Windows Corrupt Windows Repair Help

Reaching out to the bit-tech god's and praying for help.

I'll try and keep it short like @GaryP.

A friend of mine has an old Q6600 PC that we think was running Windows 7 and it's since either been upgraded or autoupgraded to Windows 10.

It's a 32bit version of Windows 10, no idea if home or pro.

The PC has some very important software installed and configured that works with a piece of equipment, which to replace is very expensive.

The PC just gets stuck in a boot loop with a BSOD of critical process died.

Now given the drive is basically invaluable I've not attempted any repairs on that drive, instead I've cloned it off a few times and I've been working on the cloned drives.

There's no system restore points
Can't rollback any updates etc
When you boot to a USB it shows the account name etc, shows it's running Windows 10

If you let it chkdsk then you lose that, the account info becomes blank as does the OS.

I've tried a few things but it still won't boot, tried the drive in different machines and repairs in that and the result is the same, no boot, critical process has died.

Can anybody please shed any light as to any repairs I can try on a 32bit Windows 10 install that we really need to boot .

Beer tokens if your solution leads to a successful boot obviously, you'd be doing me a massive favour.

 

What did you use to clone the original drive?

If you boot from a Windows 10 USB stick, and head into the troubleshoot section, there should be an option for Command Prompt. From there you'll want to run the following.

Code:

diskpart
list vol
sel vol x
clean
cre par pri
format quick fs=ntfs label=SYSTEM
assign letter=S
exit
bcdboot C:\Windows /s S: /f BIOS
exit

This will rebuild the boot partition from scratch, however, if the OS itself is knackered, this will likely not work. Things to note, when you run list vol make a note of the partition number of the SYSTEM partition, this will replace x in sel vol x. Also make sure the Windows partition is assigned C, if not, bcdboot C:\windows will need the C swapping with the correct letter.

I'll also take this opportunity to say anything that is remotely mission critical, or expensive to replace, should have backups.

This will also need to be booted on the original machine, but with the original drive(s) detached.

Edit: Is the original drive a HDD by any chance?

 

Yeah I've got a few cloned drives, tried to boot in a few different computers of different spec / age just in case it was a UEFI issue or the computer being too new etc, same result unfortunately.

 

I just used partition wizard which I've used over a thousand times and never had an issue.

The clone does work, I can access the data on the cloned drive, it's frustrating as everything is on the drive it just doesn't boot into Windows.

And re backups you're preaching to the choir, but like a lot of things in life people don't realise until its too late.

Had he had a working image of the drive this wouldn't have been an issue

 

It was more a curiosity thing, rather than pointing the blame at the clone itself

If you do try the commands I wrote, please double check the edited version, as it differs slightly to the quoted version.

Edit: What options have you run with chkdsk?

 

This might sound silly, but can you boot into safe mode or whaever its called?

 

Yeah original is a HDD, going to re clone and try it on a fresh cloned drive. (cloning to HDD)

just /f /r I think? I got lost, tried so many different things,

Unfortunately not, that would be ideal, none of the boot options work, all kick back a BSOD with critical process died.

Tried that earlier onto a fresh PC (bar the registry) and the software booted but didn't get any further, it connects through serial, and the config is stored within this broken OS.

When I copied the software across and saw it booted I was hopeful but alas it lead to nothing, there's too many different things required for it to work so simply I think.

I'll try the above fix and see if I get anywhere, wish me luck! (gonna clone then try)

 

It got as far as bcdboot then gives the "failure when attempting to copy boot files" error message

 

I thought rather than try to recall commands, this link might help. It goes through them step by step.

 

Just been through and done all this, it tries to boot then BSOD's out with the "a critical process has died" message.

Isn't there a way to to a DISM repair from the recovery environment?

 

Does anybody fancy having a crack? I can clone a few drives off and send them out.

At a loss with it now

 

If bcdboot can't copy the files, that means the OS itself is pretty knackered rather than just unable to boot. Worse than I had imagined. I'm more than happy to have a stab at a clone though, if you'd like!

 

Yeah I rebuilt the entire boot partition, so it attempts to boot and then just BSODs out with critical process died.

I'll keep trying, see if I can get anywhere but if you PM me your address I'll send you a clone down to play with see if you get any further .

 

I'll PM my address across but have you tried an in-place upgrade? From memory you should be able to do it even if it's to the same version of the OS.

 

You have to be able to boot into windows to an in place upgrade don't you? I don't think it can be done from the recovery environment ?

 

Hmm, you might be right on that one. It's been some time since I had to do one! Thinking cap on.