Your Windows 11/10 PC won’t boot? It’s scary, but don’t despair. There are a myriad of fixes out there. The only trick is knowing which one to use.

1

Try Windows Safe Mode

Safe Mode is an alternative boot scheme that starts your computer with a minimum of software and drivers and bypasses any issues related to third-party drivers and apps. Before doing that, unplug all the connected USB devices from your PC and restart it.

You might have problems entering Safe Mode if your computer doesn’t boot. There are two relatively easy ways to get into it.

Method 1: Enter Safe Mode From Windows Recovery

Some unbootable computers freeze on the Windows splash screen.

However, you can force the computer to enter Safe Mode by interrupting the boot process three times in a row by holding the power button down, automatically triggering Windows Recovery. Once the Windows Recovery menu appears, do the following:

From the Choose an option recovery window, choose Troubleshoot, Advanced options, and Startup Settings.

From Startup Settings, you can reboot the computer into Safe Mode, either with the internet-enabled or disabled. Either option should work.

Method 2: Safe Mode With a Windows 10 Recovery Drive

If you cannot enter Safe Mode, you must create a Windows 10 USB recovery drive. The recovery drive contains the Windows 10 recovery environment—which used to be accessible by tapping F8 on boot. Unfortunately, Microsoft decided to eliminate this feature.

Creating a recovery drive requires another Windows 10 or 11 computer and a USB drive with at least 1GB of storage. If you want to create a system backup (you’ll see an option to back up system files to the recovery drive), you’ll need at least 16GB of storage.

Launch Control Panel > Create a recovery drive.

Then, follow the instructions.

After creating the recovery drive, you can boot your computer from it only if you’ve turned on USB drives as bootable from the POST environment, also known as UEFI or BIOS. After enabling USB drives as bootable, insert the drive into your computer and restart (this may require hitting the reset button or holding the power button down for a few seconds).

It’s also worth mentioning that a full installable copy of Windows 11 or 10 created with the Windows Media Creation Tool offers the same features as a recovery drive.

2

Check Your Battery and Charger

A battery or power adapter can be a culprit for the Windows boot problem. Using an incorrect power adapter with low voltage or a failing power supply can output an inconsistent voltage, which leads to stability issues, particularly on boot. You’ll experience system crashes (rather than freezing) during the boot process.

A second option is to remove your system’s battery (if it’s removable) and plug it into a power source. Ensure you’re only testing one element at any given time.

If power issues interfere with the startup, you must know whether the battery or power adapter is the reason. We’ve covered replacing a laptop battery or troubleshooting defective hardware.

3

Turn Off Fast Boot

A setting inside your BIOS or UEFI called Fast Boot allows Windows 10 to start faster by preloading drivers. Unfortunately, Windows Update can break Fast Boot compatibility. But you can turn Fast Boot on and off through your BIOS rather than from inside the Windows operating system.

The method of entering the BIOS/UEFI screen differs between PC brands. For most people, tapping the Delete key while booting should enter the BIOS. The two other keys that might work are F2 and Escape.

After entering BIOS or UEFI, the Fast Boot option is usually part of the Advanced options, although it can be anywhere.

If you don’t see any Fast Boot entry, your computer was made before 2013, as they did not include a Fast Boot option.

4

Check Your Other BIOS/UEFI Settings

A misconfigured BIOS/UEFI can prevent your desktop computer from starting. Some laptops have an accessible BIOS/UEFI, but many do not.

BIOS/UEFI is a pre-boot environment containing the hardware settings for your computer. They’re helpful for recovery because they work even when Windows doesn’t. Accessing these settings requires launching your computer in BIOS mode. Once in BIOS mode, check the following settings:

Secure Boot

Secure Boot on the wrong setting can cause your computer not to start. You can disable Secure Boot in the BIOS, but doing so may require resetting Windows 11 to factory settings and/or your BIOS. But, disabling Secure Boot may stop you from upgrading to Windows 11.

The reason Secure Boot causes problems is that it’s designed to protect computers against malware. Because it checks the drivers and hardware loaded by Windows at startup, any driver or hardware component not recognized by the system will generate an error at boot.

Secure Boot settings are located under Boot options. You can turn it on or off. It should be set to Windows UEFI mode instead of Other OS (usually Linux).

Compatibility Support Module (CSM)

A boot drive formatted using a BIOS system requires an MBR partition table. A UEFI-formatted disk requires a GPT partition table. CSM allows for the UEFI system to function like the older MBR system.

Reset Your BIOS Configuration

If your BIOS settings are incorrect, but you don’t know how to fix them, sometimes resetting the BIOS/UEFI to factory defaults fixes the issue.

5

Try a Malware Scan

Malware is a major cause of an unbootable computer. The best method for dealing with malware is a bootable anti-malware rescue disk.

I prefer Kaspersky’s free disk as it only requires downloading the image and using Etcher to image a flash drive or other writable disk. Etcher works on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

You can then boot into the afflicted computer using the rescue disk and remove malware preventing the computer from booting.

Note that you’ll need another computer to create this disk, and it requires a UEFI system to work. See Step 4: Check Your Other BIOS/UEFI Settings for details.

Download: Kaspersky Rescue Disk (Free)

6

Use Startup Repair

Startup Repair is a general-purpose troubleshooter for issues that prevent Windows from starting up. Force open the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) page as I described in the first method.

Then navigate to Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Repair. It’ll try to resolve the startup issues with your PC.

7

Uninstall a Recent Update

If the Startup Repair yields a disappointment, try the Uninstall Updates tool on the WinRE page.

Click on it and then select the Uninstall latest quality update option and follow the on-screen instructions to remove the update. Check if your Windows PC boots to the desktop.

8

Use System Restore

System Restore is a utility that allows you to return to a previous Restore Point when your computer is working normally. It can remedy boot problems caused by a change you made rather than a hardware failure.

On the WinRE page click on System Restore. Pick an available restore point and follow the on-screen instructions to apply it.

9

Re-assign Your Drive Letter

A system with more than one drive installed can cause boot issues for Windows users if their operating system (OS) volume has its drive letter unintentionally unassigned.

However, you can fix this problem with minimal fuss by booting to the command prompt interface. Click on the Command Prompt option on the WinRE page.

Enter the following to run the disk partition utility:

        diskpart
    

Once this is done, input list volume to print the details of all the volumes currently on your system. If your boot volume doesn’t have a letter drive, you must assign one.

To assign a letter to a drive, you can use the select and assign letter commands.

For instance, if I wanted to assign the letter E to the Audio CD volume in the above image, I would first input select volume 0 and then input assign letter=E to complete the process.

As always, be very careful when making changes in the command prompt. Making mistakes here can cause further problems with your PC.

10

Replace the Windows 10 Bootloader

If you run into problems while trying to reinstall Windows 10, you may encounter the new version of the bootloader utility. This can sometimes interfere with booting an existing copy of Windows.

Fortunately, there’s a relatively straightforward fix. Boot to the command prompt interface and enter the following:

        bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy
    

Restart your computer, and you should find that the legacy bootloader interface has replaced the Windows 10 iteration. You should have no further problems entering Windows 10 Safe Mode or accessing your existing OS installation.

11

Try a Third-Party Utility

Figuring out the cause of the problem is the most challenging part of remedying boot issues. When your system can’t even boot, diagnosing the problem is difficult. However, a third-party utility called Boot Repair Disk might have more success.

Boot Repair Disk is an open-source rescue disk that you can use to find and fix issues preventing your PC from booting automatically. You only have to select whether you’re using a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows. Tests and any fixes are carried out automatically, although there are options that allow for tighter control.

It does not guarantee fixing your PC, but it may identify hidden problems.

12

Factory Reset

We’re getting into more difficult and destructive repair options. Aside from a factory reset, the more difficult options include restoring and refreshing your computer. Each has its advantages and weaknesses.

A factory reset destroys some apps and other data, but you can opt to keep some of your files. A Windows factory reset (Microsoft refers to this process as just “reset”) restores the computer to its default operating state.

Start with the easy methods such as removing USB devices, using recovery disks, and performing soft resets. The more complex options, such as the in-place repair install, and hard reset, will destroy your data and are less likely to succeed.

Remember that “booting” a computer differs from Power On Self Test (POST). A computer that doesn’t display a splash screen and can’t even enter its BIOS or UEFI mode needs its hardware diagnosed for problems.

Unfortunately, solving Windows 10 and 11 boot problems is more difficult than in previous Windows versions, thanks to removing an easy-to-access Safe Mode (F8 key). That’s why I suggest keeping a recovery drive at all times.