Inaccessible Boot Device error in Windows 10

These aren't AMD computers that are impacted.  There are many with Symantec however.

Still not certain of the exact trigger.

Turns out it's not anything we are doing. It's Microsoft (again!) See https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/9/16867068/microsoft-meltdown-spectre-security-updates-amd-pcs-issues

That's old news, they have already resumed Patching AMD.

This is also effecting both AMD and Intel so not even related specifically to those issues.....

Best Regards,

Crysta

Dave,

I really think we should go back to 2001 and start all over again....... :XD: :)

No not really! What I am going to do is answer you and all the other people on Page 10, here......

Hi y'all,

Dave has allot of details about what allot of you are experiencing and I have few answers....

Lets's cover WinPE first....

Glad you figured it out, I should have gone to my notes, but didn't take the time. I don't do it quite in the nominal fashion like you ended up doing, because I essentially had to figure it out on my own toooooo...... so I didn't want to confuse, the more usual way.

I filled in the gaps to some extent, that I got but forgot those two CMDlines that you found.

Suffice it to say is, you went into an additional Shell Environment that sets up the Global variables for you to run those 2 CMDlines.

I figured it out and did it without the Environment but then needed to run the executable in CMD Prompt that establishes the Global variables.

Either way we both got an ISO to feed Rufus, that is heavy into Admin knowledge and experience or lightly into DevOPS knowledge and experience. In other words this is definitely not novice territory.

Now why WinPE, because you are in no way, what so ever, interacting with the OS in an executable kind of way. This means that your Image that you want to work on is at that time so much data but with the possibility to be executed in a different Environment.

Example, one does not need to dismount the image disk because nothing is running like CHKDSK /b (/x is only need in WinRE or Online). Under these kind of condition(which also include certain types of power failures especially when lightening is involve) I don't what to make matters worse by running ANYTHING ON THE IMAGE DISK! or PC, internally for that matter! I just want it to be as passive as possible from the 'bits' perspective(ie Data). This is even more removed than with using the OS installation disk in Repair Mode which under these conditions COULD, COULD, be doing allot of damage.

In this configuration one is also running everything specifically in an offline mode for SFC, DISM, CHKDSK and more.....

One thing that rattles around in my head is the ubiquitous "BIT ROT" or as I say, Windows eating and corrupting itself prior to any of these potentially problematic Patches being applied???????????? This could be reflected in your image backups, who knows?????

There seems to be something going on in these patches that seems quite destructive on SOME PC's. This is not monolithic, so now how does anybody, MS included, with a Patching software, fix/reverse all of that????????????

In case any of y'all haven't realized I am only here to try to help where there seems to be no way to help.......

I have applied all the Patches available on my W 8.1 Pro TEST partition including the recent Preview, OS & .NET, Patches, with no problems, smooth as glass.

I am an Insider, on both Fast and Release Preview Ring/partitions. The RP partition is 1709 full up to Date(exception, I am x64, so not the latest x86 ONLY Patch just out) with absolutely no problems. My silicon is Intel but this is not just an AMD issue, it is both. I will be doing the latest Fast ring Update this morning, so I am a bit Tardy on that, because you people and others are more important.

The point being just to reiterate, these Patches are destructive on a subset of Windows users only, BUT WHY?????? Then, some throw in the towel do an In Place Update or a Clean Install, come out the other side, with ALL PATCHES INSTALLED, as far as we are hearing, with absolutely no problems what so ever. The silicon is still the same???????

Thus my musing above........

As far as this being an MRT problematic issue, I don't believe so BUT is it possible, ANYTHING AT THIS POINT IS POSSIBLE?????? We come full circle chasing out tails.....

For those of you that have numbers of PC with there manager/your manager staring you down...... OH Dear.......

Dave has said it best " I can't manage all these machines 24/7 doing updates manually however; that would be crazy.". And Microsoft has been trying to convince you IT/Admin is dying........ Right, me thinks they are making it quite untenable though, "24/7" employment anybody, ya I know, snarky, but we don't seem to have much else, except TEARS, here, at this point??????

"Prayer Mr. Savik, (these Corps) don't take prisoners"......

My Prayers are with y'all,

Best Regards, y'all,

Crysta

"

PS- For anyone thinking this may be an issue which directly somehow affected the MBR, it's unlikely, as I actually have a backup image of my disk from late 2016, obviously including the MBR, and it is one of the first things I tried to restore after fixing the MBR wasn't working (before removing the update package).  Obviously it was to no avail.  Also, it's unlikely just by the fact alone that removing the update package allowed users to boot back into their OS even once.

"

I can not disagree with you Dave, but considering what I wrote above, maybe shuffling the bits a bit(pun intended), 'changing some state' did allow a boot. A cold start as apposed to a reboot can too....

SUSAN BRADLEY

Susan,

I am complete out of ideas at this point, at a total loss as to how to bring these Images back to a Stable State.

Do you have anything you can add? 

At this point even a Prayer might be emotionally helpful.........

Please by all means chime in.

Crysta

"

Microsoft has acknowledged the AMD issues publicly, and the support tech said they are continuing to work on the problem, but i just haven't seen a lot of documentation that says the update alone is bad on any computer with any configuration. I think a lot of us feel that to be the case, but with how many computers have this issue in my office, I feel there must be something specific to these computers causing the issue. Otherwise, the entire world of Windows 10 computers would be crashing and we would see a lot more articles about the update, not just AMD processors.