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Question
Tuesday, January 16, 2018 6:49 PM
After the most recent update (January 13 on my PC) I have experienced strange things. After a while the USB memory sticks are not recognized when inserted. On restart I get the blue screen "inaccessible boot device". After system restore things work OK for a while but the situation reappears eventually.
Searching the internet I discovered that I am far from the only user having this issue, i.e. inaccessible boot device after the recent windows update. I tried the manual patch detailed at
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-fix-update-causing-inaccessible-boot-device-error-windows-10
However, I could not get the syntax to be accepted as written there.
I am running Windows 10 pro with the fall creators update. This feature upgrade was installed a couple of months ago and has run without issue until a few days ago.
Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
All replies (34)
Wednesday, January 17, 2018 5:10 AM
Hi,
Seems that you can't boot your computer right now, can you boot into Safe Mode?
The INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE bug check frequently occurs because of a boot device failure. During I/O system initialization, the boot device driver might have failed to initialize the boot device (typically a hard disk).
If you are unable to boot Windows，here are some steps:
1.Revert any recent hardware changes
2.Update BIOS and Firmware
If you can boot Windows, boot to Safe Mode and then boot normally.
Then you can check these things:
1.Use the scan disk utility to confirm that there are no file system errors
2.Run a virus detection program.
3.Look in Device Manager to see if any devices are marked with the exclamation point (!).
4.Use the System File Checker tool to repair missing or corrupted system files.
If the above steps can't help you, it is suggested that you can perform an in-place upgrade to fix the problem, which will not damage files and applications that are currently installed on your computer.
In addition, the OS may not be accessible and the error logs may be empty as the OS has not booted far enough to start those sub-systems. You can go to %systemroot%\memory.dmp to see if there is any dump file generated. Please help us collect the dump file, event logs, upload them to a network drive and share the link here.
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help.
If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact [email protected].
Wednesday, January 17, 2018 9:09 PM | 1 vote
It's sad to see that Microsoft staff is unaware of this problem, which Microsoft obviously caused, and cannot provide a proper solution intstead of blind trouble-shooting.
As OP has said: this problem has appeared after instaling one of the January Win 10 updates, and is an issue to a significant number of users, including me. And it seems like on any forum no one can provide a clean fix that wouldn't require a total reset of the system with no warranty of getting rid of the problem for good (a few reports say the INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE returns even after a clean install of the system; and yes, you guessed: it shows up again after an update installation).
It would be much appreciated if you could have an answer to this call other than a dancing paperclip.
Kind regards.
Thursday, January 18, 2018 5:26 PM
I have excatly the same problem. No USB is working anymore. After a clean install I get the same issue with the boot device. I can’t finf any solution in the internet.
Thursday, January 18, 2018 5:54 PM
I have the same problem as well. Just restored and am avoiding a reboot and USB devices until a solution can be found. Has anybody tried the "Go back to the previous version" option from the Advanced Options menu?
Thursday, January 18, 2018 8:02 PM
same problem here but windows wont start even safe mode... system restore from 17-01-2018 restore point dont resolve... gggrrrr microsoft updates!!!!!
EDIT:Restored to an older restore point and solved... but i afraid with next updates... i think in windows 10 we cannot disable windows updates, right?
affected updates:
1 for office
1 for intel wireless lan
Friday, January 19, 2018 1:58 AM
Hi,
It is a known issue and Microsoft is working with hardware manufacture to deal with the issue. You can follow the suggestions to make your hardware up to date:
You can prevent the update using this tool:
In addition, it is suggested to manually install these updates:
1703:https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4057144/windows-10-update-kb4057144
1607:https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4057142/windows-10-update-kb4057142
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help.
If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact [email protected].
Friday, January 19, 2018 11:15 AM | 2 votes
Hi McDonnell,
follow this link https://www.drivereasy.com/knowledge/usb-drives-not-showing-up-in-windows-10-solved/
Momominta
and get a whole bunch of malware... hooray.
Friday, January 19, 2018 9:42 PM
I had the same issue with an i5-4750 ASRock B85M (with TPM module) machine. Since I didn't have a system backup I had to reinstall Win 10 Pro to fix the error. I reinstalled it onto a factory new SSD since the message "inaccessible boot device" made me suspect a hardware error. Luckily I made backups during the reinstallation process because the error reoccured (on the brand new disk). I reset the machine today, using my trusty backup. I didn't encrypt the drive with Bitlocker this time though.
