Windows 8.1 won't boot after 1 week shutdown.

I recently returned home after a 10 day trip and when I turned my computer back on it would not boot/open at all.I have a dual-boot setup running Win8.1 and Win7 Pro. The default OS is Win8.1, and -- as a matter of fact -- I probably haven't even opened Win7 for almost a year. Before I left all was working fine, I just did a full shutdown and turned everything else off.After a long time staring at the usual logo and the spinning wheel, I got the message about "Automatic Repair" That ran overnight with no results, so I did a hard restart and eventually got to a message saying "Diagnosing your Computer"That screen also did not change after many hours. At one time while fiddling with this I got the option to restore to an earlier point but that was not sucessful.Now if I attempt to boot into 8 I am told windows cannot find the file: "\Windows\system32\winload.exe" I can still boot into Windows 7 and from there I can open the W8 partition and drill down through directories to "\Windows\system32\winload.exe" and that file appears to be in the proper place but something isn't right...I'm hoping I might to be able to fix this from within Windows 7 and avoid a refresh or reset.Thanks,Philip

If you can get into windows 8.1 run sfc /scannow or the trouble shooter
See if that will help you

Unfortunately I cannot boot into 8.1 at all. The only OS from my dual boot setup that works is Win7.


I originally had the default boot OS set as 8, but when I was not able to get there and I finally did get into 7, I changed that default OS to Win7.

This exact thing is happening to me. I had gone out of town for 5 days and turned everything off and also unplugged my computer and now I can't get into Windows 8.1. It does the 'diagnosing your computer' and tells me it can't fix it and gives me that path you got as well. Hopefully someone can help!

In cases like that, I use the C4 approach. That is, blow it up and start over.

In more detail, save all your data that you can find, to some external media
and then reformat the HD, reinstall 8.1 and copy your data files back to the
new install. If you're not really using Windows 7 anymore, just leave it out.
Dual boots have always been problematical. I just won't do it!

Then when you have 8.1 all set up and running just the way you want it,
make a full backup of C: to an external drive and make sure you have your
Backup/restore program on a CD or Flash drive that you can use to boot up
your PC if future problems arise.

With a little forethought, recovering from a boot disaster can be pretty simple.
I have to use my Ghost Restore a couple of times a year, to recover from some
disaster or another, like the day my PNY SSD shot craps.

Oh, and check your CMOS battery. If it's not 3.0vdc or better, it should be replaced.

Good Luck,
TechnoMage

Well, I cannot get into Windows 8.1 at all, as I mentioned originally the only OS that will load now is Windows 7.


However, I did finally dig up a Windows 8 Bootable Recovery USB flash drive that I must have made after I originally installed W8 (most likely thanks to joining this forum) and I can boot to that and have tried the following, all without success:


1) Tried "System Restore". No luck finding an available restore point.


2) Opened the "Advanced Options" from the "Troubleshoot" screen and tried the option "Startup Repair"
Ran it 4 times with no luck.


3) Tried to "Refresh", got the mesasage that the drive where windows 8 is installed is locked.


4) Went to the command prompt and ran Sfc scannow. Message was: "Windows Resource Protection could not start the repair service.

Will definitely check the CMOS battery though I can boot into 7 with no problem...

Did you try running chkdsk /f from a Command Prompt?

Ztruker said:

Did you try running chkdsk /f from a Command Prompt?

Click to expand...

Thanks!
Yes, I ran: chkdsk /f /x ...it found "no problems"

Movere si nequeo caelis, ego resuscitabo inferno (If I cannot move Heaven, I will try to raise Hell...)

This morning I shut down and unplugged the computer and disconnected the disk that has Windows 7 on it so the only available OS was Windows 8.
I then booted into the Recovery module to attempt a "Refresh" of Windows 8. As before, I got an error message stating that the drive was "Locked", and I had to unlock it before I could refresh Windows.
What exactly is "Locked"?
Can I "Unlock" it from the command prompt?