Re-post under my username: System restore problems

Hi again Freebooter,

Thank you for sticking with me so far!

I already downloaded that tool last night and that, too got frozen in time. It seemed to install even more mcafee apps as well.
I watched a documentary on this McAfee guy and it blows my mind that they continue to bloat and destroy perfectly good computers with forcing their way in.  Next time that I purchase a laptop/computer, I will NOT buy ANY that comes with McAfee pre-installed.
Sorry, I am just super annoyed with that.

To update you...BitDefender was not behaving right after being suspended by McAfee. I spent all morning trying to get the removal tool working and was faced with continuous errors and BitDefender kept randomly popping up as an error message.
I installed CCleaner via the Piriform website directly (through Chrome) but that too was super slow until it timed out.

So now I did another clean reset and it is at 38%...All I really want is for it to be secure so that I can send out resumes instead of going to the library.  

Oh...reset just stopped “There was a problem resetting your PC. No changes were made.”

Awesome

Hi @Loo007

Please download Revo Uninstaller from here: Revo Uninstaller

1. Download and run the setup file for Revo Uninstaller.
   
2. Once setup, run Revo Uninstaller.
   
3. Select the following item for removal by clicking on it once.
   
   McAfee
   
   
4. Then hit the "Uninstall" button at the top.
   
5. Close Revo Uninstaller.
   

You can also force uninstall McAfee with Revo Uninstaller.

The laptop will not boot to the welcome or main sign in screen. The only screen it will open is the troubleshooting screen (blue, has all of the options to reset, safestart, etc.)

It is in a loop of “There was problem resetting your PC. No changes were made.”

This laptop model does not have a removable battery and I cannot access the login screen...is there anything else that I can try to get in?

Thank you Freebooter! 😢

Do you have Windows 10 Installation DVD or USB?

Good question, I thought it came pre-installed on her laptop.
If not, I will have to wait for her to get out of school, but chances are she lost it if there IS a CD

If you have a working Windows OS computer you can use it to create Windows 10 Installation DVD or USB with Windows 10 Media Creation Tool.

Loo007 wrote:

The laptop will not boot to the welcome or main sign in screen. The only screen it will open is the troubleshooting screen (blue, has all of the options to reset, safestart, etc.)

It is in a loop of “There was problem resetting your PC. No changes were made.”

This laptop model does not have a removable battery and I cannot access the login screen...is there anything else that I can try to get in?

Thank you Freebooter! 😢

I just notice you are saying you can get to troubleshooting screen is the below posted screenshot is the troubleshooting screen your computer boots to?

Yes, but It’s the ONLY screen I can get into. If I try to do any of the options, after a minute or so it stops and comes back to this screen.

Can you try System Restore tool and Automatic Repair (Startup Repair) Tool from “Advanced options” on the Troubleshoot screen.

Do you still need help? We have not heard from you for a while... Please get back with us so we can assist you further!

Hello,
I am still in the same loop as previously posted, even after going through every single option from this blue menu.
Honestly, thought you gave up on me-

Hi @Loo007

Thanks for getting back to me, don't worry i don't give up that easily!

We have few troubleshooting steps you can try lets hope one of them works if they don't i will guide you to backup your personal files and reinstall Windows 10.


Please boot your computer into Windows Recovery Environment start the Command Prompt.

Please type below command into Command Prompt and press Enter key.

Following command will  fixes errors on the disk and locates bad sectors and recovers readable information.






Please replace partition letter D: with Windows installed partition letter.  When computer boots into Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) environment the drive letter assign to Windows partition may not be C: drive letter because Windows 7, 8 , 8.1 and 10 creates a separate system partition when it's installed from scratch. The system partition contains boot files WinRE assigns the system partition the C: drive letter and the Windows installed partition will be assign any other drive letter usually D: drive letter is assign to Windows installed partition. The Bcdedit /enum | find "osdevice" command can be use to find out the drive letter of the Windows installed partition the output of the Bcdedit command is similar to this osdevice partition=D:. The drive letter after partition= is the drive letter of the Windows partition.









Please boot your computer into Windows Recovery Environment start the Command Prompt.

Please type below command into Command Prompt and press Enter key.

The following command scans integrity of all protected Windows system files and repairs files with problems when possible.





