What is Reddit's opinion of
Hiren’s BootCD PE?
From 3.5 billion Reddit comments
100 reviews of this app found across Reddit:
I once did the same thing but over a buddies drive. Luckily there was only 3 important folders that he needed recovered.
I loaded a boot-able Hirens, that had recovery software included, onto a flash. There were a few apps that I could use but the very first one I used called "Aomei Back Upper".. This software took 3 days to scan the entire 2TB which in turn recovered over 4TB of data that had been on the disk prior. I searched for his folders, restored them to an external and wala.
Aomei or one of the other apps also had a "recover lost partition" option as well.
A Hirens boot CD is a must have for any techie. https://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/
This won’t work if bitlocker is enabled. If it’s not encrypted burn yourself a copy of Hiren’s boot CD / USB and boot the machine with that. It will allow you to browse the disk without taking the PC to pieces https://www.hirensbootcd.org/
If you used Lenovo's software to turn on the setting, IMO you'll need it again to turn it off. In other words, yes you will need a functioning Windows environment running on the laptop. However, it doesn't have to be a dangerous process, because there are ways of getting into Windows without touching your boot drive. Personally, I would recommend [Hiren's BootCD PE](https://www.hirensbootcd.org/). It's a bootable Windows installation that I know at the very least has internet support (among other useful things), so you should be able to download the Lenovo tool and use it form there.
Any bootable CD will do the job. Hirens, UltimateBootCD, Win-PESE (my personal fave), etc.
In reality though, the best and easiest solution to absolutely ensure that it's removed is just to backup all the important shit and nuke the rest and get a new install of Windows. But in most cases (and looks to be this one), the majority of malware are the low hanging fruit type that will show up at 90% detected on virus total.
Use a Windows Preinstallation Environment like Hiren's BootCD. It's a live version of windows that works without a license. Very useful if you need to use a hardware tool that only runs on Windows.
Likely corrupted the partition tables. You can recover use of the drive by booting to a recovery tool like Hirens, wipe it and re-partition it.
If you want the data, that is a whole other issue. Some of the recovery tools on Hirens will help. But beware- if you try and fail you can very well destroy that data forever(if it was even recoverable at all). If valuable, take it to a professional data recovery outfit.
I'll stop you right there and ask if you wouldn't be better served with a device such as: https://www.zalman.com/na/contents/products/view.html?no=20
It allows you to place ISO files onto an external HDD/SSD which presents to the computer as a USB Blu-ray drive and USB Hard drive at the same time. With a switch you can change the drive to read only.
Store ISO files in the _ISO folder and you can choose which you would like to mount. You can then mount the rest of the hard drive as an external USB drive.
It's not exactly what you're looking for, but it's a mainstay of my tech bag. Need to boot something new? Just download the ISO and place it there, no need to burn it.
Beyond that, you might be looking for Hiren's Boot Disk. https://www.hirensbootcd.org/hbcd-v152/
If that doesn't work, then try booting into safemode and removing it in safe mode.
If that doesn't work (and you're willing to get a bit technical) you can try installing Hiren's Boot CD on a USB stick you don't mind losing all the data on (instructions), then booting up onto that USB stick and running a malwarebytes scan on there.
You’ve probably messed up / corrupted something critical on your hard drive or bios.
First thing I’d do in a situation like this is smashing F2, F11 or DEL on boot to see if I can get to any screen.
Next I’d try booting without a HDD plugged in to see if I got the no boot drive error.
Afterwards I’d make a USB recovery disk - https://www.hirensbootcd.org - and try booting it to fix my windows installs.
You need to move that healthy partition.
You can use something like this https://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-partition-assistant.html
I have also used the hirens https://www.hirensbootcd.org/ This has AOMEI installed on it. Download iso set it up on a usb (there's instructions) boot to environment Move partition expand partition reboot done....
Hello! If you cannot see any drives in the bios, it is possible the drive is either not connected properly, or it may be dead. We can verify this by going on another computer, and getting a USB. I would recommend downloading Hiren's (https://www.hirensbootcd.org/files/HBCD_PE_x64.iso) and then also downloading rufus(http://rufus.ie/).
Once you have a USB that is empty(EVERYTHING ON THE USB WILL BE DELETED) launch rufus, and make the Hiren's ISO bootable on the USB(if you need more specific instructions feel free to ask).
Once the USB is bootable, plug it in that laptop, go into bios and see if the bios sequence is now available.
You can create partitions first from… well, basically anything, like a live Windows XP (https://www.hirensbootcd.org/hbcd-v152/), they don't need to use fdisk to do it. The problem is that Windows NT doesn't let you normally do a FAT32 partition larger than 32GB and I don't really remember if any of the 3rd party partitioning tools included on a linked CD supports that.
