Windows 10 finally booted to desktop after 4 hours of freezing on boot. What do I do so that this doesn't happen tomorrow?

Anonymous

My computer restarted overnight (assuming from an update) and froze on the boot screen where it shows the motherboard logo. It's also been freezing at the 'Preparing Automatic Repair' screen about 9/10 times.

I've tried resetting the CMOS by unplugging the power cord and holding down the power button, but it didn't help.

The few times I managed to access the troubleshooting tools and the command prompt I tried the bootrec /fixboot commands but I ran into the problem of "Path not found" at the attrib c:\boot\bcd -h -r -s step. On the final restart before I was about to plug in the bootable USB to reinstall windows, it booted to desktop with everything working as normal.

I feel like this is only temporary and I'll run into the same problem the next time it restarts. What do I need to check/fix so that this problem doesn't happen again? Or do I just need to bite the bullet and do a fresh install of Windows?

(I'm not sure if this was due to my fiddling around but I now have 2 recovery partitions on my C drive, and an addition EFI System Partition on an external HDD.)

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Ramesh Srinivasan 87,965 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2024-07-25T08:16:54+00:00
We can try rebuilding the BCD. But pre-boot shouldn't take that much time. If it can't find the BCD or boot files, it usually shows an error message right away. However, it's like trying hard to find the storage device or enumerate some other peripheral during the pre-boot phase.

Secondly, if the boot files are corrupt, the problem will be consistent; it can't be erratic, based on my experience.

Please post a screenshot of Disk Management. Also, post the output of these commands from an admin Command Prompt.
```
bcdedit
diskpart
list disk
list vol
```
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Anonymous

2024-07-25T08:08:43+00:00

By the way, I'm curious why you think it's not related to boot files when it's failed to boot so many times. My layman mind was thinking that the reason it's freezing is because it's looking for a file that isn't there/is corrupted, Although now that it has successfully booted to the desktop once, I don't know what to think.

I ran CrystalDiskInfo and every drive shows up as 'Good', so I'm not sure what is causing it to fail to boot. I'll have to leave checking the physical connections to the weekend.
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Ramesh Srinivasan 87,965 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2024-07-25T04:06:47+00:00

Hi Pasqetti,

Other than CrystalDiskInfo, check the physical connections as suggested earlier. Test by booting from a USB setup disk to check the pre-boot speed.

If your OEM has included a Pre-boot System Assessment test, run it at boot.
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Anonymous

2024-07-25T03:28:42+00:00

Thanks Ramesh.

I was ready to try anything, I hope those commands didn't mess up anything too badly.

Since there's no guarantee that the computer will boot to desktop again without another 4 hours, I'll want to hold off on rebooting until I have more time on the weekend.

My primary disk (:C) is already first in the boot order. I'll try running CrystalDiskInfo, but are there any other tests I can do in the meantime to check the stability of the system?
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Ramesh Srinivasan 87,965 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2024-07-25T03:16:25+00:00

Hi Pasqetti, This is Ramesh.

The problem doesn't sound related to EFI or boot files. Also, the "bootrec /fixboot" command and the "c:\boot" directory don't apply to GPT-based disks.

Please disconnect all extra peripherals and external hard drives and try again. Also, check if the hard disk cable is well secured.

Open the UEFI settings and set your primary disk as the first in the boot order.

If nothing helps, run CrystalDiskInfo to see if the hard drive is healthy.

https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldis...

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