Question Windows can't boot after deleting upper filter in registry

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the Tom's Hardware community: where nearly two million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Status
Not open for further replies.
Mar 30, 2020
15
0
10
Hello,

My external hard drive wasn't showing up when I plugged it into my laptop. This is because I didn't eject it properly. So I followed some steps online to make the hard drive show up on my laptop:

Step 1. Hit Start, type regedt32 and click OK.
Step 2. Backup your registry by going to file > export.
Step 3. On the left side, go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}.
Step 4. If you see any upper filter or lower filters at the right side, delete them.

I remember seeing one upper filter so I deleted it. I then plugged my hard drive back in but it still didn't show up. So I restarted and went into BIOS to try and boot from the hard drive. I don't remember making any changes.
I then decided to boot my computer up again but I got an Inaccessible boot device blue screen. I was able to get to the troubleshooting page by hitting Alt and F10. And then I tried pretty much everything from there like safe mode (but it wouldn't boot) and system repair (which didn't work), I didn't have the option to revert back to the last known working version either. I tried even reinstalling Windows while keeping my files but it just brought me back to the same blue screen when it was done.
I have an Acer Aspire E15

I've heard what I could do is to boot from a usb with Windows 10 which I haven't tried yet. But will it keep all of my files?

I also want to make sure my external hard drive is fixed. I tried plugging it into another computer but it still wouldn't show up. If I fix whatever I did in the registry will it show up on another computer? I'm just worried I might lose my files in both my laptop and hard drive
Thanks
 
I'm considering buying a new external hard drive and copying my files at this point.

i'm worried about my damaged hard drive though, i plugged it into my laptop in the regedit menu and it was blank except for a recovery.txt file. And it was only about 500mb instead of 500gb
 
I have the same problem (BTW the website which recommended to delete the filters is this one https://www.easeus.com/storage-medi...ernal-hard-drive-not-detected-recognized.html ). I backed up my registry but how can I access and restore them when I cannot boot into system? I am not very advanced user so I would very appreciate step-by-step solutions.
Notice that I have dual boot with Ubuntu 16 installed. Thank you !
Please start a new thread for your particular situation.

But following those steps should NOT have resulted in a non-bootable system.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.