It’s not Linux-based, but Hiren’s BootCD PE will probably do what you want. It’s a bootable Windows 10 PE environment with lots of diagnostic tools built in. It’s free.
I’d bring a MemTest86 disc to check the RAM with. Fast & free.
Reformat the disk and install zone62's XP Integral Edition so you won't have to deal with wasting hours of getting updates installed.
If you do want to snoop around the current state of the OS before reformatting it, use Hiren's BootCD. Burn it, boot into Mini Windows XP, there should be a toolbox (launcher) in the notification bar, find a password edit tool, figure the rest. :)
Interesting timing, a new version of Hiren’s was just released in the last week or so (first update in 6+ years). It’s been taken over by the Hiren’s community and has been entirely redesigned to run directly from Win10 PE. I just tested this on Windows 10 machines and enabled the admin account, reset passwords, etc. without any problems whatsoever.
Es muy probable que la partición esté dañada y por eso te la marca como RAW.
¿Se golpeó la notebook?
Podés tratar de arrancar con un USB de Hiren's BootCD PE y revisar el estado del disco.
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Download Hirens boot CD and use e.g. Rufus to create a bootable usb drive. When that's done plug it into the Dell pc and boot from the usb drive. From there you can hopefully get through the password. Step-by-step guide on how to reset windows password; https://www.hirensbootcd.org/faq-items/resetting-windows-password/
Jesus christ, pay for password reset? Now i've seen it all. Download hirens boot cd 15.2 (not Hirens PE, it needs to be 15.2 for this) and make a bootable usb from it (use rufus).LINK: https://www.hirensbootcd.org/hbcd-v152/ When you boot it up i'll give you a menu and you can select kon-boot for passwordless boot. There is also a password changer on the menu which is a bit trickier to use if you're not good with a non-gui interface.
Yeah, it's a known problem with X250's Windows 8.1 recovery. You need to first format SSD using a separate application e.g. bundled with Hiren's BootCD PE. After it, it should deploy without an issue.
Get a bootable CD/USB such as Hirens or create a bootable Linux CD/USB.
Once you have that boot the problem PC with it. You may need to change the boot options in the BIOS to get it to see the bootable disk.
Once it's running use the file manager to find your files. They will most likely be in /users/your_userid/ of the problem drive. Copy them off to an external drive or a USB.
Once they are safe then you can reinstall Windows without a worry.
From the Windows Setup you can also go into Troubleshooting/Advanced Options and try to resolve the problem. I'd still backup your files first.
Depending on your country's laws it may be illegal to access a computer system without authorization. However, with that said this should work just fine, and apparently they dont used bootlegged software "anymore".
Download Hiren's boot CD, make a bootable USB with Rufus and boot from USB. Follow the howto from the hiren website.
I would disagree about a bad RAM stick. It's rather about the OS not being able to process what is requested, but not the physical RAM. I would recommend using bootable testing tools. Memtest86 for checking RAM (although I am sure that RAM is not an issue, but the HDD is), something like bootable HDD testing tools. Most of them are bundled into packages like https://www.hirensbootcd.org/ - it is a powerful and free tool for testing and recovering. Give it a shot.
Use an bootable media PE or linux (https://www.hirensbootcd.org/) to access the files on the SSD. Then copy them to another drive.
Dont ever run chkdsk on a failing drive! dont even try to boot it!
On another PC get Hiren's, make a USB boot disk, then boot from that. That should keep the virus from loading. Hiren's has several AV programs you can run to try to remove it. You should also be able to see the folder it's in.
Honestly though, with something like this I'd nuke the drive and reinstall Windows, not a refresh, a clean install. You have no idea what else it's done and many malware programs hide a file they can use to reinstall themselves if the main one's removed.
During the install process you'll be shown the existing partitions, delete them and let Windows recreate what's needed. Hopefully you have backups of your personal files. You'll want to scan them also to make sure they aren't infected in some way.
If your Windows EFI files are intact, there isn't big trouble. Look for \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi in your seconds SSD's ESP (UEFI partition). If it's there you can add it to your bootloader or in nvme boot entries.
If you deleted/formated the ESP, but Windows C:\ partition is there, you can boot from Windows PE, Windows Install media or tools like HBCD PE and use bcdboot (like bcdboot C:\Windows /l en-us /s K: /f UEFI, where C:\Windows is the path to the directory with Windows 10 installed, K: is the drive letter assigned to the Windows' ESP)
Hi,
You can use:
- Hiren's (https://www.hirensbootcd.org/usb-booting/) - can boot to a portable Windows 10
- Ultimate Boot CD (https://www.ultimatebootcd.com/) - can boot to Parted Magic (Linux)
And you can put the programs on the same bootable flash drive using: Easy2Boot (https://easy2boot.xyz/)
This will atleast equip you to start over. If you're trying to get your data back and this repair method doesn't work, you're going to need to use another computer or boot something else from usb. hirens is my favorite but anything windows based would work because bitlocker.