Please replace partition letter D: with Windows installed partition letter.  When computer boots into Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) environment the drive letter assign to Windows partition may not be C: drive letter because Windows 7, 8 , 8.1 and 10 creates a separate system partition when it's installed from scratch. The system partition contains boot files WinRE assigns the system partition the C: drive letter and the Windows installed partition will be assign any other drive letter usually D: drive letter is assign to Windows installed partition. The Bcdedit /enum | find "osdevice" command can be use to find out the drive letter of the Windows installed partition the output of the Bcdedit command is similar to this osdevice partition=D:. The drive letter after partition= is the drive letter of the Windows partition.


After executing Chkdsk and Sfc command restart your computer to find out if the issue has been resolved if not please follow below troubleshooting suggestions.









Please boot your computer into Windows Recovery Environment start the Command Prompt.

Please type below commands into Command Prompt and press Enter key.

Following commands will repair Master Boot Record (MBR), Boot Sector and BCD Store.




Please restart your computer to find out if the issue has been resolved.








Windows Vista/ 7/8/8.1/10 keep a regular backup of the registry handy in case you need to overwrite a corrupted registry. By default, the RegIdleBackup task runs every 10 days, so that’s as far back as you would lose if you replaced the current registry with the automatically backed-up files. You can find the backed-up registry files in \Windows\System32\config\RegBack folder.

Please boot your computer into Windows Recovery Environment start the Command Prompt.

Please type below command into Command Prompt and press Enter key.




Above command will list files stored within RegBack folder and there file size, make sure files are not zero size if they are do not follow below instructions.



Please replace partition letter C: with Windows installed partition letter.  When computer boots into Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) environment the drive letter assign to Windows partition may not be C: drive letter because Windows 7, 8 , 8.1 and 10 creates a separate system partition when it's installed from scratch. The system partition contains boot files WinRE assigns the system partition the C: drive letter and the Windows installed partition will be assign any other drive letter usually D: drive letter is assign to Windows installed partition. The Bcdedit /enum | find "osdevice" command can be use to find out the drive letter of the Windows installed partition the output of the Bcdedit command is similar to this osdevice partition=D:. The drive letter after partition= is the drive letter of the Windows partition.

Please type below commands into Command Prompt and for each command you have typed press Enter key.






This procedure assumes that Windows Vista/7/8/8.1/10 is installed to the C:\ partition. Make sure to replace C:\ drive letter to the appropriate Windows OS installed partition drive letter if it is a different location.


Above commands renames the registry files at their existing location, and then copies the registry files from the RegBack folder to the C:\Windows\System32\Config folder.

Please restart your computer to find out if the issue has been resolved.

Before I begin, I am a little confused with the first set of command prompts.
The “find osdevice” command result was partition=C, so instead you (for example) want the 1st prompt to be
Chkdsk C: /r??? Or keep D:

If the Bcdedit /enum | find "osdevice" command output is C: drive letter then use the C: drive letter to execute all commands. As you can see from below screenshot of the output of the Bcdedit /enum | find "osdevice" command my Windows 10 installed on C: partition.

Thank you! So far I put in Chkdsk C: /r and here is what’s happening...

First this came up:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is Windows.

Stage 1. Examining basic file system structure...
390912 file records processed.
File verification completed.
71193 large file records processed.

stage 2: Examining file name linkage...
516622 index entries processed.
index verification completed.

Does it look like I am going in the right direction?

Yes you have executed command correctly.

It just finished the big scan...the last message was “Failed to transfer logged messages to the event log with the status 50”

Then I executed Sfc /Scannow /OFFBOOTDIR=C:\ /OFFWINDDIR=C:\Windows

My result was “Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation”


Should I continue with the next step anyway?

Don't worry about the “Failed to transfer logged messages to the event log with the status 50” error message.

Please restart your computer and try the Sfc command again.

Same result

That is not a good news you can try other troubleshooting steps let hope one of them works.

😫 what could that mean? Did a virus cause this?
I will try the other steps that you suggested.  I know there is only so much that you can do, but I greatly appreciate all of the help that you have given me...truly.

I don't think its virus that has cause the boot problem you said you try to reset your computer sometimes resetting the computer can go wrong for many reasons its hard to troubleshoot this kind of problem.

EDIT...Hi Freebooter,
I am in a window called EDiT BOOT OPTIONS which I have never seen before. I feel like this could be good for some reason if I know the right data to put in. It looks like this:
Edit Boot Options for:  Windows 10


Partition: {numbers,letters,etc}
Hard Disk: {numbers, letters, etc}


[ /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /SAFEBOOT:MINIMAL


Seems to be waiting for me to hit ENTER



hope that you don’t mind one last question...The BOOTREC FixMbr/FixBoot/RebuildBcd scans DID go through:
“Successfully, scanned Windows installations.
Total identified Windows installations:0
The operation completed successfully.

