Are there any diagnostics you can run, perhaps in the BIOS? I suspect a hardware issue, perhaps with the HDD or SSD. If not, you should certainly be able to wipe the drive and reinstall Windows if you’re willing to lose everything on it. Why do you say it would not let you do so?
Also, I remember in the (good) old days there were third party tools that would map your drive and mark bad sectors while moving whatever data they could from those bad sectors. Is there such a thing for Win 10?
Also, the fact that I can enter safe mode and every makes me think this is definitely a software problem, is that a correct assumption on my part?
Those bad sector tools are less important now because Windows uses a much better file system than back in the day. I’d say it’s still too early to rule out a hardware problem.
Were you running low on hard drive space before this happened? It almost sounds like it is trying to start while completely full. Unless you customized the computer I believe the model you bought comes with a 2TB spinning hard drive.
If it was me, I’d drop $100 bucks on a 500GB 2.5" SSD on Amazon then disconnect your old drive and connect the new. Install Windows from scratch on the SSD drive and then connect your old drive as a 2nd hard drive so you can retrieve your personal files. After that you’ll use the 500GB SSD as your Windows/boot drive and the 2TB drive for storage.
For a $100 investment you’ll be able to revive your computer so you can see exactly what happened on the old drive and end up with a much faster computer in the end.
I had something similar happen. The SSD was borked. Fortunately I had a not too old system image and restored to a new SSD. I was able to get a few of the newer files off the old one but only a few.
Not saying this is your problem but just the ability to enter safe mode doesn’t rule out a hardware issue.
I was also thinking that it might be storage related, especially if you have a system where the backups are stored to a separate partition of an existing drive. Although rather than buy a brand new SSD (which isn’t a bad choice, just maybe premature), I’d do a boot from a good sized thumb drive (cheap!!!) and see if I could access the files as well as check to see if it is a storage issue.
Hard drives also do it internally. Hard drives have become so small and data dense that it’s impossible to manufacture a drive with no defects whatsoever, so drives are manufactured with extra tracks and sectors that are used as a hidden reserve. During the manufacturing process, the drive is scanned and any defective sectors are remapped into the hidden reserve. These remapped sectors are called the P-list (primary defect list). This list is determined during manufacturing and never changes after that. Later, as the drive ages, it may develop bad spots. Since there are likely still some sectors left over in the hidden reserve, the drive can remap these new bad sectors to the reserve sectors. This list of remapped sectors is called the G-list (growing defect list). Windows isn’t aware of this remapping and really doesn’t care. As long as the drive gives it data when it asks for a particular head/track/sector then Windows is happy. If that particular sector is bad and happens to be remapped internally to the drive, Windows doesn’t even see the remapping. All Windows knows is that it asked for a particular sector and the hard drive accessed it.
While Windows doesn’t need to know about sectors that are remapped internally to the drive, there are utilities that will show you the P-list and G-list remapping.
It’s a good assumption to start with, but when you reach the troubleshooting point of not being able to even re-install Windows, then it’s clearly a hardware issue, not a software problem.
That seems like a good plan, although I will try a few more things first. But where do I find a copy of windows 10 to install. Do I just download from Microsoft after putting in my acer data to prove I have previously purchased a copy?
I think your machine is relatively “new”, so you should be able to download Win10 from Microsoft. The digital license information on the Microsoft servers are mainly tied to the mainboard, so you should be ok with just a hard drive change. They’ll let anybody download but activation requires some evidence, either digital license or via product key.
If you change the mainboard, there’s a bit more of a hassle.
I don’t recall if new Win10 builds have the little sticker with the Product Key but that might be good to have as well.
Yeah…it is a breeze too. Put the image on a thumb drive, boot to the thumb drive and go (you may need to enter your BIOS to allow booting from the USB port).
I’d recommend a completely fresh install. Delete the old partition(s), make a new one and install fresh (NOTE: this will delete all files on the PC).
If you have files you want saved do your best to get into the PC and back the files up somewhere (USB drive, cloud storage…lots of choices) before you do the above.
In my experience, the biggest complication is having to locate and reinstall all the various drivers (for the video card, for example). You might be able to go to the manufacturer website and download exactly the right drivers for your system.
Honestly, Windows is really, really good about getting most of this for you.
It may miss some things, depending on your system, but I have been amazed how much it finds on its own.
It didn’t used to be so but they have gotten a lot better at this.
At the least, it usually gets you to a running state on your system and you can then go find the bibs-and-bobs you need (I have had one case where I absolutely had to have a file from the manufacturer to allow the install to continue so it can still be a thing).
I currently have pretty good access to the computer in safe mode, although I cannot get internet access dispite trying a couple of techniques I found online. I want to back up my pictures to an external hard drive (I have all but this years already there, but what the heck). I tried using Wbadmin but that does not seem to be working. I suspect there are many ways to do this. Any advice?