For updating HP bios, you can apparently use https://www.hirensbootcd.org/ which will boot you into a windows environment from a USB, then you can proceed with the bios update via the downloaded .exe which runs a program to do the update.
Hey, had to do this countless times during my career. My go-to tool is Hirens Boot CD, it has a number of tools for resetting passwords, accessing SAM, adding a new admin user. Essentially download and burn ISO to USB, boot from USB, it will load you into a live boot modded Windows install. It's a real life saver, just used this to recently for a project I was doing for a client to solve same problem you have. Can download here: https://www.hirensbootcd.org/
Give it a shot, have kept this ISO in my go-bag for years. Lots of other useful tools on there too.
Here is a Link on how to do it.
Also if you can also buy another USB drive I recommend getting one and making a bootable version of Hiren Boot PE it's a windows PE environment boot iso with multiple tools that can be helpful in situations like yours!
Sorry, old habits, actually it would probably be a boot USB.
Take Hirens for instance. On your machine you download the ISO and burn it to a USB (instructions are on the site). Then you plug that into your son's PC and boot from it instead of Windows. You may need to go into his BIOS and change the boot order to point to the USB.
Doing this completely bypasses his hard drive so it eliminates any corrupted drivers, files, bad drive itself, etc. If you have the same issue with the boot USB it has to be hardware. And since you've swapped in and out most everything else that leaves the motherboard as the most likely culprit.
If you can't access to the pc normally I suggest you to make a bootable usb drive using Hiren's BootCD, when you boot on it this will let you access your files on the internal HDD and copy them into an external HDD or any other usb device, after that you can do a fresh install of Windows 10 without loosing your important data.
BSOD normally happens for 2 things (there are exceptions, but these are the most common causes): Corrupted files caused by bad RAM or bad HDD/SSD.
I would use Ultimate Boot CD and do a complete check on that HDD for bad sectors (and also RAM, just for good measure). Even after a complete check, take that HD if you can and put it on another computer and try to work with it.
There was a dude a few weeks ago with the same problem as you and the cause was a busted HDD.
This is just a hypothesis, through.
By the way, if you have important files on that computer, use Hirens BootCD first and try to access your files through it. I just hope it's not too late, though.
I'd put another HD in it. With my experience of 1 Toshiba drive they don't fail in an expected manner, they magically create other system issues that are only resolved when they're replaced (in my case with a non-Toshiba SSD).
If you have another system you can use and a USB stick you can try putting Win 10 ISO and booting from that, or any number of Linux distro's that have a live version (especially something like HiRens Boot CD that's loaded with diagnostic tools). This won't solve the problem, but would prove my theory without you having to spend money.
Use a Hirens BootCD usb flash drive.
Download iso, mount as a drive, copy all files to fat32 formatted usb drive.
For an old legacy bios pc, you need to mark fat32 partition active using diskpart. Not need on modern pcs.
Boot from it and select Lazesoft tool to remove password.
There is no tool that will recover a password.
By removing password an owner would know if pc had been tampered with. By recovering pc, a person can tamper with pc without owner knowing.
This may sound silly but we have seen many requests here from users with standard accounts who want to bypass admin constraints without admin user knowing (minors in particular often ask this).
Assuming you are on Windows 10.
Uninstall ANY Anti virus crap on your PC Especially, McAfee, AVG, AVAST, Norton, Webroot, etc.
Windows may want to suddenly update afterwards. (that's the usual cause of the type of error you received)
Hit the windows key+R and in the box that comes up, type "msconfig" no quotes.
When msconfig launches choose the boot tab and choose Safe Mode with networking.
Then choose the services tab and check hide all microsoft services.
Then disable everything else that's left.
Exit and restart your PC and Run Tron in Safe mode and follow the directions from there.
Windows may want to update so let it.
Tron can usually get up under the vast majority of shit in safe mode.
If not you can also use another computer and download and burn a copy of Hirens PE to a usb and boot the original infected PC from that and run ESET and Malwarebytes from inside the Bootable Hirens Windows USB and then following the previous directions to run Tron in safe mode. I have seen very few infections beat that combo.
Ventoy is a game-changer. In my opinion, the best bootable utility is Gandalf. Unfortunately, it requires going to a sketchy website for build information
( https://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/ ) and downloading the ISO from torrents. Thanks for the Hirens info, I thought it was a dead project.
My man! Its cool you got one and your pretty young so you have a lot to learn. Look into hirens boot cd. It has many tools you can use to bypass your computers login. https://www.hirensbootcd.org/about/ What is your system specs?
If she won't take a fresh install we can almost rule out Windows configuration issues with your current install.
What I would do at this point is a few hardware tests. MemTest86 for the RAM and an extended test with Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for the hard drive, which as available on Hiren's BootCD (you can boot from Hiren's to run the test).
If that all looks good, remake the Windows installer using a different USB drive and reset your BIOS to defaults before installing.
(not affiliated just a fan)
this will boot from USB and allow you to do some basic repair stuff on the HD to get it work again ..or format it if that is what you need.
if you don't have access to a second PC to DL and install on USB you might need a friend.
So what you're looking at is the MBR, or master boot record. The list that it's displaying is the drivers it is loading in order. If it stops putting up new lines on a specific driver, then that's the driver it is failing to load.
You basically need to repair the MBR. You'll most likely need a CD burner, and I would advise using Hiren's Boot CD (one of the ooooold versions)
https://www.hirensbootcd.org/old-versions/
Burn that to a CD, pop it in the broken PC and boot from it. Use this like you would use a Windows Recovery disk. Specifically you're looking for tools that help you repair the MBR. There should be several that assist. If you can somehow get to a command line, I can walk you through recovering the OS partition or the MBR, depending on the version of Windows (XP?)
If you're comfortable with using command lines, try Hiren's Boot CD. You can burn to disc or to a bootable USB.
There's also have a way to do it via GUI, but I've never tried it.
Additionally, a good tool to equip yourself with is a bootable Hiren's USB. Hiren's will allow you to diagnose, and repair any number of issues with a problem pc, including bad boot sectors (which sounds like your current issue). https://www.hirensbootcd.org/
There used to be links in the side bar for utilities and such you could use for diagnostics and such, but I would suggest creating this bootable flash drive: https://www.hirensbootcd.org/usb-booting/
It's a collection of a bunch of utilities you can use to do things like browse a hard drive, recover data, scan for and repair errors, a bunch of other things. I would suggest your goal being to copy critical data to an external drive for backup and then try to reinstall Windows.
You will need a working computer if you have any other machine that you can use for this. It comes in the form of an iso file that you download from: https://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/ I would burn that to a CD or maybe create an bootable USB and it should be split into categories and there should be one for diagnostic tools, it's been a minute since I've used it. Let me know if you have any questions dude
Tener Hiren's boot en un pendrive viejo, tiene de todo para salvar de las papas, incluso un entorno grafico si queres.
Hay herramientas de copiado de bajo nivel o para intentar revivir el disco duro
Couple things I can think of:
Can you properly boot a WinPE environment? Something like Hiren's Boot CD PE
Disable Secure Boot
What kind of disk are you installing Windows to? You need your SATA controller set to AHCI mode, and you either need a completely unitiliazed disk, or one with GPT. If you try to install Windows 10 with UEFI on an MBR disk you'll have a bad time.
Your BIOS has a UEFI/CSM set of options. Make sure that CSM is available and not conpletely disabled. My Gigabyte UEFI has an option for which OS I'm using, my choices are other, Windows 8, and Windows 8 WHQL. If I set it to anything other than Windows 8 it won't boot.
I don't think this is a RAM issue. You're saying Memtest crashes? Memtest will happily run for weeks and keep spitting errors out without crashing if you've got bad RAM. It won't crash. It's your PSU or your motherboard or your CPU or the graphics card or or or. Take the graphics card out.
Follow theses steps https://www.hirensbootcd.org/faq-items/resetting-windows-password/
Download here and make a bootable pendrive https://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/
But man... Do you have another pc to download and make a bootable usb?
>Hiren’s BootCD PE (Preinstallation Environment) is an emergency boot disk based on Windows 10 PE x64. It is being developed for the new age computers, it supports UEFI booting and requires minimum 2 GB RAM. It does not contain any pirated software, it is %100 free and legal.
I would imagine maybe you can get a Live CD and run the OS from there. Put an empty HD in your computer and run a recovery program on your original one. You may want to look at Hirens Boot CD and see if it can help you. Make sure to look at the older versions page too. I also have Ultimate Boot CD bookmarked though I've not had a chance to use it either in the capacity you describe.
I wouldn't waste the time since its not showing up in device manager that's why I suggested reseating the Mini PCIE card. you could boot into Hirens and see if the wifi shows up there that's based on win 10
I would try a Hirens bootable CD. You can clear the password with it. https://www.hirensbootcd.org/
You can also pull the drive out and use a docking station to connect it to another computer if you're just trying to get files off of it.
How confident are you with opening and servicing the laptop? Warranty? Also, can you make some sort of bootable USB, like this https://www.hirensbootcd.org/hbcd-v78/ it's a hirens disk. Great set of tools. It has software to test hardware. If you're comfortable, open and verify all cables are seated, and that there's no corrosion on your motherboard.
Since it's under warranty, I wouldn't worry about trying to repair the issue, but rather just extracting your data. Make a bootable USB with Hiren's Boot CD, then boot up from it (F12 at power on for boot menu). From here you should be able to unlock your internal drive with the recovery key, then copy any files that you need to an external hard drive.
Alternatively, you can open the laptop, remove the drive, and connect it to another Windows 10/11 PC to do the same thing. It will be M.2 NVMe so you'll need an appropriate usb adapter or spare slot in the other machine. I would recommend trying the other method first though, while opening your laptop's bottom cover shouldn't void your warranty, Dell may still try to contest it, especially if any noticeable damage is caused.
In this situation, I'd recommend Hiren's BootCD PE (free):
It's a very handy utility disk with multiple data recovery tools.
I'd suggest trying Recuva (it's on the disk) in deep scan mode (check YouTube for tutorials).
My first guess is it can't find the drive to boot Windows from, that there's a problem with the drive itself or it's connections. Make sure the cables are secure, that something didn't get pulled loose when you were working on the memory. Also try plugging the cable into a different port.
If it's not that simple then on another PC download Hirens, which is a Windows Pre-installation Environment, and burn it to a CD or DVD. Instructions on how to do that are on the site, "Burning". It can be put on a USB but I'm not sure a machine of that vintage will boot from a USB.
Once you have the disk put it in the drive and try booting. Based on the BIOS screen shot the DVD drive is the first boot drive, that's where it looks for an operating system first. IF the drive is the issue it should boot from the CD/DVD. Be patient, it'll take awhile.
If it does boot into Hirens you'll have access to the drive and it's files if you want to see what's there (often if there's a problem with one or more of the Windows files the rest of the drive is still accessible). You'll also have access to multiple utilities for testing. Try Crystal Disk Info to test the drive, Unstoppable Copier or Lazesoft Data Recovery if you have trouble copying off any files you want to save.
If it won't boot Hirens try different ram sticks in different slots. If it's the ram finding new ram of that type will be difficult, and probably expensive.
If it gets to the point of that error recovery screen try choosing Safe Mode and see what happens.
This is possible. You clone to an image file on the HDD. The image will contain all data and partition information from the original drive, but packaged into a single file that can be stored on your HDD alongside its existing files.
You will of course not be able to boot your image file off of that external HDD, you will need a different way to run an operating system on the laptop while you clone the bootable partitions within the image file onto your new M.2 drive. The solution is a USB bootable OS: https://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/. This is a basic Windows PE OS that runs purely from a USB drive, and comes with a variety of cloning & imaging tools installed. My preferred tool is Macrium reflect, it is IMO the most reliable, easy, and flexible imaging tool for Windows.
I believe the Ubuntu OS would run into issues accessing those files. What you should do is download Hirens Boot CD PE - It's a version of the Windows 10 Pre-Install Environment. It has multiple tools that you can use to either change the admin password, or delete it entirely. I just used this to get into multiple computers.
If you're working help desk, it is one of the most valuable tools out there for workstation maintenance (and to break into them.)
You can reset it via command prompt through some lengthy means, just google reset windows 10 password with command prompt. However, I highly suggest Hiren's Boot CD. You can also do it from a vanilla Windows PE boot, but the tools are already assembled in one place.
Get Hirens Boot Disc and get the Hirens HowTo and tap resetting windows password. making the boot medium will be the longest part of the process. you'll just want to clear the password and then you should be able to log back in. last time I did this was awhile ago, but it took like 2 min and the person was able to get back in and do their thing after they reset their password.
As mentioned, you can image your entire drive, for Windows I like using Macrium Reflect. You may want to check out Hiren's Boot CD, a USB bootable Win PE environment that comes with imaging tools like Macrium, Acronis, and others installed in it. You can use this to create the original image (not necessarily required), but more importantly you can boot from this to restore the image after the SSD has been wiped.
Now with that being said, what exactly are the symptoms of this "firmware" issue? Because if your data on the drive has already been corrupted, or can't be read from the drive without errors, then you're going to end up with a damaged image. Your image can only ever be as good as the source.
First, she can get access to the files by using a boot disk/USB (this won't work if the disks were encrypted with Bitlocker). A Linux disk or other boot disk like Hirens will boot the machine completely bypassing Windows and allow full access to the drives.
