Windows 10 is installed but won't boot. Use System Restore or Startup Repair

Let's figure out what steps should be taken if Windows 10 does not start in various situations: black screen, error, PC does not start correctly, Boot Failure and other problems when loading the operating system.

The main thing when a problem occurs is to remember what happened to the system before the last shutdown or reboot. The error may be caused by installing a program, updating the BIOS or Windows 10, adding a new device, the activity of malware, or the appearance of bad sectors on the hard drive.

Before you do anything, keep in mind that following some instructions may not only make the situation better, but also make it significantly worse, so be prepared for any eventuality in your attempt to get Windows back to working order.

Black screen

There may be a couple of factors that cause the cursor to appear on a black background:

malware has interfered with the conductor's operation;
something is wrong with the video card drivers.

For the first case, a separate article has been written about solving the black screen problem. In short, you need to launch Explorer, and then check your computer for viruses and unwanted software, which most likely has replaced the explorer.exe file, which is responsible for the Windows graphical interface.

1. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del or open the start context menu.

3. Using the “File” menu item, launch a new “explorer” task.

4. In the same way or through the “Run” line (Win + R) execute the “regedit” command.

5. Expand the HKLM branch.

6. Go to the Software section.

8. In the Winlogon folder, look for a parameter called Shell and double-click on it.

This key is responsible for launching the graphical shell, which was probably replaced by a virus.

9. Change its value to explorer or explorer.exe and save the adjustments.

If you are using a multi-display system or a TV is also connected to the computer, you need to do the following to correct the situation.

On the lock screen, press Backspace to delete it.
Log in to the system by clicking “Enter”.
When using a protected account or a Microsoft account, switch the keyboard layout to the desired one and enter the password blindly.
We wait about a minute until the system boots completely (it all depends on the speed of the PC, the OS configuration and the speed of its startup).
Call the projection dialog (screen image output parameters) for several displays using Win+P.
Click on the “cursor right” button (sometimes “cursor down”).
Click "Enter".

This function will duplicate the image on both monitors, which guarantees that the image will appear on the second display if this is the problem.

The OS takes an incredibly long time to load

After prolonged use, the operating system naturally begins to work slower. If downloading “ten” has become unbearably long, you need to put things in order in the startup list.

1. Call “Task Manager” via Win→X.

3. Remove all programs that are not needed at startup via the context menu.

This can significantly reduce operating system boot time.

Additionally, you can defragment the system volume.

1. Open “Properties” of the C:\ drive.

2. Go to the “Service” tab and click “Optimize”.

3. Select the system partition and click “Optimize” again.

Additionally, you should clean the system disk of junk files, and the registry of erroneous keys. CCleaner is best suited for this.

Failures after the next update

There were no more problems after installing updates than in Windows 10 with any operating system. In this case, the conflict is resolved by simply rolling back the system to its previous state if the option to create rollback points is activated when making changes to the Windows registry and in case of modification of its system files.

1. Reboot the computer using Reset.

2. After self-testing, press F8 several times to make the system recovery menu appear.

3. Click on the “Diagnostics” icon.

4. Visit the additional options, where we select the “System Restore” item.

6. Select the last rollback point or the state before the problem appeared.

In a couple of minutes, the new version of Windows 10 will be replaced by the older one in pre-boot mode.

Error “The computer is not started correctly”

The appearance of the Automatic Repair window indicates that some system files have been damaged by erasing them, modifying them, or damaging the sectors in which the files are stored.

One way to solve the problem is to call additional parameters. In the window with their list, click “Boot Options”, then “Reboot”.

After the system restarts, press “6” or “F6” to boot into safe mode with command line support.

We sequentially enter and execute the commands:

sfc /scannow
dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
shutdown -r.

As a result, all system files will be scanned and, if damaged, restored.

After the Windows 10 logo appears, the PC turns off spontaneously

The problem is in many ways similar to the previous one, but it cannot be solved by calling the recovery environment; for this you will need a distribution kit with “tens” installation files.

