windows 10,
Windows 8,
or Windows 7.
This problem may occur after new windows updates,
program or driver installation,
corruption in the system disk or missing boot files, … etc.
What distinguishes this video from other videos...
is that it contains a collection of the most effective methods
with solutions to errors you may encounter while applying those methods.
After watching this video,
you will be able to choose a specific solution from among 11 methods ...
that is applicable to your situation according to the type and cause of the problem,
Windows version, ability to access advanced restore options and many variables.
You can also watch the video in your own language
by activating the translation option in the YouTube video player.
Important Notes in relation to commands that we will use in some methods:
/ is proceeded by one space.
\ is not proceeded by space.
No deference between UPPERCASE and lowercase letters.
Video Contents is divided into two parts:
The first parts:
How to access the Advanced Restore options from:
a. Windows boot menu
b. Windows installation media (WIM) like CD, DVD or USB flash drive.
The second parts:
Methods for solving the problem, including:
1. Automatic Start-up Repair
2. Uninstalling update using build-in option
3. System restore
4. Removing Updates/Installation using CMD
5. Restoring system Health using DISM
6. Fixing disk errors automatically using CHKDSK
7. Repair missing/corrupted system files using (SFC)
8. Repair Boot MPR, Sector & Configuration using Bootrec
9. Copy files from dead PC to USB flash using CMD
10. Manually Repair the corrupted system partition using BCDBOOT
11. Reset the system while keeping all files & folders
Let's get started with part number one:
How to enter the advanced restore options,
from which we will start all methods to solve the problem.
To enter into advanced recovery options without installation media, do the followings:
a. Turn off the computer completely
b. Turn it on again
c. When the Windows logo appears with a circle of dots, ...
press and hold the power key for 8 seconds or until the device turns off completely.
d. Repeat previous two steps until appearance of "Preparing Automatic Repair".
The device will now enter the advanced restore options.
To open advanced restore options from Windows installation media (WIM)
such as DVD or USB, do the followings:
a. Turn off the computer completely
b. Connect a Windows installation media
c. Turn on the computer
d. Once you see the manufacturer logo, Press the F8 key on the keyboard to enter the boot options.
e. Move to the DVD or the USB and then press the Enter button.
f. Press any key to continue.
g. Change the keyboard language to the United States,
so that you can type commands with symbols without problems, as happens ...
when choosing the British language or some other languages.
h. Click on the Next button,
click on the Repair your Computer option.
Part number 2:
Ways to solve: Inaccessible Boot Device starting with the easiest one:
Of course, you are not obligated to apply all methods,
but you can try the first method, then the second,
then the third and so on until you solve your problem.
Also, if there is a method that you tried before watching this video
and it did not succeed in solving the problem,
you may find a solution in this video for the error that led to the failure of that method.
First: Automatic Start-up Repair
1.a. Click on the Automatic Startup Repair option,
then choose the Windows system if you have installed more than one OS.
1.b. You may need to enter an administrator password if you asked for,
otherwise click the Next button if you didn’t add a password for the admin profile login.
Although the success rate of this option is low, it may solve the problem, especially if it is applied from the Windows installation media.
Second: Uninstall latest update
2.a. Click on Uninstall Updates option.
2.b. Select Uninstall the latest quality update,
2.c. if the previous option didn't work, try to Uninstall the latest feature update.
Because there is nothing that can be deleted due to the absence of updates in my laptop,
so both attempts have failed, although it may succeed for you,
especially if the cause of problem is the recent windows updates or the latest features installation.
Third: System restore: Restore the system to a date before the problem appeared:
The System Restore option is required a manual activation in windows 10,
but in older windows versions such as windows 8, windows vista or windows 7, this option is came enabled by default.
The success rate of this method is very high if you have this option enabled in your laptop.
3.a. Click on the System Restore option then choose the required Windows to be restored if you have more than one OS.
You may need to enter an administrator password if you asked for,
otherwise click the Next button if you didn’t add a password for the admin profile login.
3.b. Select a restore point to a date before the problem occurred. After that, press the Next button.
3.c. If there is no any restore point because the automatic system restore feature has been turned off,
due to removal of restore points by viruses or for any reason, then you have to proceed to the next method.
Fourth: Delete the recently installed or pending windows updates using CMD:
Windows updates or are the most common cause of this issue, especially if there are incompatibility with your hardware.
