Windows won't start

[NEJ2]

I was uninstalling apps like 2 weeks ago to free up memory for games I would like to install (I'm running windows 11 on the HP Notebook 15-dy1078nr). All of a sudden when I went to boot the laptop up, the boot manager said windows failed to start. I tried running commands online that I found that could help but one told me I that I might have messed up the hard drive somehow. The command was (Bootrec /ScanOs), and the output said "Successfully scanned Windows installations. Total identified Windows installations: 0". I don't know what happened. Before I ran that command, I tried to install windows 10 from installation media, and Drive Partition 3 was the only drive available to download it on but said it wasn't able to. Can someone please help me.

[Raj_05]

Hi @NEJ2,

Welcome to HP Support Community.

Thank you for posting your query, I will be glad to help you.

It sounds like you're dealing with a serious issue where your Windows installation is no longer recognized, which can happen due to a corrupted Boot Configuration Data (BCD) or file system integrity problems. Here are steps you can follow to try and resolve this.

Rebuild the BCD

You can attempt to rebuild the BCD from a Windows installation media. Here’s how:

Create Windows Installation Media: If you don’t have one, you can create it using another computer by downloading the Windows Media Creation Tool from the Microsoft website.

Boot from the Media: Insert the USB drive or DVD into your laptop and boot from it. You may need to access the BIOS/UEFI to change the boot order.

Repair Your Computer:

• Select Repair your computer when the Windows setup screen appears.
• Choose Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Command Prompt.

Run the Commands: In the Command Prompt, type the following commands one by one, pressing Enter after each:

bootrec /fixmbr

bootrec /fixboot

bootrec /scanos

bootrec /rebuildbcd

If bootrec /scanos still shows "Total identified Windows installations: 0," proceed to the next steps.

Additional BCD Repair Commands

If the above commands don’t resolve the issue, try these additional commands:

bcdedit /export C:\bcdbackup

attrib C:\boot\bcd -h -r -s

ren C:\boot\bcd bcd.old

bootrec /rebuildbcd

This set of commands exports the current BCD to back it up, removes its attributes, renames the old BCD file, and attempts to rebuild it again.

System Restore

If rebuilding the BCD does not work, you might want to consider performing a system restore to revert to a previous state when the system was working correctly:

• Boot from the Windows installation media.
• Select Repair your computer > Troubleshoot > Advanced options > System Restore.
• Follow the prompts to select a restore point.