After creating a bootable flash drive or recovery disk, boot from it and do everything as in the previous case: call “Advanced options” and reboot in safe mode with the command line.

Errors with messages An operating system wasn’t found and Boot Failure

A black background with white text that booting is not possible and a prompt to check the priority of boot devices or insert bootable media indicates that the boot device sequence in the BIOS/UEFI is incorrect.

Correct prioritization in the list of boot devices will help get rid of the error in both cases.

To do this, reboot and go into the BIOS, visit the menu Boot Device Priority, Boot Options or something else with the word Boot. Select the hard drive with the operating system as the main boot device and save the new settings.

If after all, Windows 10 does not start, check the functionality of the hard drive: is it detected in the BIOS, is the cable damaged.

INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE

The error indicates that the operating system loader did not gain access to the disk with Windows 10 due to changes in its file system, the appearance of bad sectors in which system files are written, or physical/logical defects with the volume or hard drive. This can be caused, for example, by manipulation of partitions via ATI.

One option to solve the problem is to boot the PC in the “Advanced Settings” mode or start the PC from a recovery disk or installation flash drive to open the command line (both cases are described above). How to determine the system volume is also described. Knowing its letter label, in the command line window we run the command “chkdsk C: /r” to scan system files in order to restore damaged ones.

Windows 10 loading failure is an uncommon event, but it often happens in cases where a computer is urgently needed. To prevent this situation from taking the user by surprise, you need to prepare for it in advance.

Let's look at what to do if Windows 10 won't boot, why this happens, and what information all users should know to solve this problem as quickly as possible.

If you need professional help repairing a laptop or recovering hard drive information, then our service center is at your service.

Why won't Windows 10 boot?

The reasons why the “top ten” does not load are divided into hardware and software. Software-type problems are associated with damage (deletion) of system and boot files and/or those responsible for starting the registry. Problems often arise here due to:

The presence of “clumsy” applications in autostart. Errors and crashes occur at later stages of the boot process - shortly before the desktop appears.
Faulty hardware drivers. In these cases, the download may be interrupted by a blue screen of death, in some cases indicating the name of the driver that is causing the problem.
Viruses and antiviruses. Don't be surprised, even antiviruses are just as time-consuming as viruses if you use them thoughtlessly.
Windows updates installed incorrectly or the computer shuts down while updates are being installed.
The use of various “tweak cleaners”, which are used to decorate and speed up the system. They can “accidentally” change the registry keys responsible for startup, patch files, etc.
Unskilled manual editing of the system registry.
Experiments with disk partitions - formatting, partitioning, merging, compression, etc. A common error for this is “Bootmgr is compressed,” which means the system boot loader is compressed.

Installing another OS in another partition of the drive. The new operating system replaces the old bootloader with its own.

Hardware reasons for Windows 10 not starting include:

Failure of video subsystem elements. In this case, Windows may load, but the user will not see it because of the black screen. In some cases, you can find out that the system has fully booted using a characteristic sound.
Malfunction of RAM, which manifests itself as blue screens and reboots at any startup step.
Poor connection or faulty system drive. It often appears with the message “Bootmgr is missing,” meaning the system bootloader is unavailable, on a black screen. In some cases, BSoDs, restarts, stops at any loading step.

A situation in which the disk is connected to the wrong interface on the motherboard. If a failure occurs after removing and reinstalling the hard drive into the computer, then the problem manifests itself as a blue screen and INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE failure.

Violation of the order of polling BIOS bootable media. The computer begins searching for the Windows bootloader, for example, on flash drives, and not on the system hard drive.
Other hardware problems, such as malfunction of peripherals, motherboard, power supply, etc.

What to prepare for?

Approximately 80 - 90% of all cases of Windows 10 not starting are due to system failures. Let's consider methods of dealing with them.

