Hey everyone! This morning my PC booted up just fine, but when I tried to open the start menu, I got an error and it wouldn't open. So, I thought a restart might help, but now I can't get it to boot at all. Every time I turn it on, I get a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) with a "critical process died" error. I've tried a few things from the advanced help menu, but nothing seems to work. The system restore starts and then fails after a few minutes, and I also can't uninstall the latest updates as that fails too.
I've set up a USB to boot from, but it kicks me out when I try the upgrade option, saying I started from installation media. The only other choice is the custom option, which I'm not too clear about. If I choose that, does it format the drive and make me lose all my data?
By the way, I was considering getting a new PC anyway. If I do, can I just put my old hard drive in as a secondary drive and access my data without these issues?
2 Answers
If you can get Windows running normally or even in Safe Mode, try to look for dump files in C:WindowsMinidump. These crash logs can give clues about what's causing the BSOD. If you find them, zip the folder and upload it to a file-sharing site, since analyzing those can help troubleshoot the issue. But if safe mode isn't working either, that could be another sign of a deeper problem.
First off, check if your SSD shows up correctly in the BIOS. Sometimes, the Master Boot Record (MBR) can get corrupted, and you may need to repair it using command line tools from your Windows USB stick or a program like MediCat.
It appears in the BIOS so it should be okay. I made a bootable Windows drive, but it seems to just want to reinstall Windows. Not sure what MediCat is though.
Just realized, safe mode doesn’t work for me either!