Inaccessible Boot Device error in Windows 10

Guess I hit a nerve. Believe me I have read this entire post.  Like most of you, I look for a pattern that is consistent with my problems and try the solutions that make since to me.  I only step in if it might move us to a consistent fix.  I only responded to confirm I have seen the same thing on second reboot. In response to several posts, Yes, as an IT support company all of customer's computers are backed up, image and file by file every night and not using MS solutions.  Haven't had reliable results and why we use a 3rd party solution (NovaStor).  Problem is, most image backups have moved past point when errors occurred so they will have the same problem.  Like probably most here, the fix for one reboot gives them a chance get critical data, if needed, and try the next level of fixes to insure future reboots.  A full install of OS and apps never gets the user back exactly as before.

In my case while in my successful first reboot after fix, I preformed the in place upgrade using the OEM Win10 Pro DVD.   It gets to the point of "Choose what to keep" and only allows, Nothing, because it says that current version of windows might be installed in an unsupported directory.  Strange because all pc's were loaded from scratch with OEM Win10 Pro using default standards, nothing special.  That's when I gave up.  Would love a link to proper way to perform an in place upgrade.  I might have a HUA moment on the proper procedure.  Haven't ever had to use it in the past.

This has worked for me, thank you very much!

Specifics of my situation: on a Win 10 computer part of AD I ran 'gpupdate /force' just to apply some unrelated GPO updates. After that the restart just go the computer in the blue screen state and the 'inaccessible boot device' message.

So chose Troubleshoot and Command Prompt and the ran 'Dism /Image:D:\ /Get-Packages' - make sure you don't make silly mistakes by not typing the spaces between the parameters (space between D:\ and /Get-Packages)

From the list of packages I then chose the most recent one and ran the remove command as explained above.

Restarted the computer and magic! problem solved. Not sure though if AD is not going to push this update package again and mess up again... so maybe need to remove it from the server, don't know...

Thanks!

Adrian

The above method works and after the in place upgrade (repair-install), when the system boots, you can update windows to your hearts content.  Microsoft has pulled the flakey patch. (or fixed the problem with it).  My formerly unbootable PC now indicates that it has all the updates.  This was confirmed by the Belarc Advisor.

We noticed this after I posted this bypass solution at the time between the top of page 5 and all the discovery around page 10 of the post because we had/have no support from Microsoft.  It was a temp fix i found from another nice tech at the time.  Read the entire thread please.

As of right now, there is no solution other than to resort to a backup...  OR.. Back up your current drive as an image to another drive so you can dump you data back on later....  After you reformat and reinstall...  That's what your left with... because of you know who.

A lot of other kind folks on this post gave great information on how to try and fix the issues at the time at hand, some worked and some didn't, but without resolution from the source we're pretty much SOL.

Blame the source...  Always back up your data on a daily basis.

It's sad to think that there is and will be 1000's of other individuals and full networks of 100's to 1000's of computer that will be affected by this without any help from the source that causes the issue.  That is why we're here to begin with or we wouldn't be talking about it.

Showster

"Always back up your data on a daily basis".

Hi Showster,

Folks,

That Quote CAN NOT BE STRESSED ENOUGH!!!! This just as true NOW as it was 50 years ago, More so because back then(45+ for me) we were dealing in KiloBytes maybe MegaBytes.

Now we are dealing in GigaBytes to TeraBytes or even more!

From previous discourse, Showster, it sounded like you have had good success with MS Backup, Restore, Rest, Recovery processes?

I have not. MS processes in this area have let me down to many times, I don't even test them anymore as an Insider. You rebuked me, up Thread, about my use of 3 rd Party tools, But that is all I will trust my Images and Data(I have separate Data Disks) TO!

When I advocate ALWAYS BACKUP, I also advocate with good trustworthy Backup/Recovery/Restore 3rd Party Tools which must include a WinPE solution as well, for same. All of my Image Backups are done in WinPE!!!

Why, you ask, because if MS is changing VSS and it is corrupted when you Backup, even if your Backup Verifies OKAY, it still could be Corrupt. Garbage in, Garbage OUT, as they say. As an Insider I lost several Image Backups to that very problem. You never really know when the are going to monkey with it.

SO IN ADDITION TO IMAGE BACKUPS ..... VERIFY THOSE VERY SAME IMAGE BACKUS!

Running MultiBoot, Restore Points don't work anyway, so I use Tweaking.comRegistry Backup.

I FEEL so bad, some of you are still having problems like up Thread. I really wish we had some idea what it is. Susan, says it is a 'minor widespread phenomenon'. I am not disagreeing, but those are the hardest to diagnose, nail down and get a fix for. Folks just be careful out there, wring as much possible/potential bit corruption out of your process as possible. There are plenty of good suggestions up thread to guide you. I use mine on every patch or group of patches as part of my process. Afterwards, I take at minimum an Incremental Image Backup.

Best of Luck to Everyone,

Best Regards,

Crysta

PS Good to see you again Showster...... :D