Did you all have Bitlocker enabled? Maybe that's the culprit with some machines? Do you use Norton Internet Security?
PS: System repair didn't work in any of the cases. And btw maybe this is an interesting thread to follow: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-performance/inaccessible-boot-device-error-cause-fix/8950ec0c-8502-4af4-aca6-be0e41fe463b
Saturday, January 20, 2018 1:49 PM
I've had the same problem. Today i have seen, that there were many things went wrong with the MS Office 2013 Pro updates from 13/01/2018. I' ve just repair the Office paket by using the desinstallation routine and it seems it works now. The USB-Sticks will now be recognized when inserted and there are no more blue screen on restart. Perhaps this is a solution for you, too!?
Many greetings from germany
Sunday, January 21, 2018 3:37 AM
Not at all helpful when Windoze makes it so we can't stop an update, and then we can't undo the update because it didn't allow us the opportunity to set a restore point before it tried to do the "update". I'm reminded of the days when IBM's OS/2 was looking WAY stronger the Win, and hoping someone else can step up to the OS plate and offer us an option to the meglomaniac -- trying to take over the world -- MS.
Sunday, January 21, 2018 3:44 AM
My hardware and drivers are up to date. MS did this to us ... and there's lots of us this time. I'm ready for another OS!!! IBM, you has OS/2 that was way ahead of Windoze once upon a time. Is there anyone how is willing to offer MS some competition, at least enough to drive them to make a better product. Any viable option is likely to find willing backers these days since MS "updates" are breaking more than they're fixing of late and that makes their system unusable. I'm glad to be already migrating to Linux!!
Sunday, January 21, 2018 7:41 PM
Hey,
I just see the same problem at a customer.
Try using a backup of your registry at /windows/system32/config/regback,
seeing here in german:
Tuesday, January 23, 2018 6:52 PM
I also use Norton Internet Security. Sometimes Norton puts files into quarantene. I just saw installing some Samplemodelling instruments. May be that some boot relevant files were deleted/put in quarantene so that windows can not boot any more, but it is not proven. No restore of configfiles helped. Ionly once got into save bootmode (4). But never again. So I restored an old backup with my TrueImage2018 and the restore worked. Windows own revert to a pre snapshot did not work. Sadly I installed many programs between last backup and the inaccessible boot device. I hope reinstallation from the latest backup does produce the same activation of my software as it is the same rootinstallation of windows. I installed a copy of office365 and hope, that it is no problem to reinstall it and activate it again.
I use a laptop Razer Blade Pro 2017 with 2x512 GB NVERam as Raid0. Windows 10 64bit Home
Wednesday, January 24, 2018 4:51 AM
After getting this issue three times in the span of two days, each time requiring me to recover from either Acronis True Image or System Restore, I finally resolved the problem by replacing Norton Security with Eset Antivirus. It's been 6 days now with no more issues. Looks like Norton Security is NOT fully compatible with the Meltdown patch despite what Symantec claims.
Wednesday, January 24, 2018 4:28 PM
It would be nice to know how to deinstall norton on a pc, that does not boot with windows. And how to recover possibly deleted files. So I can stay on an actual installation.
Friday, January 26, 2018 4:43 AM
It would be nice to know how to deinstall norton on a pc, that does not boot with windows. And how to recover possibly deleted files. So I can stay on an actual installation.
No idea if it's possible, you will probably need to first restore your system to working order using either System Restore or restoring a backup, after which you can uninstall Norton before reinstalling the January 2018 security updates from Microsoft.
Friday, January 26, 2018 3:00 PM
I am having the same problem, tried all kinds of fixes from manually removing updates to swapping the drives. Nothing worked, have to restore the system after MS forces the updates on the system. What a terrible user experience, I will be getting another PC with Ubuntu or Mac as an alternative, this sucks and its unacceptable.
Friday, January 26, 2018 7:38 PM
I am having the same problem, tried all kinds of fixes from manually removing updates to swapping the drives. Nothing worked, have to restore the system after MS forces the updates on the system. What a terrible user experience, I will be getting another PC with Ubuntu or Mac as an alternative, this sucks and its unacceptable.