To restore normal operation of the operating system, you should boot the PC into the recovery environment. If you have used Windows 7 before, you should know that this environment is installed together with the main system. To enter it, you need to open the section for additional boot methods (after turning on the laptop, press F8) and go to the “Troubleshooting” menu.

The recovery environment is also available in the “top ten”, but when compared with Windows 7, the OS loading time has significantly decreased. The interval for calling the boot menu has also become shorter. At this time, you still have time to press the desired key combination (F8 + Shift) in the following case: when installing the system on an MBR standard hard drive, and in the power settings of your laptop or PC, you need to disable the fast startup option. If the system is installed on a GPT hard drive or SSD, then a boot drive will be required.

To restore an emergency Windows 10, it will be effective to keep on a flash drive or DVD the official distribution kit of the same capacity as that installed on the computer. As an alternative, you can use a downloadable package with utilities.

As an example, we will use the home edition of Windows 10, which is installed on a bootable USB flash drive. It has everything you need.

Booting into the Windows 10 recovery environment

If there is a failure in downloading “ten”, then it tries to self-heal. If the system manages to do this successfully, the user will not see any notifications on the screen. The computer startup process itself will take longer than usual. If unsuccessful, the message below may appear on the screen.

More often, just a “Malevich square” appears with or without a cursor. There may be a blue screen of death, which shows a sad emoji.

The screenshot shows a failure case that is considered relatively benign. If we click on “Advanced options”, we will go to the recovery environment that is installed on the hard drive. Thus, there is no need to boot into it using external media. But now we will consider the most difficult case, when the system does not show signs of working condition.

The media should be connected to the computer, reboot, go to BIOS settings and mark it as the first boot device.

After loading from a flash drive (DVD), a window will open where you will be asked to decide on the system language. If Russian is specified, then click on “Next”.

Then you will be prompted to start installing or restoring Windows. Click on “System Restore”.

The “Select Action” window will appear, where we click on “Troubleshooting”. Now we are in the right place.

Windows 10 startup recovery options

The recovery options menu (section “Advanced options”) has five subsections:

System Restore. If this option is selected, the standard Windows utility rstrui.exe will be launched. Its purpose is to roll back the system to one of the control points that were saved.
Restoring the system image. Here the wizard for deploying an operating system from a backup copy, which was created by Windows itself, is launched.
Boot recovery. Errors in boot partitions and files are being corrected.
Command line. Allows you to launch various system utilities.
Return to the previous build. A rollback is made to the previously installed version of the operating system if it was updated to Windows 10.

Rollback to a checkpoint

The best first aid remedy is to return to a control point that was created recently. The method is effective for various types of system failures, even if you do not know the reason.

If you click on the first item, the recovery utility starts. It should indicate the time and date to which you want to rollback, and then follow the instructions on the monitor.

To use this option, you must have at least 1 saved checkpoint, and the system restore function must work properly. If the latter was disabled before the failure, then this step is skipped and other methods are used.

Startup Recovery

This option works effectively if boot files are damaged or deleted. This can happen when installing an additional operating system in another partition of the disk after Windows 10. The problem can happen when accidentally formatting or other manipulations in the “System Reserved” menu.

Return to previous build

The recovery method is available for a short time (from 10 to 30 days depending on the license conditions) after updating Windows 7 or 8 to the tenth version. This option is possible if the files of the previous OS are saved and located in the Windows.old folder.

When downgrading to a previously installed build, all of the user's personal files will be intact, but any actions taken since the upgrade will be undone.

Restoring a system image

By restoring an image from a backup company, you can return the system to a working state in case of any problems. The only problem is that almost no one creates such images.

If you have a relatively recent backup copy, then you need to select the item marked in the screenshot:

Then you need to tell the program the path to the image and follow the instructions provided.

All data from the inoperative operating system will be replaced with working backup copies. This will also affect user files, if they are included in it.

Command line

The command line itself does not restore the system, but it allows you to launch other tools. Using it, you can open Windows Explorer to see the installation location (in the recovery environment, the partition letters usually do not match those indicated during normal boot). You can run bootloader repair utilities, a registry editor, and tools to fix errors in system files.

