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My computer, using Windows 10 on an old Dell, got a lot slower so I thought I had a virus. I also trusted someone when they told me that "anything you don't put in the C drive shouldn't be there" so I deleted a few small obsolete looking files from the drive and tried rebooting into safe mode to do a virus scan. I got a pop-up when it was turning off, and it looked pretty serious. I didn't get to read it at all because it came up right before the Dell turned off. So it booted onto the Dell logo screen and it got halfway done loading when I pressed F12 for the boot menu.

That didn't work.

It turned back on and now it's stuck half way loaded on the boot screen and pressing F12 or F2 doesn't register.

So that was a problem.

I thought it was either the possible existing virus or the deleting of the files, so I switched out the hard drive with another one.

No change there.

I disconnected the hard drive, CD drive, and USB plug-ins, then I took out the CMOS battery, and tried booting it on.

Still the same result.

So now I'm at the end of the line here and I have no idea what the heck is up with this computer, anyone have any ideas?

CoffeeWithCream
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  • So what files did you delete? You will have to locate that notification you recieved, and share it with us, because we certainly don't know what it was. – Ramhound Nov 28 '16 at 17:20
  • You probably have realized this by now, but the advice you trusted was bad. It's based in truth: YOU shouldn't put anything directly into base of the C drive. But Windows puts a few things in the base ("root") of the C drive and some of them are rather important. At this point you should put the Windows 10 CD into your CD drive (if you have it) and run a repair install. – music2myear Nov 28 '16 at 17:39
  • While this doesn't have an actual answer, the comments have good suggestions to get you started: http://superuser.com/questions/1138390/how-to-do-a-windows-10-repair-installation – music2myear Nov 28 '16 at 17:40
  • As a note to the Closer-voters: This question is not too broad: Files were deleted from someplace they shouldn't have been deleted from, and now the OS won't load. It may be duplicate, but it's not too broad. – music2myear Nov 28 '16 at 17:41
  • Well I don't think it was even that, it might have been a part in it, but as I said I used a live CD and another hard drive with a broken version on it. The broken version would have had an error, but an error would be better than not loading. It still didn't load. With nothing plugged in it would have said "No bootable medium" but with nothing plugged in it still wouldn't load. I will try to get the original hard drive into another computer to recover the files from the recycle bin and restore them but that doesn't seem like the whole problem. – CoffeeWithCream Nov 28 '16 at 22:22

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You are going to have to start the computer with a genuine Windows Install disk or you could use a Repair Disk if you have one...

Create a system repair disk From a working computer

  • Open the Start Menu (or Run), then type recdisc.exe in the search box and press Enter
  • A box opens with your DVD/CD drive selected.
  • Insert a blank DVD/CD and follow the prompts

Boot System to Repair DVD (or install DVD) - Boot to BIOS. Pressing F2 at boot ( I believe that gets you to BIOS on a Dell. Sometimes its "Del" or "F11")

  • Once in BIOS set the Boot Order to your CD/DVD Drive first
  • Press F10 to save changes
  • Insert your DVD Repair Disk and restart

Boot Your System - If you booted from an Installation Disk, you will need to choose "Repair your computer" from the startup when it gives you a choice of Installation or other tasks - If you booted form a Repair Disk, then you can choose "Command Prompt"

Repair Options (click to view picture)

  • At the Command Prompt type (no quotes) " DISKPART " and press

Diskpart (click to view picture)

  • Then Type in (no quotes) "list volume"
  • Look for the largest Volume, this is usually your Main that the operating system is on.
  • Write down the Drive Letter.
  • From DISKPART, type "Exit"

REPAIR - Now you should be back to the command prompt

  • Type this line
    sfc /scannow /offbootdir=f:\ /offwindir=f:\windows

  • Substitute the drive letter of your main drive (that you wrote down) for the "f:" drive here

Now, the SFC is a "System File Checker" It should have found any problems and repaired them. When it is finished, remove the disk from the CD/DVD and reboot your system. If it doesn't reboot, then you may have done more damage than can be fixed with SFC. In that case, insert your Windows 8 or 10 installation disk and reinstall. When you reinstall, you can choose to install it in the same directory as the original. This will overwrite your install and replace the files that are missing without deleting any of your personal files. Anyway, good luck. Let me know how it goes, Dad

Tommy Logic
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