Inaccessible Boot Device error in Windows 10

Anonymous

I manage multiple computers running Windows 10 Pro 64-bit with the latest Current Branch and recently had multiple computers randomly startup with this BSOD: Inaccessible Boot Device.

I have tried everything:

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-fix-update-causing-inaccessible-boot-device-error-windows-10

Which recommends deleting registry keys and install packages, though no pending installs could be found

SFC /SCANNOW - No corruption found

CHKDSK /R - Some minor issues corrected

BOOTREC - Scan OS shows 0 windows installations

FIXBOOT - Successful, but this tool finally made the entire process fail without being able to get to the recovery environment, just boots to the legacy screen and shows options for safe mode, but those fail too.

I am at my wits end, because I find thousands of websites and desperate users and admins, but the only fix that works is to clean install. I can't clean install the whole company. This is insane, there has to be a better known cause / fix out there...

*Modified title for accuracy*

*Original title: Inaccessible Boot Device error - cause? fix?*

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous

WIN 10 BSOD FIX - Inaccessible Boot Device - THIS WORKS! I Just Repaired 2 computers that went down at the same time last night on 1/16/18

Good Afternoon Bobby,

Here is the fix I came across from another kind IT tech, please see below. Credits go to them, I'm just forwarding so everyone can finally get their computers back up and running.

Boot Windows 10

Go to Repair

Go to Tools/Options to get a command prompt.

Confirm the drive letter for the Windows image. Usually D: –> dir d:

Run the following to view the installed packages which will also show a date of install.

Dism /Image:D:\ /Get-Packages

Find the package(s) that were just installed by date. Run the following command on the last installed package:

example: dism.exe /image:d:\ /remove-package /packagename:Package_for_KB4014329~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~10.0.1.0

Reboot.

The patch that caused my issue was from 1/6/18 or 1/10/18 Remove the latest windows update entry with Rollup Fix in it's name. Once complete, close command prompt, turn off computer. Power back up. You should be back into WIN10.

If you still receive BSOD, rinse and repeat with the next latest update, try it again. You'll eventually boot right back into WIN10.

I hope this helps.

Have a great day.

Showster

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Anonymous

2019-05-23T20:42:08+00:00

OK. Apologies if this is repetition, I hope you will forgive me for not wanting to wade through 50+ pages.

I solved this problem by changing IDE to AHCI in BIOS. It is possible that the reverse might work too.

Basically the CMOS battery had failed causing BIOS to revert to default for disk access mode (wrong). Check the CMOS battery if this works and if it's low on voltage replace it and set to the correct value again afterwards.

Other BIOS settings may change because of this too.

Tricky
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Anonymous

2019-03-17T20:11:25+00:00

Forgot to mention:

I have 3 restore points available. I have tried all 3. They will each run for about 20 minutes purporting to be "Restoring files," but in the end the restore fails.
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Anonymous

2019-03-17T19:59:41+00:00

Thank you for responding!

I am at a command prompt at x:\Windows\System 32 and performed a chkdsk resulting in:

The type of file system is NTFS

The volumn is in use by another process, Chkdsk

might report errors when no corruption is present.

Volume label is Boot

WARNING! /F parameter not specified.

running CHKDSK in read-only mode.

Read-only CHKDSK found bad on-disk uppercase table - using system table.

Stage 1: ….basic... 29 file records processed. File verification completed. No Files processed - Stage 2 ...file name linkage...43 index entries processed. Index Verification complete, 0 unindexed files scanned or recovered and 0 reparse records processed. Stage 3...security descriptors... Verification complete...Errors detected in the uppercase file.

CHKDSK /F will not run! says;

Cannot lock current drive. Windows cannot run disk checking on this volume because it is write protected.

Ran SFC/Scannow

Verification 100% complete.

Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation.

I also have access to C: drive and D: drive from the command prompt.

Windows still not booting.
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