You can boot Windows 10 using the BCDBoot console utility. It is capable of re-creating a hidden partition called “Reserved by the system”, and copies boot files from the Windows directory to it.

For BCDBoot to work correctly, you must specify the path to the Windows folder on the hard drive. This can be found out using the Diskpart utility, but it can be done through Explorer.

To go to Explorer, you need to open the command line and launch notepad in it (notepad).

In notepad, you need to go to “File”, select “Open” and go to “This PC”. Next, you need to go through the disk partitions and decide where the system directory is located. In our example it is D.

Then we return to the command line to execute the instruction:

BCDboot D:\Windows.

In most cases, this will be enough for Windows 10 to start.

Hello friends. My saga with the top ten is over. It all started with the fact that after the update, then. But this time Windows 10 refused to boot in normal mode at all. For a day and a half I was looking for a solution to restore the system, but all my attempts were in vain. And now I will tell you about this sad story in more detail. At the end . I didn’t record a video, just an audio podcast.

In this article I will give only one recommendation and if you don’t know what to do, if Windows 10 won't boot after an emergency shutdown, then perhaps it will help you. So, one fine evening I was sitting at the computer in a good mood, many applications and tabs were open in the browser, when suddenly the system suddenly rebooted without warning. After which the “Automatic recovery” window appeared, in which it was written:

The computer does not start correctly
Click Restart to restart your computer. Sometimes this solves the problem. You can also click "Advanced options" and try other startup recovery options.

That's when the dancing with the tambourine began. Windows 10 does not boot in any way either the first time or the tenth time, even in safe mode, not to mention the desktop. First, a black screen and a mouse cursor appear, after a few seconds there is a reboot and then a choice of action, where there is a “Diagnostics” item. The only thing you can do is go into the BIOS, but that doesn't do anything. Sometimes it still gets stuck on the logo.
I always managed to revive the seven and it would seem - what difference does it make, now everything will work out for me and I can confidently cope with this small glitch...
But Windows 10 won’t boot, even if you crack it. Restoring at boot does not help, from the system image, returning to the previous build, and nothing could be done through the command line. And besides, he appeared virtual disk X, on which the entire system was copied and when opening cmd, there was this path:

X:\windows\system32>

This is truly some kind of anomaly and it is completely incomprehensible how this could happen. When entering certain commands through the console, a message appeared stating that installed systems: 0. And also that the disk you are trying to work with is locked. Unlock and continue. I don't know how to fix this. As a result, I had to resort to recovery from removable media. But imagine my surprise when Windows 10 did not boot from the flash drive. It was a total miss. Moreover, it was visible everywhere, including in the BIOS.

There was one last option, reinstalling from disk. But I only had Windows 7 from 2009. In the end I installed it. Literally in half an hour. And you know what, it is noticeably faster than the newfangled ten, at least I clearly noticed this. And one more important point. When I wrote this post, I looked at the statistics in Yandex for this request and this is what I discovered.

Black screen

There may be a couple of factors that cause the cursor to appear on a black background:

malware has interfered with the conductor's operation;
something is wrong with the video card drivers.

1. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del or open the start context menu.

3. Using the “File” menu item, launch a new “explorer” task.

4. In the same way or through the “Run” line (Win + R) execute the “regedit” command.

5. Expand the HKLM branch.

6. Go to the Software section.

8. In the Winlogon folder, look for a parameter called Shell and double-click on it.

This key is responsible for launching the graphical shell, which was probably replaced by a virus.

9. Change its value to explorer or explorer.exe and save the adjustments.

If you are using a multi-display system or a TV is also connected to the computer, you need to do the following to correct the situation.

On the lock screen, press Backspace to delete it.
Log in to the system by clicking “Enter”.
When using a protected account or a Microsoft account, switch the keyboard layout to the desired one and enter the password blindly.
We wait about a minute until the system boots completely (it all depends on the speed of the PC, the OS configuration and the speed of its startup).
Call the projection dialog (screen image output parameters) for several displays using Win+P.
Click on the “cursor right” button (sometimes “cursor down”).
Click "Enter".

