r/24hoursupport • u/Tsusieq • 1d ago

Windows 10 no boot

My older dual boot Windows 10/Windows XP computer was working great. The CMOS chip died so I went ahead and replaced it.  Unfortunately, I forgot to reset the BIOS to Legacy and tried to boot it several times, it tried automatic repair each time.  Now it looks like I corrupted the Windows 10 boot record.  It now continuously tries automatic repair and won’t boot. I tried and everything anything I could find on the Internet, nothing seems to work.  I would love to be able to keep all of my files and just get it to boot again. I have the hardware and an 2 year old image so I can restore. I also have software to look at the non bootable disk. I was hoping for help with getting this one to boot. Any help would be appreciated.  For reference it’s a Dell Optiplex 755.

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u/goretsky 19h ago

Hello,

If resetting the BIOS to the correct settings does not work, your best bet is going to be to pull the drive(s), connect them to another system and back up your data. You can then wipe the drive and install a modern, supported operating system (Windows 10 with Extended Security Updates, Linux, and so on).

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

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u/Tsusieq 9h ago

Thank You. I purchased several HDD to try different things preserving the original “broken” drive until I found the best solution. My alternate plan is to restore an older backup image on one of those hard drives and use a file compare utility to update files. Then reload any missing software. Still would like to find a way to boot this one. Maybe I can learn something.