A couple weeks ago, my computer suffered a BSOD and after it restarted I got nothing but a black screen with a cursor. So I decided to restart it again but I got an error recovery screen and decided to run Startup Repair as I’ve had to do one in the past before. However it ran for around 15 hours and after it finally finished I still got that screen. I tried to boot into safe mode but I still got the same issue, tried running sfc scan and chkdsk but no luck. There’s no system restore points either, and I couldn’t open the task manager nor command prompt. I’ve tried Last Known Good Configuration, but no luck. The good news is that my files are safe and sound, I’ve used a bootable USB drive that runs Windows Mini 10 and it seems to recognize my drive. We recently cloned my drive into an SSD, but now both drives keep getting that error recovery screen. I’ve tried everything again but nothing works. Is there a solution for this or is reinstalling Windows my best bet?
My computer is currently running Windows 7, the reason why I haven’t updated my OS yet is because I personally thought I didn’t need to for a while but I am aware that I’m going to have to at some point regardless of the outcome.
Are you talking about Windows 7? I don’t have such experience. I must be on Mars during that era. However, I did go through very similar issues with Windows 10 and 11.
It happened to me more than four times in the past 3yrs+. Every time I ended up reinstalling Windows. When you do the reinstall, remember to wipe the partition table of the disk. Windows is too stupid to figure out its own partitions created by the former self. So it’ll create duplicate partitions (quite a lot in the end and a mess to clean up afterwards). If you delete the partition table before reinstall, things will be pristine clean just like you bought a new disk.
Btw, before you actually try to do the reinstall, wait for some time here if others will provide you with a “smart fix”. I’ve never spent time to figure out what went wrong, what were corrupted. People in this business might know it, and so that you can avoid the reinstall.
Always reformat before a fresh install. If you’re doing a fresh install on a used drive it’s prudent to scan the drive for errors first — especially if you plan on installing Windows on a mechanical hard drive . Make sure you have the correct file allocation set depending on your system and the OS. Win 7 will also install in GPT, which is preferable if you’re using newer hardware. The correct format would be NTFS. Let Windows write it’s on partitions on the drive but before installing you should not have extra partitions on the dive. The “mark as new” option will generally solve this and will give you the option of formatting via the OS you are installing.
Unless you have extended service with Microsoft for Windows 7 I would highly recommend turning off Windows Upate after you complete updating your system after the installation. Windows 7 is no longer supported. Use third party software for a VS instead and make sure all the correct drivers are installed before turning off Windows Updates.
You can’t run a clone and your original drive at the same time on the same system without eventually running into a conflict, but you can copy your personal files onto a USB stick or other drive (if you wish) and transfer them onto your new installation. If you want help doing this just ask and I’ll tell you how.