This function will duplicate the image on both monitors, which guarantees that the image will appear on the second display if this is the problem.

The OS takes a very long time to load

After prolonged use, the operating system naturally begins to work slower. If downloading “ten” has become unbearably long, you need to put things in order in the startup list.

1. Call “Task Manager” via Win→X.

3. Remove all programs that are not needed at startup via the context menu.

This can significantly reduce operating system boot time.

Additionally, you can defragment the system volume.

1. Open “Properties” of the C:\ drive.

2. Go to the “Service” tab and click “Optimize”.

3. Select the system partition and click “Optimize” again.

Additionally, you should clean the system disk of junk files, and the registry of erroneous keys. CCleaner is best suited for this.

Failures after the next update

1. Reboot the computer using Reset.

2. After self-testing, press F8 several times to make the system recovery menu appear.

3. Click on the “Diagnostics” icon.

4. Visit the additional options, where we select the “System Restore” item.

6. Select the last rollback point or the state before the problem appeared.

In a couple of minutes, the new version of Windows 10 will be replaced by the older one in pre-boot mode.

Error “The computer is not started correctly”

The appearance of the Automatic Repair window indicates that some system files have been damaged by erasing them, modifying them, or damaging the sectors in which the files are stored.

One way to solve the problem is to call additional parameters. In the window with their list, click “Boot Options”, then “Reboot”.

After the system restarts, press “6” or “F6” to boot into safe mode with command line support.

We sequentially enter and execute the commands:

sfc /scannow
dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
shutdown -r.

As a result, all system files will be scanned and, if damaged, restored.

After the Windows 10 logo appears, the PC turns off spontaneously

The problem is in many ways similar to the previous one, but it cannot be solved by calling the recovery environment; for this you will need a distribution kit with “tens” installation files.

After creating a bootable flash drive or recovery disk, boot from it and do everything as in the previous case: call “Advanced options” and reboot in safe mode with the command line.

Errors with messages An operating system wasn’t found and Boot Failure

Correct prioritization in the list of boot devices will help get rid of the error in both cases. To do this, reboot and go into the BIOS, visit the menu Boot Device Priority, Boot Options or something else with the word Boot. Select the hard drive with the operating system as the main boot device and save the new settings.

INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE

If Windows 10 does not boot, there may be different reasons. The main thing is to know exactly how to act in such a situation.

Main reasons

There are many reasons why the operating system does not start. The main factors are the following:

Another operating system is installed on another drive. As a result, the boot loader of the old operating system will be replaced by a new one.
Experimenting with disk partitions. For example, they can be divided again, combined, compressed, formatted, and other actions.
Incorrect manual editing of the registry itself.
Using various cleaning applications in Windows 10 to speed up the system and decorate it. As a result, such programs can accidentally change registry keys and various files that should not be touched at all. Because of this, Windows 10 will not start later.
Incorrect update of the operating system or shutdown of the personal computer when the system was just being updated and started.
Driver failures. Usually in such cases the screen is blue or black. Sometimes the name of the driver that caused the problem is written.
Some programs that are on autorun. In this case, failures occur in the late stages, when the computer turns on, but before the desktop appears.
If a black screen appears on Windows 10, then the cause may be viruses and anti-virus programs, which can cause no less harm than the viruses themselves.

If Windows 10 won't boot, there may also be hardware reasons. These include the following:

The order in which bootable media is polled in the BIOS has been changed. For example, the whole process is slow due to the fact that the computer looks for the bootloader on the flash card, and not on the system disk.
The drive is connected to a different port on the motherboard where it previously functioned. As a result, crashes and blue screens occur.
Problems with RAM. Because of this, the personal computer starts the same process again after rebooting.
Malfunction of video subsystem parts. In this case, the operating system will start, but the person will not see it, only a black screen. Sometimes you can tell when the system is loading only by characteristic sounds.
Other equipment malfunctions. For example, this applies to the motherboard, power supply, and peripheral devices. In this case, the computer does not start the first time.

