Bootup Issue with AIO Dell

[Archon Prime]

Working on an Inspiron 24 Model 3455 series.
Windows 10 64 bit (thinking Home)

Issue: boot up will occur then goes to BSOD with stop code: Unmountable_boot_volume.

okay cool. So I'll try to do a backup of the data first. remove the drive from the unit (also checked all the cabling and ensure that was good. The thing is in pristine shape. not even dust in this thing) and hook it up to my backup machine. detects the connection, not mounting. Took a look at it in Disk management and it's GPT Protective Partition. I'm not going to be touching that.

So the backup is not happening.
I attempt to get into the recovery mode. It shows up on the screen for about 20 seconds then it all goes to a black screen. Doesn't advance from there at all. Gave it a good 5-10 minutes.

I have my Windows 10 USB - popped that in - entered bios and added the Bootx64.efi to the "File Browser Add Boot Option" since it's UEFI . I disabled the Windows boot loader option and the other startup items temporarily so I can just deal with the USB recovery.

reboot. I get the stupid, Dell hardware testing stuff that comes up... saying there is an issue with the computer startup and it's doing diagnostics...yadda yadda. I let that run because I'm curious if it sees any issues with RAM, etc. Comes out clean.

So I changed the EFI location to the "CD/DVD directory" so I get some sort of prompt that I know it's working. rebooted - "Press any key to boot from cd/dvd" done ---shows the recovery is starting up.....then black screen again..same thing it did with the standard windows recovery from the HDD.

I didn't have a lot of time to try anything else last night, but I can't even get to the recovery from the USB drive... so I'm curious if anyone has seen this issue before and recommend some next steps. I'm not sure about enabling legacy support since that might screw things up.

 

[Markverhyden]

You can still do a block sector image of the drive and then work on the image. And are you trying the recovery on another known good HD? That error usually happens when the header, for lack of a better term at the moment, get corrupted. So you need to nuke the disk to get it working again. And even then it may be iffy. I'd just swap out the disk since they are so cheap.

http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/207837en?language=en_US

 

[Archon Prime]

You can still do a block image of the drive and then work on the image. And are you trying the recovery on another known good HD? That error usually happens when the header, for lack of a better term at the moment, get corrupted. So you need to nuke the disk to get it working again. And even then it may be iffy. I'd just swap out the disk since they are so cheap.

http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/207837en?language=en_US

Thanks, I was actually looking at that article last night. I don't want to nuke the drive like that since it will wipe it. They need photos off of it. I'm not sure how to go about doing that with this drive setup. I don't do a lot of this anymore so it's a little rusty in some areas.

 

[Markverhyden]

Thanks, I was actually looking at that article last night. I don't want to nuke the drive like that since it will wipe it. They need photos off of it. I'm not sure how to go about doing that with this drive setup. I don't do a lot of this anymore so it's a little rusty in some areas.

Is the machine you plugged it into for recovery running 32 or 64 bit OS? If it's 32 bit GPT does not work so you see that. I'd try building a a 64 bit linux disc and boot from that.

Also easustodo claims they can convert the disk to mbr without data loss. Their stuff seems to be pretty good.

 

[Archon Prime]

the machine I'm using is Windows 10 64bit

 

[Larry Sabo]

Also easustodo claims they can convert the disk to mbr without data loss.

I've had it trash the data during a conversion so would recommend caution on that!

 

[Archon Prime]

I have R-studio. I'm going to attempt a recovery with that and see what I can find out of it. I also found another program under the gnu program that looks promising. AS for getting the computer back up to normal... I'm still confused as to why it's not booting to my Windows 10 USB either.

 

[Markverhyden]

If it can be read RAW then you should be able to get something with R-Studio. Let us know how it goes.

 

[Archon Prime]

If it can be read RAW then you should be able to get something with R-Studio. Let us know how it goes.

