[De Registrar]

Running Windows on an old ASUS laptop. Around a year ago it refused to boot. I had difficulty getting it to check for errors during boot and when it did I left it for a day but it did not progress after that initial screen. A couple of days ago I tried to boot using the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool. It got me into the desktop but everything is incredibly unresponsive, much like how it was before it had issues booting.

 

Using the touchpad is responsive, however I cannot click on anything, or on the occasion that it works, it takes extremely long to open. For example I managed to get the settings page up but it closed by itself after a few minutes. Microsoft OneDrive also automatically boots up and remains there for a couple of hours before I am able to close it. While doing so Windows alerts me that the program is unresponsive and gives the option to close it. I have previously done so and it only crashes the system.

 

What do I do to fix this? Is there a way for me to recover the files in the system or to repair it completely?

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Typical behaviour of a hard drive that is almost full or that of a hard drive that is about to fail, the latter can be brought on by running out of space on the drive.

 

Can you post the brand and model name or number of the notebook and let us know how much free storage space was/is on the HDD.

[phillpower2]

Typical behaviour of a hard drive that is almost full or that of a hard drive that is about to fail, the latter can be brought on by running out of space on the drive.

 

Can you post the brand and model name or number of the notebook and let us know how much free storage space was/is on the HDD.

[De Registrar]

I've been trying for the last few days to get into Windows, but it keeps going into repair mode, even when booting from the USB. The laptop is an ASUS A550L with the listed size of the hard drive being 750GB. However I am fairly sure I have swapped it out but I cannot be sure.

 

Under the boot options the following shows up:

 

Windows Boot Manager (PO: HGST HTS541010A9E680)

[phillpower2]

Typical behaviour of a hard drive that is almost full or that of a hard drive that is about to fail, the latter can be brought on by running out of space on the drive.

 

 

 

Can you post the brand and model name or number of the notebook and let us know how much free storage space was/is on the HDD.

 

 

Sorry but I also asked how much free storage space was on the drive and for the reason explained above.

[De Registrar]

Hi, sorry for the late reply.

 

I don't know how to check how much available space there is without being able to open 'This PC'. The laptop keeps entering repair mode which I can't seem to circumvent or get out of. I tried to boot from both the hard drive and USB but no luck either way.

[phillpower2]

I tried to boot from both the hard drive and USB but no luck either way.

 

 

For computers that have UEFI as opposed to legacy BIOS, to be able to boot from your USB device you may need to disable secure boot and change UEFI to CSM Boot, not all computers and BIOS are the same, please refer to your user manual if you have one as the following steps are only one such example.

 

While the computer is re-starting,you will need to continually tap or hold down the particular key that will allow you to access the BIOS on your computer, we will use the F2 key as an example here;

 

After restarting the computer, when the screen goes black, press and hold down the F2 key, wait for the BIOS to load.

 

Select Security -> Secure Boot and then Disabled.

 

Select Advanced -> System Configuration and then Boot Mode.

 

Change UEFI Boot to CSM Boot.

 

Save the changes and Exit the BIOS, commonly F10.

 

[De Registrar]

Secure boot is currently disabled, alongside secure boot control.

 

For CSM boot there is only the option under the Boot header and not Advanced. I changed the boot configuration to "Launch CSM" at which point the option for "Fast Boot" disappeared and was replaced with "Launch PXE OpROM policy" which I left as disabled.

 

The laptop still tries to diagnose issues. I have looked at other forums and they say pretty much the same thing as you but still no luck. 

 

Is it possible that this laptop is caught in this loop because the HDD is bust and can't be read anymore?

 

If its any help the utility is called Aptio Setup Utility Version 2.15.1236.

[phillpower2]

the option for "Fast Boot" disappeared and was replaced with "Launch PXE OpROM policy" which I left as disabled.

 

 

There should be an option to boot from a USB device or on some earlier computers the option may have been listed as external storage device or hard drive.

 

3 Ways To Boot An Asus From USB Or CD

 

Even if the hard drive has expired it would not stop you from being able to boot from a known good ISO on a thumbdrive, the fact that you are not able to boot from the USB thumbdrive suggests one of two things, the USB thumbdrive is not selected as the first boot device in the BIOS or the Windows ISO on the thumbdrive is no good, have you checked the thumbdrive on another computer at all, QEMU Simple Boot is a good tool for checking ISOs, see info here

[phillpower2]

Not heard back from you De Registrar, do you still require assistance or is the issue now resolved, an update would be appreciated.

[De Registrar]

Hello again,

 

Unfortunately the system refuses to boot into Windows without attempting repairs. If you do not think there is another way to avoid this then I will just get rid of the hard drive.

[phillpower2]

Getting rid of the HDD is a bit premature as there could be absolutely nothing wrong with it, there is also the matter of the data on the drive that you mentioned in your OP.

[phillpower2]

Not heard back from you De Registrar, do you still require assistance or is the issue now resolved, an update would be appreciated.

[De Registrar]

Best Answer

Hi, sorry for leaving you hanging, I don't think I had saved my reply haha.

 

As for the laptop, I had taken it to a shop as a last ditch measure but they were unable to help me. I decided to give the laptop away as I had no need for a secondary system lying around unused.

 

Thanks for the assistance you gave me!

[phillpower2]

Thanks for letting us know and you are welcome