[SOLVED] Windows 10 BSoD - can I fix and reboot?

netrate

Distinguished
Jul 24, 2008
157
1
18,685
Here is my situation with my windows 10/window 7 dual boot (two separate SSD's)

Windows 10 stopped booting. It has been working for approx 1 year.

I have tried multiple ways to get it to boot, nothing is working at present that I have tried. Windows 10 is partitioned on a 500 gig SSD Samsung EVO drive

Here is what happened:
Sunday, booted to windows 10 from my dual boot drive (win 7/win 10) -- I am using EasyBCD

Windows 10 :
Desktop Icons did not appear, task manager did not work, task bar did not appear
Rebooted several times, with the same result each time

What I have tried :
* NOTE : I have unplugged my win 7 drive during these attempts *

  1. Booting to win 10, I managed to get to the Advanced Options, Troubleshooting and tried a the advanced options REPAIR - didn't work
  2. Used the Media Creation Tool, booted to it USB and tried a MCT REPAIR - didn't work
  3. Tried using cmd from Troubleshooting - fixboot, fixmbr etc in the command prompt - successful in the CMD, but did not fix the problem, will not boot
  4. Tried using the Advanced Option RESTORE drive using the MCT - using the option to keep my personal files - went to 47% before failure, reverted changes
  5. Using the Advanced Options/ Troubleshooting, I have tried uninstalling recent updates - didn't work
  6. It will not let me use F8 and boot to SAFE MODE in advanced options/troubleshooting - does not work
  7. Stop code 0xc000021a - BSOD
  8. The integrity of the drive is 99% according to Crystal Disk Info
  9. There are no system restore points (I have learned my lesson now)
  10. It has been suggest that I run chkdsk /r , but after reading this article, I am afraid of doing that without backing up the entire drive first
www.datanumen.com/blogs/4-top-risks-when-you-run-chkdsk-on-hard-drive/#:~:text=CHKDSK%20is%20able%20to%20check,unrecoverable%20damage%20to%20your%20drives.&text=Windows%20has%20a%20native%20disk,is%20misused%20in%20some%20cases.
11) To repeat - I cannot boot to win 10 so I cannot execute any programs or command inside the OS. I can only use CMD.

I am at a loss how to proceed. As you can see, I have not been idle and I have done some searching on how to repair this, but nothing I have tried seems to work. Wondering if anyone has another idea or two or three?

I have been posting on a couple of forums trying to get to the bottom of this because it is my work computer. I apologize if that upsets anyone. I don't want to come across as pushy or ungrateful, I just really want to get this fixed.
 
  • Like
Reactions: skojo67
Solution
Nothing seems to work.

well, that leaves formatting the various system partitions BUT NOT THE windows partition or the data partition.
then attempt the various fixes (bootrec.exe commands)

like in this Fixboot: Access Denied in Windows 10 – Solved [5 Methods Included] (diskpart.com)

-------------
only time I have seen access denied is when the action is being applied to the wrong drive and the drive had been write protected
so they don't mess up the wrong partition. ie during a window upgrade install that fails and leaves your windows drive write protected.

in this case you would use diskpart.exe
then
list volume
select volume 0
attrib volume

and you might see it as being read only

help attrib volume
shows...

netrate

Distinguished
Jul 24, 2008
157
1
18,685
the SSD is 500 gig. 120 is partitioned for Win 10 and the rest is storage - storage is almost full. The 120 partition has about 20 gig of room on it.
The mobo is GA-970A-d3 , 16 gig of ram - win 7/10 dual boot
Kingston 120 gig SSD - Win 7 Ultimate
Samsung 500 gig EVO 860 - Win 10 Home
WD 500 gig Platter Storage drive

I am in the process of buying a HD for backup. Probably a 2 TB drive.
 
bugcheck 0xc000021a means winlogon is not working. the first parameter, would be a string that describes the error
and the second parameter would be the error code. These would be helpful if you can get them.

generally, something like this can happen when you have two drives an the drive controller triggers a drive letter reassignment.
I have only seen this on machines that use the intel version of a sata driver. (intel rapid storage driver)

the fix it to boot into cmd.exe from the advanced options and then run
diskpart.exe (then run these two sub commands, inside diskpart)
list disk (will show what drives are available)
list partitions (will show the partitions and drive letters)
exit (used to exit diskpart)

first see that both drives are still being seen correctly
second check the drive letters that are being assigned to the various partitions.

often with the intel rapid storage driver it will reassign drive c to the wrong drive partition.
look for c assigned to a small 100 MB or 500 MB partition rather than where your windows partition is located.

