So I’ve got a laptop (HP, running Windows 11) that I bought about 3 or so years ago. The last couple of days, I’d occasionally get a blue screen while browsing, and an error message that says something like “Windows needs to restart,” it would then restart and not give me any more problems.
Yesterday it did that, but now when it restarts, I get the automatic repair tool, then this screen, with an option to either restart, or go into my advanced options.
Restarting just executes the exact same way as described above. If I opt for the advanced options, I get this screen.
Trying to just straight to Windows 11, as the first option listed, it restarts and I get the same procedure as described above. Trying the “troubleshoot” option gave me a couple of restore points to try, but I get an error message that says that it was unsuccessful.
I don’t have a recovery DVD (as option 2 lists), and I can’t connect to a network to try that method.
So…anyone got any idea how to proceed?
I know nothing about computers, but I’m thinking my hard drive crashed. I’m hoping there’s a quick and easy fix for this, but with my luck, I’m going to be laptop shopping.
I would agree that your hard drive is probably damaged.
But, if you decide that’s the case, you can put an SSD into the machine without having to buy a whole new computer.
Boot from USB. Then check the S.M.A.R.T. status to see if the drive crashed. If so, the fix is, you are not going to be using it any more. Either way, try to make a raw image clone of the drive onto some other storage. And replace the drive if it is failing.
Then CHKDSK should fix the filesystem if it is not too trashed.
In my thread, the story is that the registry was apparently corrupt. After wasting a lot of time trying to fix it manually, the stupid but effective solution was to replace it with an old but non-corrupt copy of the registry. That allowed the system to boot, and then running the installer for that exact edition of Windows and choosing to “keep all files and apps” fixed it.
This may be a longshot, but it is less work and may be worth trying before any of the nuclear options.
I had a similar situation after an update last year. I couldn’t get past the screen you showed. I tried all sorts of workarounds short of reinstallation. I started a thread here, went on other message boards, searched on the microsoft boards, etc.
At some point I noticed in the Repair screen advanced options an option to boot while ignoring “bad drivers”. I tried it and the system booted. It turns out I had a “bad” USB driver that didn’t prevent any access to my USB drives or anything else (so it was not something I noticed in normal use), but in the device manager screen, it was noted.
The Windows Event Viewer should have more information about exactly what the error was (or what Windows thought it was, at least). That might give you a better idea of exactly what is failing.
In my experience, either your drive is dying or you have a memory issue. You might try taking the memory out and putting it back in (aka reseating it). My money is on the drive though.
Can you boot into safe mode? If you can, you can check to see if you can see your disk.
I got into a similar problem when my Win 11 computer was new - about a year and a half ago. I think the cause was a bad registry from using a file and app copy program. I was able to find a reinstall Windows option that saved my files.