Windows 10: Computer can't load Windows: Can you reset without losing Apps?

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frednz

1467 posts

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#2128759 18-Nov-2018 10:53

smalltrader:

To Original Poster:

What sort of storage device do you have? HDD or SSD? If HDD how old it is?

The reason I ask is I have a desktop PC which suffered from recurring "Windows can't load" errors. The root cause was a failing HDD.

Best to trouble shoot properly otherwise a reload of Windows will end up with problems again.

Thanks, the storage is an HDD and the drive is about 5 years old. I agree that the next step is for the hard drive to be properly tested.

frednz

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#2128761 18-Nov-2018 10:56

yitz: During the course of your attempts, did you try this?

Hi thanks for that, yes this test was done and resulted in the following message:

"An error occurred while attempting to delete the specified data element. Element not found."

frednz

1467 posts

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#2128763 18-Nov-2018 11:02

Rikkitic:

I had a desktop that also had problems starting. As is often the case, Windows produced errors that had nothing at all to do with the actual problem but did create a lot of confusing false trails. In my experience it would usually be better if Windows just shut up about this kind of thing instead of making random guesses. For me the root cause was a bad SATA cable, but it took forever to work that out.

Thanks, that's interesting, I'm sure I've followed a few false trails as well, but I guess "professional" repair people are not as easily misled, so the computer is going in for "proper" testing soon!

yitz

2074 posts

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#2128776 18-Nov-2018 11:18

frednz:
Hi thanks for that, yes this test was done and resulted in the following message:

"An error occurred while attempting to delete the specified data element. Element not found."

Did you use curly braces { } instead of the pointed ones?

e.g.

bcdedit /deletevalue {default} numproc

bcdedit /deletevalue {default} truncatememory

I'll be honest I don't really know what this is playing at exactly but from reading it seems to work for some people.

frednz

1467 posts

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#2128777 18-Nov-2018 11:21

yitz:
frednz:

Hi thanks for that, yes this test was done and resulted in the following message:

"An error occurred while attempting to delete the specified data element. Element not found."

Did you use curly braces { } instead of the pointed ones? e.g. bcdedit /deletevalue {default} numproc bcdedit /deletevalue {default} truncatememory

Yes, I could see that curly braces were needed after just typing "bcdedit" and seeing the options available for the windows boot manager and boot loader.

yitz

2074 posts

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#2128819 18-Nov-2018 11:51

Nice, good luck anyway, just a few weeks ago I spent ages fixing a Linux/GRUB bootloader config which just wouldn't bootstrap the Windows boot loader properly no matter what - who knew booting can be so complex and frustrating!!

Rikkitic

Awrrr
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#2128829 18-Nov-2018 12:18

frednz:

yitz: During the course of your attempts, did you try this?

Hi thanks for that, yes this test was done and resulted in the following message:

"An error occurred while attempting to delete the specified data element. Element not found."

This suggests to me that the drive is actually damaged and cannot be read. I have also had things like this in the past. I have some USB enclosures I use for testing and other purposes. If this happened to me I would remove the drive, pop it into a USB enclosure, and try to read it as an external data drive on a working computer. If I could read it but also got errors, I might try running chkdsk on it. If I couldn't read it at all I would still consider taking it to a professional if it was important enough to me.

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amiga500

1484 posts

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#2128835 18-Nov-2018 12:38

Could you run a Linux live DVD & use the Disks program to check the SMART data & disk health? Just be super careful not to run format etc. Disks is all GUI and very easy to use.

1101

3122 posts

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#2129322 19-Nov-2018 11:20

frednz:

A friend has asked if I can help get her Windows 10 computer going again, but I haven’t had much luck with trying several options available, so I thought I’d check whether there is any way of resetting the PC without losing apps / programs.

You have to know when to walk away , when helping friends with faulty PC's :-)

Complete wipe & reload is sometimes the best economic fix .
Best option, spend $200ish , buy an SSD , install 10 from scratch. Then connect old drive & recover any data you can.
Its sometimes quicker to do a full reload, incl apps, than spend hours trying to repair

frednz

1467 posts

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#2132565 23-Nov-2018 11:26

1101:

frednz:

A friend has asked if I can help get her Windows 10 computer going again, but I haven’t had much luck with trying several options available, so I thought I’d check whether there is any way of resetting the PC without losing apps / programs.

You have to know when to walk away , when helping friends with faulty PC's :-)

Complete wipe & reload is sometimes the best economic fix .
Best option, spend $200ish , buy an SSD , install 10 from scratch. Then connect old drive & recover any data you can.
Its sometimes quicker to do a full reload, incl apps, than spend hours trying to repair

Thanks, yes, good advice as it turned out. I suggested to my friend that she should take her computer into a professional for repair, and she has just told me that it's all up and going again and that the hard drive didn't need replacing. Also, all the programs are still intact so that's a really good outcome. The repair people told her that it was a very complex set of circumstances that caused the problem and that it took them quite a while to figure it all out. Thanks again to those who posted on this thread.

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