Also pending updates may cause this problem, especially if the installation process started but didn’t
complete successfully due to shutdown, power failure or If the Computer is running out of disk space.
4.a. Open Command Prompt.
4.b. Type this command line and hit Enter. dism /image:C:\ /get-packages
4.c. Type this command line and stop, i.e. don’t hit Enter. dism /image:c:\ /remove-package /packagename:
4.d. Search for any update with label "Install Pending" and copy the entire package name.
4.e. Paste that name just after the previous unexecuted command line and hit Enter to delate the package.
4.f. If there is no pending installation, search for the recent update
or installation that you think it is the cause of the issue
based on its installation date and delete it as on the previous step.
4.f. Restart your computer to see the blue screen of death has been fixed or not.
Fifth: Restore Health b. From Installation Media a. Without Installation Media (Applicable for Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows Server 2012 R2 or Windows Server 2012)
5.1.a. Determine the assigned letter for both windows disk or system partition and Windows Installation media.
5.1.b. Open Command Prompt and Type Notepad.exe then press Enter.
5.1.c. Click on File then select Open option.
5.1.d. Navigate to Computer Folder and note the assigned letters.
In my laptop, the “C” is assigned for System partition and “D” for DVD installation Media, however, it may be different in your laptop, so you have to use the correct letter in the following commands.
5.2. Checking if there is a corruption in the system:
5.2.a. Open the Command Prompt.
5.2.b. Type this command and press Enter: Dism /Image:C:\ /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
5.2.c. Also you can execute this command to check if the system is healthy, repairable, or non-repairable: Dism /Image:C:\ /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
The result in my case state that “No component store corruption detected” because my system is healthy right now.
If you get a result that told you the system is non-repairable, you should remove the installed system and start a new windows installation.
If the result told you that the system is repairable, you have to use RestoreHealth command to repair that as on the next steps.
5.3. Restoring system health without Windows installation media.
5.3.a. Type this Command and press Enter: Dism /Image:C:\ /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
5.3.b. Restart your computer to see if the issue has been fixed or not.
5.4. Restore Health From Installation Media
5.4.a. Use the same commands we used previously for checking and restoring system health when the Windows installation media is not available.
However, when using the RestoreHealth, you can add the Installation Media as the source for the repair files as following: DISM /Image:C:\ /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:WIM:D:\Sources\install.wim:1 /LimitAccess
5.4.b. If the previous command failed, use these two commands instead: MD C:\Scratch DISM /Image:C:\ /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:WIM:D:\Sources\install.wim:1 /ScratchDir:C:\Scratch
Sixth: Checking & Fixing Disk Errors Automatically:
6.a. Open the Command Prompt.
6.b. Type this Command and press Enter: CHKDSK /R
6.c. If the previous command failed, type this Command and press Enter. CHKDSK C: /F /R
6.d. If the previous command failed, type this Command and press Enter. CHKDSK C: /F /R /X
6.e. Restart your computer to see if the issue has been fixed or not.
Seventh: Repair missing or corrupted system files using (SFC):
7.1. In windows 10, windows 8.1 or windows 8, execute DISM restorehealth command before SFC command. In windows 7 or Windows Vista, execute SFC Directly.
7.2.a. in my case is a windows 10, so I'll start with Dism command: Dism /Image:C:\ /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
7.2.b. Type this Command and press Enter: SFC /Scannow
After executing this command, if you have received this message:
Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation.
That means the SFC tool was failed, and you have to perform SFC scan in safe mode.
7.3.a. How to boot in Safe Mode from Advanced Recovery Options without windows installation media.
7.3.b. Navigate to Advanced options and click on Start-up settings option.
7.3.c. Click on Restart button.
7.3.e. Press F6 key from keyboard to boot in Safe Mode with Command Prompt.
7.4. How to boot in Safe Mode from Advanced Recovery Options using Windows Installation Media:
7.4.b. Type these command lines one by one and press Enter after each command: bcdedit /set {default} safeboot minimal bcdedit /set {default} safebootalternateshell yes
7.4.c. Close command prompt.
7.4.d. Click on Continue option to boot windows in Safe Mode.
7.5.a. Again, type the DISM command only if you have windows 8 or windows 10, otherwise, execute the SFC Scan directly: Dism /Image:C:\ /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
After this process is finished, you'll receive one of the following messages: 1- Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations. That means you don’t have any missing or corrupted system files.
2- Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them. This message means that you have done, and no further steps are needed rather than restarting your system and celebrate your success.
3- Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them. Details are included in the CBS.Log %WinDir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. In this case, you have to replace corrupted files manually.
7.5.c. You have to disable booting in safe mode by executing this command: C:\> bcdedit /deletevalue {current} safeboot
Eighth: Repair Boot MPR, Sector and Configuration using Bootrec.exe
8.1.a. Execute these three commands one by one: bootrec /rebuildbcd bootrec /fixmbr bootrec /fixboot
8.1.b. If bootrec /fixboot failed with “the access is denied” error, type this command to fix that: bootsect/nt60 SYS
8.1.c. Execute bootrec /fixboot command again.
8.2. If the previous method failed, add these 6 commands one by one: bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup c: cd boot attrib bcd -s -h -r ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old bootrec /RebuildBcd
8.3. Also we have another video will show you how to use bootrec to recover
your laptop from blue screen with more details how to deal with other errors
executing those commands especially for UEFI-based computers.
The ninth method: How to recover files from a hard drive that won't boot "windows 10 or older widows" to external hard or USB Card drive using command prompt.
9.1. Connect a USB flash card with enough free space.
9.2. Open the command prompt.
9.3. Type "Notepad.exe" without quotation marks and press Enter.
9.4. From Notepad interface, click on "File" panel and select Open.
9.5. Navigate into your files in the computer and send them to the USB card.
9.6. If there is no enough space on the USB, you will receive an error message like this. Connect another USB card with enough free space and try again.
9.7. You will not be able to see the copy dialog. Also, the computer will become unresponsive during the file copying process and will return to respond after the copy process is finished.
9.8. This method will help you to backup all data or even to get your important files off a computer that won’t turn on or boot even after applying all previous methods.
The tenth method: Manually Repair the corrupted system partition using BCDBOOT.
The next steps will show you How to create bcd boot or rebuild missing windows boot manager in windows 10, windows 8 or windows 7 with uefi disk computers.
10.1. Type "Diskpart" into the command prompt and hit enter:
10.2. Type "List disk" command to show available disks.
10.3. Determine which disk is your Boot drive number. (In my case is 0)
This star indicates that my disk is GPT, which means that the boot settings is UEFI and not BIOS.
10.4. Select Your boot drive using this command: Sel disk 0
10.5. Show available partitions using this command: List vol
10.6. determine which volume is the EFI partition. Usually it will have a FAT32 format. In my case is the Volume 3.
10.7. Select the EFI Partition using this command: Sel vol 3
10.8. Assign the V letter to The EFI partition using this command: assign letter=V:
10.9. Close Diskpart using this command: Exit
10.10. Open v partition using this command: V:
10.11. Format the EFI partition using this command: format V: /FS:FAT32
10.12. Type "Y" and hit enter to confirm if you asked for that:
10.13. If you have a windows 10 with build number older than 1709, add the following command lines one by one: MD \EFI\Microsoft\Boot cd /d V:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\ bootrec /FixBoot bcdboot c:\Windows /l en-us /s V: /f All
10.14. If you have a windows 10 build 1709 or newer, use the following command line only to complete boot-Fixing process: bcdboot C:\windows /s V: /f UEFI
10.14. If you have a windows 10 build 1709 or newer, use the following command line only to complete boot-Fixing process: bcdboot C:\windows /s V: /f UEFI (Also you can try this command if the previous 4 commands failed with older windows builds or versions)
10.15. Type Exit into command prompt.
10.16. Restart your laptop to see if the issue was fixed or not.
Eleventh: Reset your computer while keeping all files and folders.
I will show you how to reset windows 10 without losing files, however, this method is applicable to other windows versions such as windows8.1, windows 7 or older windows.
11.1. Click on Troubleshoot option.
11.2. Click on Reset this PC option.
11.3. Select Keep my files option.
11.4. Select the profile which has administrator access if you have more than one profile.
11.5. Type the profile password if you have a password, otherwise, click Continue button.
11.6. Select Local reinstall option.
11.7. Select Reset option.
I hope I have succeeded in helping you solve the blue screen issue with inaccessible boot device error message.
Don't forget to subscribe, like the video and to add a comment mentioning the method that helped you to solve the problem.