another problem would be if it is assigned to a partition that is marked as RAW for the fs type.
this happens sometimes when you get a bugcheck and the NTFS is corrupted. For this you run a chkdsk to repair the drive
(like in the link you provided)

anyway if the partition is not correctly assigned the drive letter then you would have to use the
diskpart.exe commands to reassign the drive letters around.
you can use diskpart.exe
then type help assign to get the command.
help will get the other commands
something like
list disk (to show your drives)
select disk 0 (where 0 is your drive from the above command)
list volume (look for a ltr that is incorrect for your windows partition)
for example if volume 1 is assigned drive c:
you would
select volume 1
assign letter= F
now select the volume that you want to have drive letter c:
select volume 0
assign letter=c

then run the command
list volume
and check to see if the drive letter assignments are correct.

sorry if this is confusing. Main thing is it can help you figure out the problem and make a fix if it is one of the common problems.
 
try diskpart.exe
then
list volume
should get something like this:

DISKPART> list volume

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 0 C NTFS Partition 930 GB Healthy Boot
Volume 1 FAT32 Partition 100 MB Healthy System
Volume 2 NTFS Partition 505 MB Healthy Hidden

it shows the file system and the drive assignment


in my case I have 100MB EFI system partition (with no drive letter assigned)
then drive c: is 930 GB boot partition, +pagefile, and data
then volume 2 is a 505 MB recover partition.

the only one that has a drive letter is C: my boot partition that has my windows directory

if i just look at the partitions on the one drive I get this:

DISKPART> list partition

Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
Partition 1 System 100 MB 1024 KB
Partition 2 Reserved 16 MB 101 MB
Partition 3 Primary 930 GB 117 MB
Partition 4 Recovery 505 MB 931 GB

here is a description of what is on the reserved partition:
The System Reserved Partition holds the Boot Configuration Database, Boot Manager Code, Windows Recovery Environment and reserves space for the startup files which may be required by BitLocker, in case you use the BitLocker Drive Encryption feature. It is created during a clean, fresh installation of Windows 10/8/7 and Windows Server.

description of system partition:
The system partition refer to disk volume containing defined files for the boot of Windows, files such as Ntldr, Boot.ini, Ntdetect.com, bootmgr, BCD, etc. On a traditional BIOS-based computer, the BIOS for the computer initially boots from that partition. On an UEFI-based computer, the system partition also called EFI system partition (ESP).

recovery partition:
Recovery partition contains the files of system backup image and files that guide system restoration. In a word, recovery partition is a function of one key computer recovery when the system runs into an error.

primary partition:
Primary Partition is the hard disk partition where both Windows OS and other data can be stored, and it is the only partition that can be set active for BIOS to locate. In other words, you can only boot from a primary partition.

note to find how much free space on a drive
use
(list the volume )
select volume 0
detail volume

here is the output for my volume 0

DISKPART> detail volume

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
* Disk 0 Online 931 GB 1024 KB *

Read-only : No
Hidden : No
No Default Drive Letter: No
Shadow Copy : No
Offline : No
BitLocker Encrypted : No
Installable : Yes

Volume Capacity : 930 GB
Volume Free Space : 687 GB
 
Last edited:
ok, most likely your storage driver went and assigned a bunch of drive letters to partitions that normally would not have drive letters.
looks like you need to remove the drive letters and re assign them
the key ones will be
volume 0 your dvd drive
volume 2
volume 4
volume 5
the rest should not have drive letters assigned

you can exit diskpart and just
if you know which partition is which by the partition size you can just assign the drive letters
otherwise you can use the current drive letters, exit the diskpart command and at the prompt type
e:
then do a
dir
and see if it looks like it should be your drive c:
you can do this for F: and H:
to figure how it should be assigned.

then go back into diskpart and reassign the drive letters.
command is
select volume 2
assign letter=c
(or what ever letter you want for that volume, you have to make sure the letter is free first)
(I will check to see how to have no letter, I never remember and end up using the UI to remove the extra drive assignments)
I had to look it up. you use
remove letter=C (or what ever your drive letter that you want to remove)
(Well that is not right it removed the letter and gave it the next one, always check your work when you are done)
looks like the windows user interface does not show the drive letters on the various partition but the CMD.exe allows you to get to each drive letter
so you can look at what is on each volume.
guess I will just leave my new drive I: to my EFI partition. Well at least I can look at the files if I want to.
 
