Windows 10 Installed But Will Not Boot. My Hard Drive Is Destroyed.

[RacheleB]

I downloaded and installed the Windows 10 upgrade on Tuesday. Since then my Dell Vostro 3550 laptop will not boot and is stuck on a blank blue screen. I took my laptop to Geek Squad at Best Buy yesterday and he told me Windows 10 is installed but it will not boot. He loaded their MRI operating system with my CD/DVD drive and he told me my files are still on my laptop. They wanted $100.00 to get my files of my laptop into a flash drive. The flash drive cost $30-40. In order for them to fix my laptop, I would have to pay $200.00 for a one year service contract. Then, to solve the problem, they would delete all of my programs, and possibly all my files, from my computer. That totals a minimum cost of $340.00 and that is if they do not find anything else wrong. I told them I could not afford that and I took my laptop home.


When I got home, I tried again to boot my computer and I got this message: WDF_VIOLATION.


I ran a pre-boot diagnostic and I got error code 2000-01 42. Msg: Hard Drive 0 - self test unsuccessful. Status = 7. I looked online for information on this error code and found people saying that this means the hard drive has gone bad and needs to be replaced.


My laptop was absolutely fine before I downloaded Windows 10 on Tuesday. Now my hard drive is destroyed and my laptop will not boot!


Will someone from Microsoft please address this issue and answer this post right away?

 

[Trouble]

Hello RacheleB and welcome to the forum.
You are not likely to find anyone from "Microsoft" here. For the most part we are all just computer end users who try to help whenever and wherever we can.
You may have some better luck through a Microsoft Community forum, like http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10?tab=Threads
Occasionally someone from "Microsoft" will contribute, but again.... for the most part they are all computer enthusiasts that just try to help people.

I see on Dell's own support site

Product not tested for Windows 10 upgrade
Dell is not testing or developing Windows 10 drivers for this product. If you choose to upgrade, some features, applications, and connected devices may not work as expected.

SOURCE: http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/product-support/product/vostro-3550/drivers

I can also tell you that hard drives do fail occasionally and often this can happen during a process like an upgrade which can place extensive read / write demands on the device.
That is why I wrote this post before the upgrade was even available to the general public.....
https://www.windows10forums.com/threads/please-for-your-own-peace-of-mind.794/

A Windows Driver Foundation Violation would suggest that you have a driver issue that is causing the problem
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/li...235(v=vs.85).aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396

If you have the means, resources and requisite skills you can either remove the drive from the laptop and attach it to a second Windows machine and recover your critical data, or......
Failing that perhaps you may be able to use a Linux Distro Live CD to boot your laptop and use that to recover your critical data to an external resource.

After which you can either use the Dell factory partition to recover your computer to it's factory fresh state or perhaps, contact Dell and request their recovery media for your computer.

 

[RacheleB]

Hi Trouble.

Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply. I have posted several threads on the Microsoft Support forums which have mostly been ignored. I received one reply from a guy at Microsoft who told me to read two articles which were both designed for people at an Intermediate Technical Level - which I am not.

I do not know how to do any of the things that you suggested, but thank you for the suggestions.

Last night I referred to one of the articles the guy from Microsoft sent me to entitled Wiki Article, How To: Troubleshoot Common Setup and Stop Errors During Windows 10 Installation. Under the heading "Installation fails or becomes non-responsive at certain point during setup 18%, 62%, Driver Migration, Applying Settings," I followed these instructions:

Launch command prompt (which I was able to do from my Windows 7 Pro Operating System CD which came with my laptop). Type the following command:

rundll32.exe pnpclean.dll,RunDLL_PnpClean/DRIVERS/MAXCLEAN

Hit enter. Exit command prompt. Restart. Try updating again.

I did all that but Windows 10 would still not Boot. Then my CD/DVD drive started to go very slowly and erratically. Then I got a message that said my CD/DVD drive was not working and to put in the installation CD for the drive - which I did. But I got a message saying there was nothing on the installation CD.

So now my CD/DVD drive is destroyed.

Did the command prompt that I used destroy my CD/DVD drive? Or did the destroyed hard drive cause the CD/DVD drive to fail?

Where can I get someone who will fix everything for a reasonable price?

 

[RacheleB]

Hi Trouble.

Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply. I have posted several threads on the Microsoft Support forums which have mostly been ignored. I received one reply from a guy at Microsoft who told me to read two articles which were both designed for people at an Intermediate Technical Level - which I am not.

I do not know how to do any of the things that you suggested, but thank you for the suggestions.

Last night I referred to one of the articles the guy from Microsoft sent me to entitled Wiki Article, How To: Troubleshoot Common Setup and Stop Errors During Windows 10 Installation. Under the heading "Installation fails or becomes non-responsive at certain point during setup 18%, 62%, Driver Migration, Applying Settings," I followed these instructions:

Launch command prompt (which I was able to do from my Windows 7 Pro Operating System CD which came with my laptop). Type the following command:

rundll32.exe pnpclean.dll,RunDLL_PnpClean/DRIVERS/MAXCLEAN

Hit enter. Exit command prompt. Restart. Try updating again.

I did all that but Windows 10 would still not Boot. Then my CD/DVD drive started to go very slowly and erratically. Then I got a message that said my CD/DVD drive was not working and to put in the installation CD for the drive - which I did. But I got a message saying there was nothing on the installation CD.

So now my CD/DVD drive is destroyed.

Did the command prompt that I used destroy my CD/DVD drive? Or did the destroyed hard drive cause the CD/DVD drive to fail?

Where can I get someone who will fix everything for a reasonable price?

 

[Trouble]

The first and probably most important thing that you will need to address is, securing your critical data (docs, pictures, music, email, etc.)
The $100 bucks that Bestbuy quoted you does not sound unreasonable. While the task is not labor intensive it does take some time and ties up bench space while it is ongoing.
You may find a local mom and pop computer shot that is willing to do it cheaper but I have no idea where you live so I don't know if any such resource exist in your area.
You will also need to purchase an appropriately sized external drive to move the saved data onto, hence the $30-$40 bucks for a thumbdrive.
You could shop that around if you know the size you need, at someplace like Costco who would likely save you a few bucks.

As I said above, after you have secured your critical data and assuming that there is nothing actually physically wrong with your hard drive, then you can either....
Use the factory partition to restore your system http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/SLN291879
Or contact Dell and see if they will provide the System Recovery Media in the form of CDs / DVDs. If your system is still under warranty they will be free.
If not then there will likely be a nominal fee.

 

[RacheleB]

Hi Trouble,

Thank you for your reply. I am going to take my laptop to Geek Squad at Best Buy to have them try to recover my files. And I am sending my laptop back to Dell to have them replace my hard drive and CD/DVD drive.

My laptop is three years old and is no longer under warranty so I will have to pay for all of this myself. I think Microsoft should pay for this since their product caused all this.