Different OS, same problems. Ubuntu had to recently pull the 17.10 release for a while because it corrupted the firmware of some Lenovo products.
Sunday, January 28, 2018 3:41 PM
I tried the norton nbrt.iso to boot, but it does not support my processor with it's integrated RedHat Linux. It does not support i7 7820HK. So I can not verify if there is something in quarantene, if I cannot boot.
I opened an incident in the norton forum.
Monday, January 29, 2018 7:03 PM
Registry restore doesn't do the trick. Microsoft has replaced about 40 files in the drivers folder.
Here's what I have found.
You can get at least one single normal boot by following the following procedure:
Boot from a USB or DVD recovery disk from the same version of windows 10
select repair my PC
in troubleshooting select command prompt.
once in command prompt: (where X is the drive letter where windows is installed. (check because it might be d: or e: even though after windows boots, it will become c:)
dism.exe /image:X:\ /cleanup-image /revertpendingactions
(this step is necessary because if you do not and are getting the error Inaccessible boot device, once you get it to boot, the remainder of the patch that caused the problem will replace 40 or so drivers in the \windows\system32\drivers folder. And you will not be able to boot again.)
now execute the following command (replacing X with the drive where windows is installed)
dism /image:X:\ /get-packages
make note of the most recent updated package.
using DISM remove the most update.
type the following: (replacing X with the drive where windows is installed)
md X:\temp
md X:\temp\packages
Don't worry if the directory exists.
dism /image:X:\ /remove-package /packagename:PACKAGE TO REMOVE scratchdir:X:\temp\packages
[example: dism /image:e:\ /remove-package /packagename:package_for_kb4056887~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~10.0.1.0 /scratchdir:e:\temp\packages
]
reboot
(you may have to do another startup repair, but the system should boot)
If not you may have to remove more packages.
Once booted, remember you may not be able to boot again.
(at least I wasn't. Trying the procedure again did not produce a bootable machine).
Note: System reset works, but you lose all your programs and configurations)
My next step is to try doing a repair install from withing windows.
More to come...
Monday, January 29, 2018 9:19 PM
Yes. It works sometimes and other times it does not. I feel like the line from Anchor Man really applies here.
"60% of the time it works every time"
Monday, January 29, 2018 10:01 PM
I have installed patches from Intel and from the manufacturer of our PC's and it seems to have solved the problem.
Monday, January 29, 2018 10:24 PM
If someone wants help with inaccessible boot device please start a new thread and post a link in this thread.
Indicate which troubleshooting steps were made and the results.
Indicate the status of the files on the drive:
a) backed up on another drive or in the cloud
b) backup image onto another drive or into the cloud
c) able to clean install
d) no backup image
Open the website for the computer or motherboard manufacturer > enter product or serial number or model > select operating system > view drivers and bios downloads > post URL or hyperlink into the new thread
Tuesday, January 30, 2018 5:43 AM
OK, here is the bottom line. **It works virtually every time, but unless you initiate a repair install while you are booted, you will not necessarily get a second chance. **
I was able to completely recover the build of windows. I had no restore points and using the regback registry had no effect. The system would always bluescreen with inaccessible boot device.
To make the system boot normally, you will need an 8GB Flash Drive. It's possible to do without it, but it's better to have it.
First thing before anything else, (if you can) take the hard drive with your unbootable Windows and attach it to another machine and make an Image backup of either the drive or the windows partition. I used Acronis.
This way if you make your system completely unbootable, you can reimage the drive and try a different approach.
Using the DISM routine directly above this answer, remove the latest update packages (anything dated 2018).
At that point, the system should boot, but you are not out of the woods yet. It is possible that it may not boot again and you won't get a second chance (unless you imaged the drive) to try again. The update that made the system unbootable is only half installed. Once the system boots the first time, the remaining half of the updates that caused the problem will be installed and the system will probably not boot again.
Even though I made a restore point, The system would blue screen and Re-DISM wouldn't make it boot.
I have seen some who say that Norton was the cause, and I have seen Norton cause this on some machines, but Norton is not the problem. When I got the system to boot that first time, I uninstalled Norton. Same problem (Blue screen).