Last edited:

netrate

Distinguished
Jul 24, 2008
157
1
18,685
E: is my window 7 drive
F : is my window 10 drive
I am a little confused from there. What should I be assigning those drives to?
I will have to look at this tomorrow, my eyes are starting to go wonky. Thanks for the help, I will continue this tomorrow.
 
free up c: by
select volume 1
assign letter=J
free up d: by
select volume 3
assign letter=k


now if window 10 was your drive C: and windows 7 was drive d:
you
select volume 2
assign letter=c
select volume 3
assign letter=d

now you would want to assign a proper drive letter to your data volume and your dvd

or you can try and boot windows will basically ignore the letters for the volumes that should not really have letters.
and it will just care about the location of your c: and d: since the hidden boot files will refer to the drive letters.

then when the system boots you can go into windows disk management and move drive letters around to what you really want.
 
I was just going to mention this whole issue results from the intel storage driver getting confused and just re assigning drive letters starting from the first partition.
I think it is triggered when a second disk with a active partition is seen. it used to be you would set the active partition but my system did not have it set and I did not see it set on your drives.
the microsoft windows version of the storage driver just never has this problem since it knows what would happen and it skips the small partitions.

most people just give up and buy a new drive or format and start over. (and hopefully they do not install the intel storage controller driver and just use the microsoft driver)
mainly microsoft will update their driver via windows update but the intel storage driver you get the update from the motherboard vendor and maybe microsoft will push one out if they find a nasty bug.
 

netrate

Distinguished
Jul 24, 2008
157
1
18,685
Ok, since my windows 7 was the original drive ( I was using win 7 for about 5 years before I went dual boot), can I assume that the win 7 should be C and the win 10 should be D?
Also, I need to be wary that I don't mess up my windows 7 drive because that also had work on it and is my only working computer at this point. Am I unnecessarily worried?

Today I am buying a 2TB hard drive and going to back up windows 7 on it as well as the partition. Then I am going to try and back up windows 10 (from windows 7) before I venture any farther.
 
Ok, since my windows 7 was the original drive ( I was using win 7 for about 5 years before I went dual boot), can I assume that the win 7 should be C and the win 10 should be D?
Also, I need to be wary that I don't mess up my windows 7 drive because that also had work on it and is my only working computer at this point. Am I unnecessarily worried?

Today I am buying a 2TB hard drive and going to back up windows 7 on it as well as the partition. Then I am going to try and back up windows 10 (from windows 7) before I venture any farther.
I am not sure of the drive mapping but it will not make a difference if you get it wrong. (I think dual boot had windows 10 on c: and windows 7 on d: but I could be wrong)
map your two windows partition to c and d
map your data partition to something else like e:
and map your dvd to something like f:

if you have drive letters on any of the other partitions (the small ones) then windows will ignore them during the boot up.
 
Is this a lost cause?
should not be a problem. After you get all the drive letters in the correct order,
it just looks like you had your old system backing up to your drive e:
but now you have that drive assigned to drive G:

you just need to reassign drive g to be drive e
(the software failed since you do not have a drive e assignment)

then reboot. after that you can try to clean up disk space if you still need to.
 

netrate

Distinguished
Jul 24, 2008
157
1
18,685
Forgive all of the questions. Here is what you said and I am trying to follow the logic :

free up c: by
select volume 1
assign letter=J
free up d: by
select volume 3

assign letter=k

So at present, you are saying that C: (as it is right now) is not actually C (Win 7) but another partition and I need to reassign it to J.
And D is also not Windows 10, but another partition and I need to reassign that to K. This frees up C and D

now if window 10 was your drive C: and windows 7 was drive d:
you
select volume 2
assign letter=c
select volume 3

assign letter=d

You are saying that VOLUME 2, from my pic is actually my windows 10 partition and VOLUME is my actual Win 7 Partition and they need to be brought back to normal. Is that logic correct? How did you determine which was actually the win7/win10 volume before the reassignment?
 
I think the instructions were from the old photo of disk partition volume Drive letter assignments. I can check them again when I get to my desktop. On a phone now and It is too small to read.
Note: after the partition is assigned a drive letter you can exit the tool and inspect each drive partition. Look at the dates of the files of the windows directory to figure if it is win 7 or 10.
 
Last edited:

netrate

Distinguished
Jul 24, 2008
157
1
18,685
Ok, this is really confusing. Please check them again when you have time and let me know. I really don't want to mess up!

Ok, using the 2TB drive, and trying to backup win 10 (blank brand new drive), I get this error :
FAILED : 0x8004231F - Idispath error #8479 Retrying without VSS writers.

Error: com call "m_pVssObject -> BackupComplete(&pAsynce)" Failed.

returned HRESULT - 0x80042301

Error text : VSS_E_BAD_STATE

Backup aborted.

This sucks. Any ideas how to proceed? I was trying to back this up before running scandsk.
 
Last edited: