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My Windows PC has got itself into a state where it won't boot. I have a recovery drive but when I try to recover from it, it gets to 75% then says "There was a problem resetting your PC. No changes were made"

I don't know the Windows installation key because I bought it second hand a while ago (since there are 2 recovery partitions on the hard disk, plus I have a recovery disk, I wasn't expecting to need it).

Any clues as to where I can go next?

Here's a bit of background: I made the recovery disk because I was going to repartition to dual-boot with Ubuntu. I disabled bitlocker and unencrypted the disk, and made sure secure boot was disabled. The ubuntu installation worked fine and I could dual boot both OSs with no problem.

The problem only came when I tried to re-enable bitlocker. First I tried it with the TPM but got the message "Bitlocker could not be enabled. The data drive is not set to automatically unlock..." so I disabled TPM and enabled bitlocker with a password instead. It rebooted to start the encryption, prompted me for the password but then just hung. I tried bitlocker recovery but it says the recovery password is incorrect (even though it's not).

So as a last-ditch attempt, I tried to recover from my USB recovery disk I only made this morning. it gets to 75% then says "There was a problem resetting your PC". Now if I try to boot from the hard disk it just says there is no bootable drive.

Update: the conclusion

Thanks to the two people who pointed out that you can get the media free from Microsoft and reinstall Windows 10 without it asking for an activation key. Since there was no data I needed (I have backups of course!), this solution worked fine for me, but the recovery disk had already trashed the partition table so I lost the Linux installation.

Because I'm a software developer and therefore also a masochist, I then tried exactly the same sequence again, and the results were identical - the PC (Dell XPS 13 9350) became unbootable and unrecoverable after trying to enable bitlocker with the TPM disabled. However, reinstalling Windows (unlike the recovery disk) does give you the option of preserving your existing partitions, so I didn't lose my Linux installation the second time.

I have also been led to believe (by BitLocker asking for protection code after Ubuntu installation) that the error I got when trying to use the TPM was unavoidable.

Andy
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  • I had to solve an issue akin to yours recently, and here's what I did. I inserted the install medium (USB flash drive in my case) in the USB port, booted on it, tried (several times, unsuccessfully) to repair my broken MBR (works with GPT too), and ended up reinstalling Win 10 after resizing the system partition with Diskpart. Once the new install was almost over and the PC was restarting, I shut it down, waited a beat, fired it up again, and this time, I managed to boot on my existing Windows copy from boot menu, and set it as default in System settings. It's not elegant, but it did the job. –  May 02 '20 at 11:31
  • For partition backups, it's better to use `DISM /Capture-Image` _(see [Imaging](https://superuser.com/a/1525660/529800) section)_ to create a WIM backup than to use the Windows GUI to create a recovery image, as doing so avoids issues like the one you're experiencing. – JW0914 May 02 '20 at 12:00

3 Answers3

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It was running Windows 10 so even if you must reinstall Windows 10, it will activate.

However before this, it appears you need to test your hard drive with the Manufacturer's or Disk manufacturer's bootable test app. See if the hard drive is OK.

If so, get the Windows 10 ISO for your Windows 10 (Pro, Home or whatever), recover what data you can (use a bootable USB Key) and then re-install Windows.

John
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My Windows PC has got itself into a state where it won't boot. I have a recovery drive but when I try to recover from it, it gets to 75% then says "There was a problem resetting your PC. No changes were made"

The image used to perform this action is built-into Windows 10. If this image is corrupt or if the process encounters an error, the process is interrupted. Since you are unable to boot into Windows that is an indication your storage device is in a failure state. The process to Reset your machine creates a log file, even within the recovery environment, this log file might indicate what error the Reset process encountered.

I don't know the Windows installation key because I bought it second hand a while ago (since there are 2 recovery partitions on the hard disk, plus I have a recovery disk, I wasn't expecting to need it).

Windows 10 activation process is automatic. Since you are unable to Reset the installation. Reinstalling Windows from a Windows 10 ISO seems like your only option at this point.

Where can I get a clean ISO of a specific build of Windows 10?

So as a last-ditch attempt, I tried to recover from my USB recovery disk I only made this morning. it gets to 75% then says "There was a problem resetting your PC". Now if I try to boot from the hard disk it just says there is no bootable drive.

The incomplete BitLocker process is likely to blame for your inability to perform the Reset. This incomplete status also will likely prevent you from mounting the system volume in another operation system, so you can recovery important files before you reinstall Windows.

Your inability to enable BitLocker and stored the key within the TPM likely had something to do with the fact Secure Boot was disabled at the time.

Ramhound
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  • if I want to reset from an ISO, would you suggest I remove all the partitions currently on the disk so it has a clean run? I can see at the moment my ubuntu partitions have gone so obviously windows recovery has done something – Andy Apr 20 '20 at 18:31
  • @Andy - While it's possible to perform a Reset from within the WinPE from an installation disk, the image used, must match be for the exact same version that is installed on the system. If you were to remove the partitions on the disk you would make it impossible to Reset your installation. I strongly suspect the reason you are unable to Reset your installation, is due to the incomplete BitLocker status of your drive, which would prevent you from performing a Reset using any method. Which is the reason you will have to simply reinstall Windows. – Ramhound Apr 20 '20 at 19:05
  • sorry I meant to say "if I want to reinstall from an ISO should I remove all the partitions first" – Andy Apr 20 '20 at 21:08
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You can recover your computer, but you will lose all data.

When asked for a bitlocker password press Esc and then select

use another disk.

Then go to advanced options and select the command prompt. Type in 

format C:

and your disk will be formatted. Then create a recovery USB memory from

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10.

Run this as an administrator. Put the USB into the blocked computer. Right click and select "use another disk" and you will be able to select the memory stick as a boot. You could also restart pressing F2 and select the USB as the start up boot

zx485
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Robert MacLachlan
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