Re-Imaging the drive from the backup image, I tried a number of approaches to make it boot properly all the time.
The only way that worked, was to initiate a repair install (upgrade) during the first successful boot session.
You would need to make a Flash drive or download an ISO image and either burn it to DVD or just mount it. Windows 10 (1709) x64 requires a Dual Layer DVD and you probably don't have any so make the flash drive. You will need an 8GB or more Flash drive.
Google "download windows 10 iso" and follow the link to the Microsoft site with the media creation tool.
You can use this tool to repair, but if anything happens during the process you will not be able to recover.
Spend a few bucks for the 8GB Flash drive.
Once windows boots for the first time, make sure you check your system restore settings. On both machines that had this symptom, system restore was turned off. This may be by design of the update that addresses Meltown and Spectre, but I can't be sure.
While you are booted, insert the Flash drive or DVD that you made and run the setup.
Do not get the latest updates (I plan to get them after the next boot and AFTER I made restore points. It's possible that the latest updates are the ones that caused the problem).
The upgrade (repair) install will preserve all your programs and files. I may take between 1.5 and 2.5 hours to complete. During the install, it replaces the files that cause the blue screen and also clears all the pending updates.
After you complete the update, make sure you make at least two restore points. When Microsoft finally re-releases the patch that caused this, you can breath a sigh of relief.
There may be another way to resolve this by identifying the exact cause of the blue screen and taking other steps, but for now this always works.
Sunday, February 4, 2018 9:19 PM
when I attempt to remove the last or prior to last package using DISM and shown, I keep getting
Error: 0x8000ffff
DISM failed. No operation performed.
It worked once a few days back and after if finished it gave a error (which I didn't write down) but I was able to bott into Windows 10, create a restore pint, install Acronis, make an image backup. Thought I was out of the woods.
Upon reboot, back to INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE and no error 0x8000ffff when attempting same DISM operation.
Any ideas?
Friday, February 9, 2018 11:16 PM
I know this is not like an amazing fix. But if anyone is having the issue they can select the Reset this pc keep all my files but remove the programs. This has fixed the issues on all pcs <g class="gr_ gr_353 gr-alert gr_tiny gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling multiReplace" data-gr-id="353" id="353">i</g> have come across, <g class="gr_ gr_354 gr-alert gr_tiny gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling multiReplace" data-gr-id="354" id="354">i</g> just caught wind of a fix for doing some Dism repairs and disk repairs but <g class="gr_ gr_355 gr-alert gr_tiny gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling multiReplace" data-gr-id="355" id="355">i</g> have not <g class="gr_ gr_351 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar multiReplace" data-gr-id="351" id="351">test</g> them yet.
I have reset about 13 computers so far, it bugs me that is my fix right now but it honestly takes me about 1 hour to reinstall the programs so it is not a crazy lost. compared to the hours <g class="gr_ gr_533 gr-alert gr_tiny gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling multiReplace" data-gr-id="533" id="533">i</g> have spent troubleshooting the issue.
Also when you do the reset and keep files it gives you a list of all programs it removes, just be sure that have any licensed products written down before you do this purge.
Friday, February 9, 2018 11:19 PM
really because I did not uppercase my < I > that is an error. Adjust fix your chat Microsoft
I know this is not like an amazing fix. But if anyone is having the issue they can select the Reset this pc keep all my files but remove the programs. This has fixed the issues on all pcs I have come across, I just caught wind of a fix for doing some Dism repairs and disk repairs but I have not tested this option yet.
I have reset about 13 computers so far, it bugs me that is my fix right now but it honestly takes me about 1 hour to reinstall the programs so it is not a crazy lost. compared to the hours I have spent troubleshooting the issue.
Also when you do the reset and keep files it gives you a list of all programs it removes, just be sure that have any licensed products written down before you do this purge.
Gosh happy capital I... i
Monday, February 12, 2018 11:08 AM
Hi,
Have you tried to install the latest updates in Feb?
Seems that many users with the same problems get the issue resolved.
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help.
If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact [email protected].
Wednesday, February 14, 2018 2:08 PM
I have exactly the same problem, everytime windows updates it fails on booting and I have to restore a backup. Fed up this continually happening. Will try your fix
Wednesday, February 14, 2018 2:09 PM
I have exactly the same problem, Sick of restoring every few days
Wednesday, February 14, 2018 8:14 PM
Please see my 3 post fix about page 30 on the following site.
