[System Won’t Boot] Fix Windows Boot-Up Error without Data Loss
Summary: “Your Windows system was working fine but then it suddenly freezed. You force shut down your PC and when you tried to reboot it, it shows Windows Boot-UP Error.” Read this blog to solve this issue. You can also recover your lost data by downloading Stellar Data Recovery software. Get it now!
Contents
System Won’t Boot or Windows Boot-Up Error may occur due to multiple reasons like damaged boot sector, corrupt system files, graphics card failure, corrupt storage device, faulty RAM or virus infections. No matter what the reason is, this error can make you lose access to your data. In this post, we have discussed some simple methods to fix this error.
Methods to Fix System Won’t Boot Error
- Reset or Change BIOS Settings
- Check RAM
- Perform Startup Repair
- Use Windows Installation Media
- Reinstall Windows
How to Fix Windows Boot-Up Error without Data Loss?
If you want to fix this error without data loss, your first approach must be to ensure that you’ve data backup. If not, you need to recover data by using an efficient and powerful data recovery software i.e. Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Windows. This DIY software features a bootable recovery drive, a utility that lets you retrieve the data even from a non-bootable, crashed, corrupt or formatted windows PC.
Steps to Recover Data from a Non-Bootable Windows PC by using the Software
Follow the given steps to create a bootable recovery drive:
- Connect a fresh USB drive to a working PC.
- Install and run Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Windows.
- Click on the “Waffle icon” and select “Create Recovery Drive”.
- Browse the connected drive from the dropped down list and click Create Recovery Drive.
- When the window appears to Confirm Operation, click OK.
- Enter the Activation Key, sent to you via email on purchasing the product, and click Activate.
- On completion of the procedure, a message “Process completed successfully” appears. Click OK and your bootable recovery drive is ready.
Steps to Recover Data with Bootable Recovery Drive created via above steps:
- Connect the USB drive (used to create bootable recovery drive) to the affected PC.
- Power on your system, and press the Boot options (F12/Del).
- Select the USB recovery drive. On doing so, the software interface appears on the PC.
- Tap on “Everything” or select the files you want to recover, and click NEXT.
- Choose locations or drives on the ‘Recover From’ window.
- Click Scan. On completion of the scanning process, you can see the list of scanned files.
- Select the files you want to restore, and tap on Recover.
- Connect an external drive to save the recovered data, and choose it by tapping on the Browse option.
- Click Start Saving.
Simple Ways to Fix System Won’t Boot Error
Now, that you have recovered your data from the non-bootable Windows PC, you can proceed with the following solutions to fix this error.
1. Reset or Change BIOS Settings
In case of System Won’t Boot error, you may change or reset BIOS configuration to the factory settings, by following the given steps:
Step 1:
Turn on your PC and enter the BIOS setting while continuously pressing the BIOS key (usually F2). Reset the BIOS and Reboot PC.
Step 2:
Turn off the system, and remove the CMOS battery. Reconnect the CMOS cells to hard reset BIOS. Turn on the PC to boot Windows.
2. Check RAM
You can check your system’s RAM. Sometimes, the System Won’t Boot error may occur due to faulty RAM. Disconnect the RAM, and examine it for any dust or worn out connector. Reconnect the RAM. Also, you can swap the RAM to a different slot. Now check if the system boots up.
3. Perform Startup Repair
If the system gets stuck while booting, performing Startup Repair might help to fix the issue. To perform the Startup Repair, you have to gain access to the Advanced Settings. Follow the given steps to troubleshoot:
- Power on your Windows PC.
- When the Windows logo appears on the screen, tap Power button.
- Doing so will interrupt the boot sequence of the system.
- Repeat these steps for two more times.
- After the third interruption, the Automatic Repair window appears.
- In Automatic Repair window, click on Advanced Options.
- Tap on Troubleshoot option.
- Select Advanced Options.
- Choose Startup Repair.
- Select the admin account and type the password.
- Click Continue.
This may fix the issue and your system boots up.
4. Use Windows Installation Media
Creating a USB installation media, with Windows media creation tool can help fix Windows boot up error. After creating USB installation media, follow the below steps:
- Connect that USB drive to the PC.
- Enter the BIOS with BIOS key (usually F12/F2) and set it to boot from USB drive
- Enter Automatic Repair setup, select Troubleshoot option.
- Click Advanced Options.
- Enter Command Prompt section.
Once you enter in Command Prompt, run the below-given commands to fix the boot error:
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /rebuildbcd
See, if the problem is fixed.
5. Reinstall Windows
Caution: Reinstalling Windows will completely wipe out the data.
If nothing works, you need to reinstall the Windows. You can use the same USB installation media, which you used to perform startup automatic repair, to Reinstall the Windows. Since you’ve already recovered your data by using the data recovery software, you can proceed with Windows reinstallation without any second thought.
Conclusion
Windows Boot-Up or System Won’t Boot error may occur due to corrupt file system, corrupt storage device, virus attack, etc. And, to fix this issue, we have mentioned some easy-to-use methods in this post. However, applying these methods could result in data loss. Hence, it is recommended to first recover the data with an efficient data recovery tool like Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Windows. This software has a bootable recovery drive option, which lets you restore the data from a non-bootable Windows PC.
In case you have any queries, please let us know in the comment section below.
I really want to thank Stellar data recovery for this excellent feature. The availability of bootable CD is capable of recovering data even from the non-performing computer. I am satisfied with the performance.
Hello Keenu,
We feel really happy that our product, help you to solve your problem. Please follow us on Twitter.
Very informative blog. You have beautifully explained the reasons by which system won’t start. I would like to thank you for sharing such a helpful blog with us.
Quite an informative blog. It help for those users who are facing such type of issues during their working period. Thanks for the blog!!!
hi, i am facing a problem, unmountable boot volume, even i cant install win10, how to solve this.
Hi Asif,
Can you please elaborate your question, what happen to the drive? Is your system is unbootable?
Impressive content! You have very beautifully explained the way of overcoming the problem of data loss. Thanks for sharing the post.
After the Windows 10 anniversary update, I had faced the issue of System Won’t start, then I searched the solution for this problem and landed on this page. Here, I had followed the steps and recovered my data with the efficient output. Thanks for sharing the post with us.
Hi, I have Lenovo laptop which just crashed yesterday. However, I fixed the issue and now my laptop is working fine. But unfortunately I lost my entire data from D and E drive. Both the drive had number of files. Can you please tell me what should I do now?
Hi Shon, thanks for asking your question. In this situation, you have to use our data recovery software which will definitely help you. I suggest you to download the mentioned software and let the software scan your drive.
Hi, day before yesterday my system BIOS was unable to detected the hard drive and suddenly that drive got crashed. Now I am feeling helpless that drive holds many years of work please help me to get my data back.
Hello Pat,
I can understand the situation that you are going through. Just be clam and remove that hard drive from the system to prevent data overwritten issue. Install our free data recovery software and connect that crashed drive as an external one. Then run our recovery program and get your data back within a very little amount of time.
My computer will not start at all. The power light is on, but when I push the button to turn on the computer, nothing happens. This is the kid’s computer and the newest, only 2-3 years old. Also, a “song” plays every morning and I cannot find how this is happening. Does this make any sense and what should I do with it? I think it is a virus because they play games, watch YouTube videos and are on tmblr, skype and alot of different sites. Any help would be appreciated. My daughter is freaking because it sounds like stuff from Five Night at Freddy’s. Creepy. This is real. Please let me know what to do with this. It’s a fairly new Dell computer. Thanks.
I have reinstalled Windows and now I cannot access my PC. After successful installation, Windows automatically restarted but stuck at booting screen (using windows 7). Please guide me to access stored data as I don’t want to lose it.
Hi Johnson,
I’d suggest you to take out the drive and connect it externally on another working PC. Download and install our software named ‘Stellar Windows Data Recovery Pro’ and select the problem drive from ‘Drive Recovery’ option and select suitable recovery methods like Advanced Recovery. You’ll be able to see preview of recoverable files and folders before actual recovery.
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Select any or all the desirable files and folders and click on Recover button to recover those files.