X: \Windows\systems32>

Any last advice?

You don't need to mess around with Edit Boot Options menu you can boot into Safe Mode from  Windows Recovery Environment.










You’ll see a version of the familiar Advanced Boot Options menu. Press the number corresponding to the startup option you want to use (i.e., press the 4 key for regular Safe Mode).





Have you restored registry files from backup?


Since the BCD store exists and lists a  Windows installation, you'll first have to "remove" it manually and then  try to rebuild it again. At the prompt, execute the bcdedit command as shown and then press Enter:

bcdedit /export c:\bcdbackup

The bcdedit command is used here to export the BCD store as a file: bcdbackup. There's no need to specify a file extension.

The command should return the following on screen:
The operation completed successfully.

Meaning the BCD export worked as expected.

At this point, you need to adjust several file attributes for the BCD store so you can manipulate it. At the prompt, execute the attrib command exactly like this:

attrib c:\boot\bcd -h -r -s

What you just did with the attrib command was remove the hidden, read-only, and system attributes from the file bcd. Those attributes restricted the actions you could take on  the file. Now that they're gone, you can manipulate the file more freely  - specifically, rename it.

To rename the BCD store, execute the ren command as shown:

ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old

Now that the BCD store is renamed, you should now be able to successfully rebuild it.

Try rebuilding the BCD again by executing the following, followed by Enter:

bootrec /rebuildbcd

Restart your computer after rebuilding the BCD store.





If above command does not work please execute below command and reboot your computer to see issue resolves.




Replace C:\ drive letter with Windows 10 installed partition drive letter.

Hi Freebooter,

The 1st command worked but the attrib c:\boot\bcd -h -r -s command did not. “ Path not found -  c:\boot “ 

My bad i forget that the C: drive letter is assign to Windows 10 installed partition.  

You will have to use Diskpart command to find out the System Reserved partition drive letter and replace all C: drive letter with System Reserved partition drive letter.


From Command Prompt  execute below commands:



The output of the above commands may display the name of the System Reserve partition as only System.

I am sorry for so many questions, but I just don’t want to do the wrong thing...this is what came up after the last prompts:

Volume 0.  C. Windows.        NTFS. Partition. 27GB. Healthy  not hidden 
Volume 1.                            FAT32 Partition. 260MB. Healthy. Hidden
Volume 2.  D. Windows RE.   NTFS. Partition.  979MB. Healthy. Hidden

DISKPART>

You don't need to be sorry please ask many questions you have i don't mind!

Does Volume 1 have a drive letter?

No, no label or letter

Please give me time to type instructions for you on how to assign drive letter to volume 1 and use dir command to find out if volume 1 contains BCD file if it does then you can use Volume 1 drive letter.

Absolutely...THANK YOU!

From Command Prompt type following commands:

1. Type diskpart and press Enter.

2. Type list volume and press Enter.

3. Note Volume 1 corresponding Volume number.

4. Now type select Volume=N and press Enter, where N is the Volume number you noted earlier in your case it was number 1.

5. Now type assign letter=w and press Enter.

6. Type exit and press Enter.

7. Type Dir /A /B W:\boot\bcd command and press Enter.

If Dir command founds BCD file at W: volume (partition) use the W: drive letter to replace C: drive letter to execute below commands:


Since the BCD store exists and lists a Windows installation, you'll first have to "remove" it manually and then try to rebuild it again. At the prompt, execute the bcdedit command as shown and then press Enter:

bcdedit /export c:\bcdbackup

The bcdedit command is used here to export the BCD store as a file: bcdbackup. There's no need to specify a file extension.

The command should return the following on screen:
The operation completed successfully.

Meaning the BCD export worked as expected.

At this point, you need to adjust several file attributes for the BCD store so you can manipulate it. At the prompt, execute the attrib command exactly like this:

attrib c:\boot\bcd -h -r -s

What you just did with the attrib command was remove the hidden, read-only, and system attributes from the file bcd. Those attributes restricted the actions you could take on the file. Now that they're gone, you can manipulate the file more freely - specifically, rename it.