If you cannot boot because of Inaccessible boot device after January (or February) updates, or are needing to use system restore every time to get into windows, the article will get you going.
Note to users who's system restore makes them bootable again:
Forget about the DISM commands and just do an in-place upgrade (repair) install.
DO not get the latest updates (there will be time to do that later)
Wiz
Friday, February 16, 2018 12:35 PM
Hi all,
At this point, I would like to summarize my experience with what I had requested up on top.
#1 Microsoft Windows 10 is not capable of restoring the system from a Windows system image! I have tested this on several PCs and it does not work!
#2 if you do not have a solution like Acronis or else you will not be able to restore your system!
Thanks for the hints above, but let me say the following:
#1 it is not Norton antivirus
#2 it is not a hardware defect
#3 it is not a driver defect, any driver updates will not solve the problem
#4 a BIOS update is also no solution, because this error also occurs on older systems where you will definitely not get a BIOS update,
May be this error only occurs on older systems? ;-)
#5 stopping updates is also no solution, because when the problem occurs, at next restart you will get the inaccessible boot device (IBD) error even if updates are deactivated
#6 restoring the registry is also no solution for the problem, because at next update same problem as mentioned above
#7 I would also expect that it is not the pending updates issue that will permanently solve this problem. At least on my system this was not the case
#8 using Microsoft restore points will also not help, because in my case using the last restore point did not help, so I always had to use a previous restore point every time I tried to restore the system. In the end there will be no restore points that work so just forget restoring Microsoft Windows 10 from a Microsoft backup!
The major defect concerning this issue as I see it is Microsoft Windows 10 January Update!!!
Any Microsoft troubleshooting hints will not work. They have to fix the problem.
The only way to get the system running again is to restore it with a software like Acronis.
Then if you have your system up and running take a Windows 10 installation media and start an update from there. On my system the update restored the complete Windows 10 system to a point where it would work absolutely normal. The system was updated to version 1709 system build 16299.125!
So from my point of view all systems with the error inaccessible boot device, should not update to a system build greater than mentioned above until our friends in Redmond finally solve this issue.
If someone with the IBD error has successfully updated to a newer system build I might try, but definitely not within the next 3 months!
Monday, February 19, 2018 11:40 PM
I have been fighting this for about 6 weeks and I think I have tried every recovery method identified across innumerable threads. I know there are risks in not accepting updates and Windows 10 Home provides no easy way to stop automatic updates, but this is what has allowed me to at least get up and running on my old laptop. This happened only after many, many tediously typed in DISM commands and related recoveries that did not hold because I did not stop the auto updating process and windows 10 home just kept relentlessly reinstalling the update(s) that resulted in inaccessible boot device blue screens. I will either wait for an update from Microsoft that works or I will run my now not updating laptop side by side with a new laptop I may purchase so a move to a new PC can be accomplished. I am using an older Dell laptop.
First disconnect from the internet. If you then use DISM to keep removing updates as described in several threads starting with most recent and going backwards in descending date order, shutting down and rebooting after every update package removal and just keep going back, there is a reasonable chance you will get to a startup state that no longer results in the inaccessible boot device blue screen. Once there, not connecting to the internet is critical until you pick a WIFI connection you can stay on exclusively and tell Windows it is a metered connection before you use it AT ALL. This allows you to somewhat control the auto updating. All other functions depending on an internet connection work fine, but no Windows 10 updates occur. Windows keeps telling me to fix this, but I do not and so far I am operating fine in all other ways. I have turned the laptop off and on many times and it is booting fine for several days. Remember no Ethernet hard wire (cannot specify metered connection on an Ethernet hard wire) and no other WIFI networks unless they are first set at metered. If you connect to any connection that is not specified as metered before first connecting, windows update will start and you are likely doomed to be updated by Windows and forced to recover once again. When I first booted normally, I created a manual restore point so I had a "safe" starting point to return to just in case.
Wednesday, March 7, 2018 5:44 PM
Hello,
This should be addressed in this update that went out Tuesday
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4090913/march5-2018kb4090913osbuild16299-251
Thanks, Darrell Gorter [MSFT] This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.