I would suggest doing this, backing up her files (docs, pics, etc.) then completely wipe the machine and do a clean Windows install. That way there's no question about any software, such as remote access programs, left over from the previous company.
Based on your initial description, "slow on startup and slow during use.....", my first guess is you have a failing HDD. Get a boot disk, I like Hirens, and use one of the disk utilities to check the drive.
I don't know why my first reply is showing quoted text in red, sorry about that.
> both on legacy but when i select mint as 1st boot and loads grubs win wont load. will check that later but at least i know a bit more :D
It reads as if you changed the boot order in UEFI.
Windows Boot Manager still thinks it's in device 0 position, so when grub chain loads the Widows Boot Manager, the Windows Boot Manager reads its Boot Configuration Data (BCD), thinks the next stage of start up is on device 0, tries to load it, but can't find it.
Before Windows Vista/7, all we had to do was make Windows boot.ini file visible, writable, non-system, and change the device id from 0 to 1,
Now, the easiest way is to use a Boot Configuration Device editor, such as EasyBCD.
The community edition of EasyBCD is free for personal and home use, and is included in Hiren’s BootCD PE:
I would also suggest Rescatux:
https://www.supergrubdisk.org/rescatux/
Rescatux and Hiren’s BootCD PE are very useful collections of utilities, especially after a Windows upgrade.
Yes, you will lose your data btw.
You can get is back if you're willing to neither dabble into linux and use the live usb version of that (I'd recommend Pop os or Ubuntu) or for something more familiar but slower use https://www.hirensbootcd.org/ it'll take a while to boot.
Then once booted just copy over all the important files to another usb drive or the cloud.
Not UBCD, it's extremely outdated and I don't find any of its disk tools to be useful. Never used System Rescue, but it doesn't seem to include much either.
HDDLiveCD is good and comes with useful data recovery tools preinstalled such as HDDSuperclone, ddrescue, and DMDE. You can also use Rufus or certain other bootable tools to set up any Linux distro with 'Persistent storage', which allows you to install software and customize however you want and all changes will be saved.
Hiren's Boot CD is another possible option, it's Winidows PE with many tools preinstalled and no setup required on your part. This includes some useful software that is not available on Linux such as HDDScan for drive testing and various good cloning tools (for imaging healthy drives only!). It also comes with a lot of crap software, so do your research with what you're using. Win PE should not be used for failing drives, better to clone using HDDsuperclone / ddrescue on Linux first.
UPDATE: I used www.hirensbootcd.org on a USB drive to boot from there and ran a check on the drives. The one with the 'error occurred' message has a high reallocated sectors count. The question is if I can still save some of the data.
You could try Hiren's Bootdisk, preferably on a CD/DVD instead of USB in case the malware would try to infect the USB.
Obviously, whatever you do, don't let those machines (or just the harddrives) connect to your network.
Most likely your hard drive has died. If you have access to another machine download something like Hirens Boot Disk and burn it to a disk. Usually you'd create a bootable USB with it but I'm not sure that'll work given the age of the MB. It will recognize a boot disk in the CD drive.
That'll allow you verify if the drive is still accessible and run some tests on it if it is.
Re the issue of no kb/mouse /u/WorstWalletWarrior is probably correct and you'll be able to access the BIOS through the PS/2 port. If you've got any local PC repair shops they'd probably give you the needed adapter. They were a dime a dozen, every USB keyboard or mouse came with one.
Download Hiren's BootCD PE and check if two disks are detected. It could be, that both disks are detected fine and you need to add boot device again in the BIOS.
Indeed, there's a Batch script in a ZIP attached to the second post in the linked thread that will add the GOP to a VBIOS image for you.
> Oh I see the link is windows? I don't use windows.
The aforementioned ZIP also includes a Python script, which I assume works the same as the BATCH script while supporting multiple platforms. I've never used it, however.
You'll probably need some sort of Windows install to dump / flash your old GPU's VBIOS anyway; Hiren's BootCD PE should do the trick - though you'll need to figure out how to burn it to a USB drive on Linux(?). Try dd?
You might be able to use a Windows VM with your GPU passed through insted. This is r/VFIO, after all.
The easiest way is to create a technician repair boot thumb. You can create these either in Linux or WinPE. The one I am currently using is Heiren's. With this you can either just view what's on the drive or you can create a admin account on the Windows OS and just login directly with that.
So this repair may be a bit complicated, but I think you can do it if you are determined.
You'll want to make something called hirens boot cd. Go here
https://www.hirensbootcd.org/usb-booting/
And follow the instructions to make the flash drive ready. Let me know when you're done or have issues.
