[System Won’t Boot] Fix Windows Boot-Up Error without Data Loss

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.

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About The Author

Satyeshu Kumar

Satyeshu is a Windows blogger and data recovery expert. He is having good technical knowledge and experience in Windows data recovery. He writes about latest technical tips, Windows issues and tutorials.