Question Helping friend, win10 dead, cant recover

redavalanche

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May 17, 2010
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Shortly after the latest update my friends computer would not boot to win10.

Tried to restore using all restore points, did not work.
Tried to get into safe mode, did not work.
Tried to use sfc /scannow, did not finish.
Tried to save his data by trying to install win7 as dual boot, did not work.

Did clean install of win7 on another drive and had him attach the the win10 drive and was reported as healthy on win7?

But trying to scan the drive or access the files or search for known folder just never finished.

The only error he reported getting is 0x80070003 , but that appears to be an update error. He was using the computer after the update but within 2 days win10 was dead.

I assume saving the data requires saving this copy of win10. Command line action is slow with computer challenged people.

Would this possibly work? What else?
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
 
Even though the Windows 10 hard drive might be healthy the Windows 10 installation could be corrupted.
To use the "DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth" properly, you should follow the steps below and have the PC hard wired to the internet.
Open Command prompt .
-Type: DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth and hit Enter (this could take 10-15 minutes.)
-Type: DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth and hit Enter (this should take 1 minute.)
-Type: DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth and hit Enter (this could take 15 minutes or more.)
In case the process seems stuck ( 20% or 40%), don't interrupt it since it's normal. After a few minutes, the operation will finish as expected.
Type sfc /scannow hit Enter. Do Not interrupt the process.When done close the Command prompt and reboot the PC.
You could try SFC up to three times to fix all issues.

If that does not work, I would save all files and install Windows 10 from a USB.
You could download the Windows 10 media creation tool from Microsoft website and create a USB installation media.
Boot from the Windows 10 USB installation media and perform a clean installation.
 
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Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
SFC may get to end and say it cannot fix problem anyway, since its not logged in.

If DISM doesn't work, as it may not from just cmd outside of windows, you can use this to copy data off drive you want to save:
open command prompt
type notepad and press enter
in notepad, select file>open
Use file explorer to copy any files you need to save to USB or hdd