Blue screen: INACCESSIBLE BOOT DEVICE

[cloudropis]

My parent's work laptop is giving me this error on boot. It worked fine until a couple of hours ago at their workplace, they brought it home (like they often do, with the same charger and whatnot) and this error started popping up. I can't access the desktop, it automatically loads W10's diagnostic tools like command prompt, the many kinds of system restore, etc

Things I've tried:

- running a chkdsk /f /r /x . It analyzes the HDD fine, says there are no bad sectors and correctly calculates how much space is taken, so it doesn't seem dead

- restoring Windows to an earlier date. The process itself goes without a hitch, but it's still stuck in the BSOD > Reboot > BSOD > reboot > diagnostic tools cycle

- startup repair. Like above, it doesn't give me any errors but it's still stuck in the loop

- googling around I've found some users had issues after a certain update. The step to fix it are seen in multiple sites like this one https://www.windowscentral.com/how-fix-update-causing-inaccessible-boot-device-error-windows-10?amp . However it doesn't find the HKLM\temp registry key I'm supposed to interact with because it doesn't exist.

Any ideas?

 

[Paul NZ]

Did someone change IDE to AHCI in the BIOS??

If the option is there?? If someone did, you'll get the stop error you're getting

 

[cloudropis]

Did someone change IDE to AHCI in the BIOS??

If the option is there?? If someone did, you'll get the stop error you're getting

They didn't touch the BIOS so I doubt that. I may check tomorrow

 

[Paul NZ]

It doesnt have a tpm module and theyre using bitlocker?

You can also get that stop error if the drive is bitlocker encrypted

 

[cloudropis]

It doesnt have a tpm module and theyre using bitlocker?

You can also get that stop error if the drive is bitlocker encrypted

I doubt they even know what bitlocker is. Keep in mind this is still my parent's laptop, so it's used for saving images, light browsing, printing and stuff like that, they don't tinker with it.

 

[Paul NZ]

One way to see if the hdd is bad. Or / if the sata sable is damaged or something (If it's sata)

Remove it put it in a desktop. See if it can read whats on it

Or see if the hdd cable has come out