[SOLVED] Black screen before login (win 10)

jrglol

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Jun 27, 2017
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I KNOW, I know, I know, I know whats going on in your mind, but please read it first.

Im gonna give you my specs first to rule out anything you reckon its a hardware component failure:
i5-9400F
Asus ROG B365-G
2x Kingston DDR4 8GB 2666mhz
Zotac GTX 1070 Amp! Extreme
1x 500GB backup HDD
1x 1TB Windows 10 HDD
1x 128GB Kingston SSD w/ Zorin 15.2

My main OS is Zorin 15.2, I use Windows 10 for gaming and editing

So, I decided to boot into Windows to play some games, when I select Windows in the GRUB the ROG logo shows up with the Windows loading dots, then the screen disappeared indicating the login screen would come up normally. But I waited, I waited, and waited for like 10 mins or so. I was on my phone while waiting. Until I realised Windows never booted, its still on the 'before' login screen. No cursor, and Win+P doesnt do anything. I tried a few key combinations for normal Windows users like Ctrl+Esc, Ctrl+Alt+Del, Alt+F4 (why not :D) etc. etc. So I looked it up for any solutions, I tried them all but no success. Heres what I tried:

First to enter automatic repair, then boot into safe mode with network, still black screen. Second, enter automatic repair and select uninstall recent updates, both quality and feature updates, both failed to uninstall. Third, enter automatic repair and select startup repair, it couldnt find anything wrong. Fourth, the final solution I tried, is to type a few commands in cmd. I typed, 'powercfg -h off' and enter. It says hibernation not supported or something like that. So I typed the next line which was 'REG ADD...' the long line, it says operation was successful. So I forced restart my pc, and boot into Windows again, still nothing! However, the cursor shows up, and the Win+P shows the menu. But that is as far as it would go. I even run all the solutions again to double check, but got the same results..

Normally I wouldnt care if Windows would just crap on me because I can simply reinstall it. But I have important and big game files on that drive. Zorin wouldnt give me access to the drive for some reason, so Im left with stupid Windows that wont boot. All the other solutions say I would have to uninstall antivirus, the video card driver, blah, blah, blah. All of those require to boot into safe mode which I cant! The last time I used Windows there were updates installed as when I select restart, it says 'update and restart' indicating it needs to apply updates in order to restart. And thats it, it wouldnt boot again.. Any solutions? Im willing to try any.

Thanks if you made it this far!
 
Last edited:
Solution
if it is an issue with your existing OS not being able to read the type of disk format;
i would install Windows on another disk and just use that to access the drive in question to copy/recover the needed files.

if the drive is just simply inaccessible due to some type of malfunction or corruption than you're only options may be to pay for data recovery from a local store or possibly find a data recovery application and try running it.
if you cannot access the drive I would guess it is a drive failure or possibly just corrupted partitions/data.

is the drive detected in your BIOS?
do you have a disk management feature or 3rd party disk management software in the functioning OS?

are your "important" files located on the same disk partition as Windows?
game installations can always be reinstalled. but you may have lost your personal files and any offline game data due to not properly backing up said files.
 

jrglol

Reputable
Jun 27, 2017
69
1
4,545
if you cannot access the drive I would guess it is a drive failure or possibly just corrupted partitions/data.

is the drive detected in your BIOS?
do you have a disk management feature or 3rd party disk management software in the functioning OS?

are your "important" files located on the same disk partition as Windows?
game installations can always be reinstalled. but you may have lost your personal files and any offline game data due to not properly backing up said files.
The drive is detected in the BIOS, and I ran a disk check in Zorin and all is well. I forgot to mention that the important files are all the payware I had for my flight simulator, setting up a sim can take days. Thats why I want to recover the files. All the files are in the C drive. The only personal files are my accounts which I can simply relog-in if I decide to reinstall windows.
 

jrglol

Reputable
Jun 27, 2017
69
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4,545
disk management software is not just a "disk check". this would be a GUI with access to managing any attached disks, their partitions, and performing other disk functions.
yes I did that. My linux distro has sometimes successfully mounted the drive, it wouldnt copy or paste files and folders to my backup drive. So I was never concerned about that since its just a software issue.
 
if it is an issue with your existing OS not being able to read the type of disk format;
i would install Windows on another disk and just use that to access the drive in question to copy/recover the needed files.

if the drive is just simply inaccessible due to some type of malfunction or corruption than you're only options may be to pay for data recovery from a local store or possibly find a data recovery application and try running it.
 
Solution