Windows 10 Laptop Automatic Repair Tool Fail

tsb

Please help if you can.  I have a windows 10 laptop that was working fine then simply would not boot the next morning.  It went into the Automatic Repair Tool but nothing I pressed repaired windows.

I read loads of 'help' available on the internet so through the command prompt I did a chkdsk with /f /r I think. I did this on the D drive as this is where the windows folder showed as the command prompt is coming up as X drive.  It took nearly 6 hours, did loads of repairs apparently, but still no change to booting up.

The next fixes seemed to be about repairing the boot sector.  To do this though I need the correct drive and the windows/system32 folder.  Now when I list the contents of the /windows folder, it is empty. I don't think this is good at all. I have checked and there are no 'hidden' files or folders either.

Am I wasting my time here, does it need a re-install of windows 10 and therefore loss of personal data?

Neil_Jones

Sounds like your hard drive is screwed.

Windows stores what's effectively a database of every file on the hard drive (the Master File Table, the MFT), and this is kept at the "front" of the drive.  If this gets corrupted Windows has no way of knowing what's on the drive.  The files are probably there, Windows just doesn't know about it.

As a general rule this database usually corrupts itself through damage (either to the drive due to age or via other faulty hardware), but if chkdsk can't fix it it usually means there are more serious problems.

[Deleted User]

When diagnosing technical issues like this there is no such thing as too much information, it would be really useful to know more about the make / model / spec / age and in particular the type of disk along with what exactly you mean by "would not boot" in terms of error messages etc. Not knowing all that I'm going to make assumptions to try to help...

I'm guessing you don't have a backup of your data from your post so I'll assume that is the case. Once you have sorted this out please do a backup, nobody can predict when a disk will fail or get corrupted so a backup is the safety net that everyone needs. 

Given the amount of errors on the disk, I'm going to assume the disk is on it's last legs and is probably not worth re-installing Windows on. The best approach with a failing disk is to do absolute minimum with it if you want to maximise your chances of recovering data.

So my advice would be replace the disk with a new one, install fresh windows. Connect to your old disk using a USB disk caddy to retrieve you personal data - more advice can be given on that when you get to that stage, lots of recovery tools if you encounter issue.

If you come back with more info, I'm sure a more tailored approach can be given.

tsb

[Deleted User] said:

When diagnosing technical issues like this there is no such thing as too much information, it would be really useful to know more about the make / model / spec / age and in particular the type of disk along with what exactly you mean by "would not boot" in terms of error messages etc. Not knowing all that I'm going to make assumptions to try to help...

I'm guessing you don't have a backup of your data from your post so I'll assume that is the case. Once you have sorted this out please do a backup, nobody can predict when a disk will fail or get corrupted so a backup is the safety net that everyone needs. 

Given the amount of errors on the disk, I'm going to assume the disk is on it's last legs and is probably not worth re-installing Windows on. The best approach with a failing disk is to do absolute minimum with it if you want to maximise your chances of recovering data.

So my advice would be replace the disk with a new one, install fresh windows. Connect to your old disk using a USB disk caddy to retrieve you personal data - more advice can be given on that when you get to that stage, lots of recovery tools if you encounter issue.

If you come back with more info, I'm sure a more tailored approach can be given.

Thanks for the replies

I understand what you say about more information but sometimes that makes a long post and people don't read it.

Anyway, I do have a backup. It is not as current as I would like hence trying to repair the system that is there if possible, to get any data that I maybe missing. I have been able to retrieve some personal data folders from the drive via the command prompt. Whether this data is corrupt or not at this stage I'm not sure.

When I said would not boot, I meant that the laptop did not boot into Windows like normal, it booted into the "Automatic Repair Tool".

The laptop (and disk) is about three year old and had been working without issue up to date. 

It sounds as though there isn't a chance of repairing the system back to how it was, so I might as well try a new installation of Windows and see if the disk holds up.  That is really what I wanted to know, I would have hated doing a new install and found out later I could have tried something else to repair it and saved all the hassle. 

Neil_Jones

The Automatic Repair Tool is what 10 does when it can't boot Windows properly for any reason, it tries to fix it.  But it can't fix everything.

You don't need to set Windows up to see if the disk holds up.  Find out the drive manufacturer (it should tell you this in the BIOS or sometimes on the boot screen or maybe the repair tool you've been looking at) and make use of their testing tool, so SeaTools for Seagate drives, Lifeguard for Western Digital (and maybe more recent Hitachi drives), OGT or WinDFT for Hitachi drives - those cover the bulk of hard drives these days.  Other generic tools are available.

Sometimes these can run from DOS, but if they do run from Windows you can connect your drive to another computer and use the appropriate tools (or generic ones) to test your drive.  Things like Speedfan uses SMART data to give you an idea of the state of the drive (it is effectively abandoned for its original purpose but the drive data can be useful), CrystalDiskInfo goes one further, then you have things like GSmartControl...

Point being its a waste of time setting Windows up again if the drive is already stuffed as it'll just go the same way again relatively quickly.  You might as well just prove it to yourself beyond reasonable doubt that its on the way out and just replace it.  3 years is an average life span for a mechanical drove.

[Deleted User]

tsb said:

I understand what you say about more information but sometimes that makes a long post and people don't read it.

Understood but I was trying to help you get more information about the health of the disk. If I knew the make / model, I'd be able to direct you to built in disk health tools that would give a quick indication of whether it was worth trying to have another go with the current disk or just replace.

You've said it is 3 years old and as per Neil's comment above it isn't unusual for a mechanical hard disk in a laptop to expire at that age.

Without the above info mine / Neil's advice still stands but if you can provide anything more I'll be happy to help.

tsb said:

It sounds as though there isn't a chance of repairing the system back to how it was, so I might as well try a new installation of Windows and see if the disk holds up.  That is really what I wanted to know, I would have hated doing a new install and found out later I could have tried something else to repair it and saved all the hassle. 

It is more a matter of determining whether the disk is healthy enough to attempt a repair / re-install if you want to save all the hassle - you can do that more quickly if only we knew the make / model / type of disk.

tsb said:

Anyway, I do have a backup. It is not as current as I would like hence trying to repair the system that is there if possible, to get any data that I maybe missing. I have been able to retrieve some personal data folders from the drive via the command prompt. Whether this data is corrupt or not at this stage I'm not sure.

And this is what I was really focussing on, giving you the maximum chance of being able to retrieve your personal data rather than getting Windows working. If as suspected the disk is on it's last legs you may literally have a matter of a few minutes or hours of runtime on that disk before it totally expires which is why my advice is not to keep trying to repair / re-install if you want to maximise the chances of recovering personal data.

Also, running an operating system from a dying hard disk just makes the whole job of data recovery more painful and less likely to succeed, so even a successful repair to get Windows to boot ok is not the way forward. 

I'm just giving tried and tested advice about recovering data from a dying hard disk. If I'm wrong and the disk isn't dying, then the advice would be different but I have to assume that until I know otherwise, which circles back to getting all the info needed to answer that one question - is the disk healthy or not.