There are many other factors that must be taken into account.

Preparatory work

First of all, it is recommended to prepare for the worst in advance. In 90% of cases, Windows 10 does not start due to software problems. Then you can deal with the problems yourself. If Windows 10 won't start, everyone should know what to do.

In this case, the computer will boot into the recovery environment. If a person had previously used version 7 of this operating system, and did not have a ten, then the recovery environment was installed together with the main system on disk. To find it, you need to go to the additional boot methods menu. To do this, press the F8 key, then select the “Troubleshooting” category.

In version 10, the recovery environment is also included, but compared to version 7, the time to download it has become significantly shorter.

To have time to launch it, you must simultaneously press F8 and Shift. But this will only help if the fast boot function is disabled in the settings and the system was installed on an MBR hard drive. If the software was running on a GPT or SSD disk, then bootable media is required. For such emergencies, it is best to keep a flash card or disk nearby, and the system capacity should be the same as on a laptop or computer.

As for the recovery environment, in most problematic cases the operating system tries to repair itself - for the second, third and other times. If she succeeds, the user will not receive any error messages. In this case, the computer will simply take a long time to start. If the actions had no effect, a message or a black background with a blinking cursor appeared on the screen.

If a message appears on the screen, you need to select “Advanced options” to get to the recovery environment that is on your hard drive. In this case, you will not have to download it from another medium.

If the computer does not show any signs of life at all except for a black or blue screen (perhaps the appearance of a sad emoticon), then you need to have a distribution kit with the tenth version of the operating system.

The media must be connected to the computer and selected as the first device to boot.

As a result, windows start up. In the first one, which appeared immediately after turning on the disk or flash card, you will need to select the appropriate language and click “Next”. Then proceed to installation and restore the operating system. To do this, select the “System Restore” option. In the Select Actions dialog box, you need to click the Troubleshooting option.

Startup recovery

Recovery. In this case, run rstrui.exe - this is a standard utility that is intended to roll back the system to one of the save points.
Image restoration. In this case, the Deployment Wizard will restore the operating system from the backup that was created earlier.
Boot recovery. It will help you restore various partitions and files and correct their errors.
Command line. Various utilities start working.
Return to the previous build. In this case, a rollback to the previously used version is launched on Windows 10; it was updated to the tenth version.

If Windows does not start, you can start boot repair. This option is effective if boot files have been damaged or deleted. In addition, this method is suitable if there was accidental formatting or actions were taken with the “System Reserved” category.

If the operating system does not load for a long time, you can rollback to a checkpoint that was created recently. This remedy is considered the best for various system failures. Moreover, this option will help even if the causes of such problems are still unknown. You need to click on the first item. As a result, the recovery utility will start. In it you need to select the time and date until which you want to rollback. Then follow the instructions that appear on the screen. But to use this option, you need to have at least 1 save checkpoint. In addition, the restore function should also work.

If the tenth version of Windows does not load for a long time, you can return to the previous build.

This recovery method can only be used for a short time after updating the seventh and eighth versions to the tenth - depending on the conditions in the license, this is from 10 days to a month. This option is only available if the previous version was saved in a separate file called Windows.old. In this case, personal files will remain the same, however, everything that was already there after the update will be cancelled.

Another option is to restore the system image. In this case, a backup copy is also used. It can be returned in case of any failures, but the problem is that rarely does anyone create such images. If it really was done before, then you need to select the item, indicate to the program the location where the image is stored, and then follow the instructions on the screen. This method is considered very effective, but is rarely used.

Conclusion

Many people are wondering what to do if the Windows 10 operating system does not load on a personal computer for a long time. In fact, this can happen at any time; the most important thing is to know exactly how to restore the system correctly.