To rename the BCD store, execute the ren command as shown:

ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old

Now that the BCD store is renamed, you should now be able to successfully rebuild it.

Try rebuilding the BCD again by executing the following, followed by Enter:

bootrec /rebuildbcd

Restart your computer after rebuilding the BCD store.

If the Dir command cannot found BCD file please let me know.

Couldn’t get past Dir /A /B W:\boot\bcd command...”The System cannot find the file specified”

To be clear, I entered:(italic words,letters, numbers are what I actually typed and bold is computer)
DISKPART> select Volume 1
Volume 1 is the selected volume.
DISKPART> assign letter=w
Diskpart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point.
DISKPART> exit
Leaving DiskPart...


X:\windows\system32>Dir /A /B W:\boot\bcd
The system cannot find the file specified.

Please execute following command and restart your computer.

Type bcdboot c:\Windows /s w: /f uefi and press Enter.

Okay...and should I start the instructions you posted at 2:23pm from he beginning again?

Please copy and paste the instructions at your next post.

What instructions?

Loo007 wrote:

Okay...and should I start the instructions you posted at 2:23pm from he beginning again?

You ask if you should follow instructions i have posted at 2:23pm i leave at Turkey we have different local times so i need you to either post the instructions you want to follow or give me the post number for the instructions.

Oh...my apologies!!  The most recent ones that didn’t go through. (Before the restart)
The forum will not allow me to copy and paste your text for some reason

Yes you can follow all my instructions.

Did the bcdboot c:\Windows /s w: /f uefi command worked if not can you paste the error message?

Sorry @Loo007 i have to go to sleep i'm very sick.

Sleep...I hope you feel better!! Thank you again my friend

Thank you very much @Loo007!

Please let me know how you are progressing?

Hello, I hope that you are feeling better today!

I am at the same standstill as I was from the last message because I am still in the same loop.  Every time the laptop restarts without me pressing F11, the following screen comes on (FYI).

Your device needs to be repaired.
The operating system couldn’t be loaded because the system registry file is missing or contains errors.


File: \Windows\system32\config\system
Error code: 0x0000225


So I just turned it off. It almost feels useless and I don’t want to take up too much of your time!

Hi @Loo007

Thank you i feel little better.

That error message indicate that the System registry hive file missing or contains error. Have you completed below commands?



Windows Vista/ 7/8/8.1/10 keep a regular backup of the registry handy in case you need to overwrite a corrupted registry. By default, the RegIdleBackup task runs every 10 days, so that’s as far back as you would lose if you replaced the current registry with the automatically backed-up files. You can find the backed-up registry files in \Windows\System32\config\RegBack folder.


Please boot your computer with Windows Setup Media and from Windows Recovery Environment start the Command Prompt.

Please type below command into Command Prompt and press Enter key.




Above command will list files stored within RegBack folder and there file size, make sure files are not zero size if they are do not follow below instructions.



Please replace partition letter C: with Windows installed partition letter. When computer boots into Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) environment the drive letter assign to Windows partition may not be C: drive letter because Windows 7, 8 , 8.1 and 10 creates a separate system partition when it's installed from scratch. The system partition contains boot files WinRE assigns the system partition the C: drive letter and the Windows installed partition will be assign any other drive letter usually D: drive letter is assign to Windows installed partition. The Bcdedit /enum | find "osdevice" command can be use to find out the drive letter of the Windows installed partition the output of the Bcdedit command is similar to this osdevice partition=D:. The drive letter after partition= is the drive letter of the Windows partition.

Please type below commands into Command Prompt and for each command you have typed press Enter key.






This procedure assumes that Windows Vista/7/8/8.1/10 is installed to the C:\ partition. Make sure to replace C:\ drive letter to the appropriate Windows OS installed partition drive letter if it is a different location.


Above commands renames the registry files at their existing location, and then copies the registry files from the RegBack folder to the C:\Windows\System32\Config folder.

Hi, here go the questions again...the command brought up results exactly like the black screen in your directions with all
0 files. 
It says to NOT follow below instructions if all files are zero. So what do I do?

Hi Freebooter,

Respectfully, I feel like I am going in circles, executing the same commands over and over since almost the beginning with no change or improvement.
At this point, do you think that we are wasting our time?

Hi @Loo007

Sorry to say but yes we have no option left except reinstall Windows 10.


Do you have working Windows installed computer?

Do you need to backup personal files?

Hi Freebooter,

There is a desktop in the house with Windows...yes