For adventurous Linux users that want to update:
Installed hiren's boot cd on a USB using unetbootin, copied the provided Framework_Laptop_BIOS_3.07.exe to the usb, booted from it and updated my Batch 6 DIY.
Needed power plugged in. After it kicked off it restarted into a bios update. Seemed finish successfully and I'm at 3.07.
It could be a hardware failure of your USB controller on your motherboad or a bad driver.
If you have another computer or a friend with a PC you could try and create a bootable USB of Hiren's Boot CD, if your keyboard and mouse work with that then it's not a hardware failure and probably a driver issue.
If it's usable with Hiren's you could copy what you need from the PC to a USB device and then reinstall windows from scratch.
Other people may have better suggestions.
To stay on the safe side, I would map USB ports regardless, just in case something gets messed up in future versions of macOS. You can do that rather easily with USBToolBox under Windows (or Hiren's BootCD PE, if you're so inclined).
Try a different game, there are free to play FPS games on steam like CS:go you can run and see if similar artifacts show up
Check for game ready GPU drivers
Maybe run a stress test on your hardware, I use Hirens - https://www.hirensbootcd.org/
Looks like sharing hasn't been enabled for your EFI folder on Google Drive...
It could be that you have XhciPortLimit enabled in your config.plist. This causes strange issues on recent versions of macOS 11 (Big Sur) and beyond.
I'd recommend mapping your USB ports via USBToolBox (use Hiren's BootCD PE if you can't / don't want to install Windows). Follow the instructions in its README, make sure you've disabled XhciPortLimit, then try installing Big Sur again.
As for not detecting the charger, your battery status probably isn't working properly. Have you tried ECEnabler?
By the way, why Big Sur? Why not Monterey? I'd recommend the latter, if only for security purposes.
Unless you erased a partition during installation from usb - and it's very easy to do so, thus the backup warnings - the files should still be in windows.old. How exactly did you install Win8.1 for dual boot? Because Windows 8.1 doesn't normally install over Windows 10. If you picked "keep nothing" during 8.1 install then your backup would be stored in windows.old for 28 days. Dual boot means either two drives or two partitions within a drive, so I'm curious how you created that environment.
Perhaps load a Windows recovery iso like this one from USB to view all the partitions and their documents or windows.old folders.
You are going to need a clean install. At least now you have a second drive to back everything up to, just download and use the many WinPE images out there like Hiren's BootCD PE.
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download the iso.
Burn it to a USB. Boot up from USB. find the NT Password Edit and change the password.
You could use a bootable drive and then wipe the HDD through that.
Something like Hirens WinPE, boot off it then use the tools within there to wipe the drive. A little overkill but at least the chance of any malicious files being executed, etc. will be little to none
before you go out and buy a new drive,
try booting to a live boot environment like Hirens boot CD (on a USB)
there is a option to format the disk, and another program that should allow you to test the drive.
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could also try disk part (to wipe the drive ) from the command prompt while trying to install windows.
while on the installer, press shift + F10 (CMD opens)
then....
- diskpart
- select disk 0
- clean
- exit
- exit
You can burn a CD with Plop boot manager, which can force boot from USB, or Hiren's 15.2 has it included as well. I've found it useful for older systems that either don't have a DVD drive (since few Linux have a CD version now) or like your Acer, can't boot via USB. Not the solution you wanted I know, but at least it's a continuing useful bootable CD.
dont format and remove your hdd from pc..........use external hdd case usb 3.0
then use boothiren live cd or testdisk app to scan/search/rescue your important data
I use hirens boot "cd" (rip it to a usb though).
https://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/
its got a ton of useful utilities on it including but not limited to imaging utilities.
the main ones it has are
- Acronis (probably the best pay utility, the free one here has most of it locked down, donno why its even on here, its mostly useless to me in its trial state)
- AOMEI Backupper (seemed good for one or two goes but I've a lot of issues with this one)
- Lazesoft Disk Image & Clone (this one I've had the most success with, it cant auto resize partitions, this is particularly useful when going from a larger HDD to a smaller SDD, a lot of free basic clone utilities either struggle with doing that right or cant do it at all, this one does it with ease)
- Macrium Reflect (this ones pretty good too, I've had a lot of success with it but I've also had a fair amount of failures, no idea why.. some drives or systems it just doenst like, it'll randomly fail certain configurations of hardware with no reason provided and thats why I generally dont use this one first any more)
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I pretty much always use the Lazesoft option these days, im actually using it right now as I type this out to clone a customers 128gb ssd to a larger 500gb ssd. finished in like 30 mins and no issues, boots right up just like before.
