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
2024-07-25T02:30:12+00:00

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.)

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Performance and system failures

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.

0 comments

54 answers

Sort by: Newest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Ramesh Srinivasan 87,965 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2024-07-29T09:15:55+00:00

    Post screenshot of Disk Management.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2024-07-29T08:52:43+00:00

    How do I know if it stores the paging file/how do I change it if it does?

    It gives me the profile error I posted a page back whenever I try to sign in with the bad drive unattached.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Ramesh Srinivasan 87,965 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2024-07-29T08:48:49+00:00

    If it's a data drive and doesn't store the paging file or applications, it's not a critical drive.

    However, before disconnecting, you must reset the user shell folder locations (e.g., Documents, Music, Videos, etc) to default, if you've configured them to point to that drive.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2024-07-29T08:46:24+00:00

    The problem is that the bad drive is larger than my boot drive. What are the critical folders I should copy across so that Windows profile will also be copied?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  5. Ramesh Srinivasan 87,965 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2024-07-29T08:39:11+00:00

    Please disconnect the extra hard drives for now. Copy folders from that bad drive to your main drive and disconnect the bad drive.

    If the crash occurs again, look for dump files in the "C:\Windows\Minidump" folder and share them.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments