My WE started in a hectic way. As too often, alas, my workstation refused to boot. Really? I left it in a stable state last weekend, and this morning, nada, the system was stuck on the BIOS logo page display. Infuriating! What did MS do behind my back? I will document how I saved the day for my own reference; it may also help one of you.
Besides the stuck BIOS display, the other symptom was an amorph keyboard. By this, I mean none of the LEDs lit when I was toggling the usual keys (NUM if you have a full keyboard, SCROLL in my case). I knew my keyboard and mouse were working – I used them during the whole week in my work environment (via a KVM). After switching ON/OFF my system a few times, the last symptom was that the Windows automatic repair message appeared, but nothing happened (the system was dead stuck).
I created a Windows 10 installation media on a USB memory stick to attempt to repair my system. The boot order picked it up, and I landed on the OS installation screen. Unfortunately, my attempt to fix the installed version of Windows failed – with an unknown error. This fail unlocked the access to the troubleshooter. None of the options proposed worked, and when they provided feedback, it was useless (unknown error, but it never compalined about a failing or missing drive).
Finally, I booted into the repair console, hoping to confirm a hinch and to fix it. Indeed, as I mentioned, this was not my first rodeo with Windows refusing to boot. For some reason, Windows screws up the MBR – usually after an OS or video driver update – making the system un-bootable.
Ok, in my case, the solution was: 1) boot in repair mode into the CLI (use whatever method works for you – I used the installation media USB drive). 2) Enter the disk partition management tool (type diskpart). You can verify that your drives and partitions are healthy. In my case, they were, which confirmed the MRB screwup (list volume, list disk). 3) select a partition (select partition <n>, with n being your boot partition). If, at this point, you try to activate the partition, you will likely obtain a not a fixed MBR disk error message. 4) type bootrec /RebuildBcd, followed by exit once the command ends (it can take some time, and you should hear your spindles if you have any). Reboot. That’s it. Again, I do not know why Windows does this, but it is infuriating. I can’t imagine how many users default to reinstalling the OS and all their applications.
