Fix "Inaccessible Boot Device"

[Empy]

Hi there,

OS: Windows 10 professional
Hardware: I don't know
Error: "Inaccessible boot device"


I am at work early on a Sunday morning in desperation to fix my colleague's computer which I got to the state of receiving the "in accessible boot device" error. Below I have detailed how I got into this problem yesterday (24 March) and what I have tried to fix it myself before taxing this forum. Please, any suggestions on what to do next would be HUGELY appreciated.

STEPS THAT GOT ME TO THE BIG BLUE SCREEN

1. My colleague never reboots his computer - I don't even know if it has been rebooted this year before I rebooted it yesterday (24 March)
2. I was on his machine and iTunes kept on saying it needed to be updated. So I did this for him. iTunes asked me if I wanted to restart, I said "not now"
3. Then in Excel I saw there was a message saying "Office needs to be updated". So I clicked to update. I was then asked to restart - I said yes.
   
4. After restarting, I then got the big blue screen and have not been able to get passed it since

WHAT I TRIED TO FIX IT

1. Safe Mode (via Advanced Options F5 / F4): after rebooting I was back at the blue screen
2. System Restore: I tried all 3 restore points, each time the PC said it had been successful. Each time I returned to the blue screen after restarting.
   .
   

INSTALLED PACKAGES: "Dism /Image:C:\ /Get-Packages"
I found a forum said I need to get a list of packages using the above command and uninstall the "problematic" package. Again, since I don't know when last my colleague rebooted his computer (for sure it was over there Christmas though) and since no package says "24 March" which was when I rebooted his computer and got this blue screen problem - I am not actually sure which package(s) I must uninstall. I have boxed those packages which were installed this year.


QUESTIONS:
1. Should I uninstall packages and if so which ones should I uninstall?
2. Is there another solution I should try before trying to uninstall a package?

Thanks very much in advance,
Michelle

 

[Saltgrass]

First, I suppose your friend should understand, some updates have to go through a restart before they can complete the install......

Secondly, many folks have received a "Inaccessible boot device" type message. There may be several reasons so I have no reliable answer for that situation. Updates have, in the past, been one reason this situation occurs. Some notes in the last updates reference external devices stealing the boot priority. So make sure you have no external drives connected or any network locations which might be used for PXE or Domain type boot locations, assuming you do not need them.

After that, go into the System Bios and check what device is showing as the primary boot device. In Win 10, running in the UEFI mode, it will be a Windows Boot Manager. If you are running a legacy system it will be a drive.

When you boot, you might check in the Boot Device menu to see what else is listed in addition and give us that list. Make note whether these items are listed as UEFI or Legacy options.

Otherwise, any info you can find about the situation might help. Shut the system all the way down for 15 to 20 minutes to test.

My theory is the UEFI bios may forget some device or an update might alter the Boot sequence and not return it to original configuration. But again, I have no way to know since it has never happened to one of my machines, except when I changed a SATA controller for the drive.

 

[Trouble]

Comparing your snipped images and reading through this MS Article, I think I would probably begin with the most recent as it is the only one I see on your screen that seems to match, directly mentioned in the article.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...om-an-unbootable-state-after-installing-the-j

As discussed under the heading labeled "Scenario 2".

Read the article carefully and see if you find anything else in it that might pertain to your sitituation.

As Saltgrass mentions above, this has been going on for a while now with a few of the more recent updates, especially with AMD processor based machines and might involve other twists and turns that don't even involve the actual update itself.
Not the least of which might just be a bad, failed or failing physical hard drive.

 

[Empy]

Hello Trouble and Saltgrass, thank-you for your reply. Whilst the PC has an intel processor I none the less read the article which Trouble suggested.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...om-an-unbootable-state-after-installing-the-j Read the article carefully and see if you find anything else in it that might pertain to your sitituation.

I successfully uninstalled this packaged, rebooted but still a blue screen.
/packagename: package_for_RollupFix~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~16299.248.1.17

I tried to uninstall this package, but got this error here.
/packagename: package_for_RollupFix~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~16299.192.1.9

As Saltgrass mentions above, this has been going on for a while now with a few of the more recent updates, especially with AMD processor based machines and might involve other twists and turns that don't even involve the actual update itself. Not the least of which might just be a bad, failed or failing physical hard drive.

IT's not an AMD processor thank goodness. What makes it suspicious is that it was only once I had updated and restarted that I got this blue screen.

Secondly, many folks have received a "Inaccessible boot device" type message. There may be several reasons so I have no reliable answer for that situation.

Thanks for your reply Saltgrass. Admittedly I am out of my depth here and am going to call in the professionals.

Nonetheless, thank-you both for your support.

 

[Saltgrass]

I am out of my depth here and am going to call in the professionals

OK, but understand they may just reinstall, so backup your data prior to turning lose of the system.

There may be one more thing to try and that is to look at the Bios and see if it allows you to create a boot path from there. It seems in some instances the normal boot manager is not available but the alternate on in a different folder is.

I don't know what type of system you have, but if there is a way to disconnect the primary drive and then reboot a couple of times without it, reconnecting it afterward may allow the system to see the drive again, if it isn't showing up in the Bios currently.

Good Luck..