Question BSOD, lost C drive, cannot reinstall Windows, missing NTFS file?

[J_Whtrz]

Hi. I'm tearing my hair out with an 11 month old laptop.

It rebooted and I got the BSOD. Subsequent reboots just went through to the set up screen, and then to the Troubleshooting options, none of which did anything to help.

It was obvious it just couldn't find the C drive - when going to the cmd prompt it kept saying X: and didn't recognize "C:"

With everything on cloud back up, I thought i would just reinstall W10 and start from scratch - but it won't let me install it. After selecting the option for 64 bit install and loading files it just says "windows failed to start", tells me to restart the computer and select "Repair your computer" (an option that doesn't ever come up) and says

File: \windows\system32\Drivers\ntfs.sys
Status 0xc0000098
The operating system couldn't be loaded because of a critical system driver is missing or contains errors

...I'm at my wits end and have no idea how to get around this. Any help would be appreciated.

Joseph

 

[McKeu]

You can try, if you have it, booting it from a bootable CD or USB stick.
Maybe even a Windows setup CD and check what options it gives you. Sometimes you are lucky and it offers you to repair an existing install.

 

[J_Whtrz]

Hi, Im using the W10 USB stick I bought when I bought the laptop.

It isn't going any further than "loading files", and doesn't come up with any options.

 

[ktriebol]

My guess is that your C: drive is shot.

 

[J_Whtrz]

My guess is that your C: drive is shot.

Really? The laptops only 11 months old.

 

[ktriebol]

Really? The laptops only 11 months old.

It's a shame, but it happens. Maybe it is covered under warranty. The good news is that drives are cheap now. Is it an M.2 SSD? You can look at this as an opportunity to get a larger drive if you think you might need one. I suggest going with one of the better brands, like Samsung, WD, or Crucial, so that it has a good chance of lasting a long while.

 

[Colif]

if PC started from X drive, the drive must be working. X is a ram drive started by windows recovery as precaution when the PC doesn't boot right. Its running off ram but it was loaded off the hdd. Its not magic.

Hdd likely showing as F drive now. Drive order gets mixed up when its not booting off a drive.

boot from installer
on screen after languages, choose repair this pc, not install.
choose troubleshoot
choose advanced
choose command prompt
type diskpart and press enter
type list disk and press enter
this shows all drives available, DVD/USB and hdd - is your hdd still here?

One option is to clear the hdd and see if you can proceed further with install
Following the same steps above,
type Select disk X - where X is the number of the hdd you want to wipe, change X to that number and press enter

once the drive you want to wipe is chosen, type Clean and press enter
type exit and press enter to get out of diskpart.
restart installer.

It is possible the error is caused by the USB drive you are using, not the hdd.