Did you reset it as in restarting? Or chose "Reset this PC" and did a factory restore? The latter should be like a brand new computer set up and shouldn't give you a login screen on first boot. If you just restarted, do you see a "sign-in options" below the PIN field? You may be able to sign in with your account password. If that doesn't work and you want to reset the PIN, another option may be to hook up your laptop to your switch/router via ethernet cable (or a dongle if your laptop doesn't have ethernet port) so you can be hardwired and see if that works.
There is one other option if you have access to another computer, you can make a hirens boot usb and boot into WinPE and reset the password/create a local administrator account and login as that and then reset the PIN that way: https://www.hirensbootcd.org/ I would advise that if you are comfortable with making a bootable USB and booting to it. There are plenty of youtube tutorials on this matter if you want further step by step on that.
Samsung has software if it's a Samsung drive. There is a free version of Macrium Reflect that I like to use. The Hirens boot disks also contain all the tools you need. https://www.hirensbootcd.org/old-versions/
The first thing I would try to look at is CPU temperature. It could be badly applied thermal compound, it could be dry, or it could be applied over a plastic sticker that whoever was building your PC forgot to remove. Which would mean the CPU overheats and causes the crash. This is especially true if you tried aggressively oveclocking it. The other common issue is badly seated RAM modules, simply removing them from their slots and reseating will solve it. RAM compatibility also might be an issue if you used multiple different RAM modules that didn't come as a kit.
What I would do is try to start the PC on a bare minimun config -- just CPU and a single RAM module -- and look at the EZ debug LED on your motherboard. If it shows no errors, replace the RAM module with another one and put the testes one aside so you know it's been tested. If you find no bad RAM this way, it could be a little tricky to find the root cause, but I would then try running a bunch of software-based tests and benchmarks. You can find a rather good collection of those in Hiren's Boot CD (the name is a bit of a misnomer now, but it originated in the CD era).
Well, now you'll have to start diagnosing hardware. Get a boot CD or thumb drive like Hirens: https://www.hirensbootcd.org/ and diagnose the HD or SSD and RAM. You might want to test your graphics adapter as well. Tom's has a guide: https://www.tomshardware.com/features/gpu-tests
here is the link for the boot disk, there is a how to guide on the site as to how to use it. Here is a guide with a link on how to use rufus
Nuking your disk is a bit extreme. ESET have Sysrescue that is free and you can boot into it on a USB and scan the drive.
There's also Hirens Boot CD. It's a portable image of Windows that you can boot into off a USB stick and has a few antimalware tools (including ESET scanner)
So its just not booting of anything at all?
First I would try 1 stick of RAM at a time, to rule that out.
I would also make a Hirens USB, its got a Windows 10 Live version on it.
So see if you can boot that way. If you can you'll be able to run diagnostics on your hardware
If it's the same, or very similar, hardware it would work. Windows however installs the device drivers needed for the specific hardware it's installed on so if you try to boot a PC with different hardware I expect Windows would try to install the device drivers for that PC, which may slow things down considerably until it finishes the update.
If you just need quick access to a Windows enviroment an alternative would be something like Hirens, a Windows Preinstallation Environment.
One of the (free) solutions is using a tool called Hirens BootCD.
You need to create a bootable USB and boot it from BIOS in order to use it.
Hirens BootCD: https://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/
Make a bootable USB: https://www.hirensbootcd.org/usb-booting/
The next step is to load it from your BIOS and that depends on your PC.
Your mobo is new, so it could be a compatibility problem. Follow this page Hiren USB bootable to easily create a bootable USB. Then you will have a USB with working OS and troubleshooting software.
https://www.hirensbootcd.org/files/HBCD_PE_x64.iso
ese es el link , si nunca hiciste un pendrive booteable, seguí algún video de YouTube, será mas didáctico a que yo intente explicarte por aquí ..
Update: I tried the "update" option when using a windows boot installer it left me in a loop of restarting then going back to windows troubleshooter so instead of making a fresh install I tried using https://www.hirensbootcd.org I can now access all my files and back up my data before creating a fresh installation of windows. I used their diagnostic tools and the hard drives themselves aren't damaged in any way. (Not sure if there's any bad sectors however) So I'll back up the save data I need and install Windows 10 once I've backed up my most important data.
https://www.hirensbootcd.org/howtos > reset password section but instead use it to enable administrator account which you can use to remove (probably) your pin as I'm not sure this tool can do pins never tried. Login as administrator > control panel > user accounts.
If this doesn't work you may want to use a Hirens USB stick to load up a pre-boot environment so you can access the data to recover it. It has a lot of tools so it may even have something that deals with this situation as well. https://www.hirensbootcd.org