If I can get the stuff off it, that's one step down. the other is figuring out why the hell this machine won't boot to the Windows 10 USB recovery

 

[allanc]

If I can get the stuff off it, that's one step down. the other is figuring out why the hell this machine won't boot to the Windows 10 USB recovery

Perhaps a basic question but did you search to see if that particular model of Dell has issues with booting from that specific USB stick?
If I remember correctly, years ago some Kingston sticks had that issue with some Dell's but not other manufacturers.

 

[Markverhyden]

If I can get the stuff off it, that's one step down. the other is figuring out why the hell this machine won't boot to the Windows 10 USB recovery

I've found W10 restores, which I've done very few to be very frustrating. Especially when looking at UEFI as that option is a lot less forgiving than Legacy. Did you see this link?

http://www.dell.com/support/article...-on-your-dell-computer?lang=en#Recovery-media

 

[Archon Prime]

so I did f12...I CAN select the USB drive....sits at the "Dell Logo" screen....nothing else.

 

[fincoder]

the other is figuring out why the hell this machine won't boot to the Windows 10 USB recovery

Did you create your own Windows 10 install media? If so you can ensure it supports UEFI booting. I use Rufus to create a bootable USB from the downloaded Windows 10 ISO (which can be used for recoveries and installs). In Rufus select 'GPT Partition Scheme for UEFI' to ensure it can boot in any UEFI system, I also create a second bootable USB with 'MBR Partition Scheme for BIOS or UEFI' for use with legacy BIOS systems.

Sometimes you also need to turn off Secure Boot in the BIOS.

 

[Archon Prime]

Did you create your own Windows 10 install media? If so you can ensure it supports UEFI booting. I use Rufus to create a bootable USB from the downloaded Windows 10 ISO (which can be used for recoveries and installs). In Rufus select 'GPT Partition Scheme for UEFI' to ensure it can boot in any UEFI system, I also create a second bootable USB with 'MBR Partition Scheme for BIOS or UEFI' for use with legacy BIOS systems.

Sometimes you also need to turn off Secure Boot in the BIOS.

yes I use Rufus as well. I just finished re-doing it again. I got the iso direct from the Windows creation tool. The next step was turning off secure boot. Can it be turned back on after with no issues?

 

[Markverhyden]

Given what UEFI is all about I'm wondering if your problem is you are not using a Dell image. The article below seems to indicate that.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/device-experiences/oem-secure-boot

The page below is for downloading W10 that came with the Dell machine.

http://www.dell.com/support/home/ae/en/aebsdt1/drivers/osiso/wt64a

 

[fincoder]

yes I use Rufus as well. I just finished re-doing it again.

But did you choose GPT Partition Scheme in Rufus?

The next step was turning off secure boot. Can it be turned back on after with no issues?

Yes. Secure Boot enable/disable won't affect whether an installed Windows OS boots or not (if you forget to re-enable it still works). It only affects whether external media can be booted from, which you'd think should be OK for Windows 10 install media so you shouldn't need to for that. Doesn't hurt to try though.

Occasionally I still have issues booting from Windows 10 install media and I give up and try DVD (DL) which always works first go.

 

[Archon Prime]

Ya I had absolutely no luck getting it to load. I had the hard drive completely out of it. put it as a GPT Partition, etc. even tried my standard one for legacy boot... nadda.. just sits there at the Windows icon for 20 minutes. i might need to burn an ISO to disk for future use.

On the bright side. I was able to recover files with r-studio.

 

[Archon Prime]

Given what UEFI is all about I'm wondering if your problem is you are not using a Dell image. The article below seems to indicate that.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/device-experiences/oem-secure-boot

The page below is for downloading W10 that came with the Dell machine.

http://www.dell.com/support/home/ae/en/aebsdt1/drivers/osiso/wt64a

I'm going to try the dell recovery tool instead and see if that makes a difference. thanks guys

 

[Archon Prime]

safe boot off.
- tried to boot to the Dell OS recovery tool. Doesn't work - I even selected the bootmgr.efi
turned legacy on - selected the USB drive - starts up to a Windows logo...sits there no circle or anything. So same thing it was doing with the standard windows 10 restore.

/flipdesk

 

[Markverhyden]

Tried a *nix yet? Did you get regular file names with r-studio or RAW?