Windows 10 BSOD, Laptop won't boot past the logo screen, need to recover data

Cyndro

Commendable
Jul 8, 2016
10
0
1,510
I have an Acer Aspire laptop and I got a random BSOD like so (not that exact error message):
http://thewindowsclub.thewindowsclu...s/2015/09/Blue-Screen-of-Death-Windows-10.png

I did something rather silly and turned the Laptop off while it was on that screen. I was in a rush and considering it said "We're just collecting some error info" rather than "repairing" I assumed it wasn't doing anything useful. Anyway after I turned it on the Laptop no longer goes past the Acer logo screen. I created a USB Recovery Boot drive so it can boot to that rather than the broken Windows, however the recovery tool doesn't even detect the SSD as having a windows installation, so it can't repair it. In fact it doesn't detect it at all. I also created a USB Windows 10 installation drive, and there's the same story - it doesn't let me use the "Upgrade" option (which retains data) as it doesn't detect there as being a current windows installation. It can only see the contents of the USB and nothing else. The other option is to clean install, which I won't use for obvious reasons. The SSD Windows Installation just won't get detected, yet I know it has an effect on the system because if I remove it the Laptop goes to the "No boot drive" screen rather than sticking on the Acer logo boot screen.

Any ideas as to what to do? My aim here is to, at best, repair the Windows 10 on the drive. At the least, I need all my data recovered from the SSD drive and freshly install Windows 10 again. I have an additional Laptop at my disposal, as well as a USB-to-SATA drive if I should need to connect the SSD and do anything with it. However I did try that and I can't even access any of the files on the SSD, nor can it be initialized by the Disk Manager (GPT says the size is too small, MBR says the drive is 'not ready'). It's viewed as 'unknown' with no detection of size or file contents. It's actually a 480GB Sandisk drive.

Edit: In the recovery tool, if I open the command prompt and type "d:" it also says the "The Device is not ready". Has the drive become corrupt in some way?
 
Solution
Since you have an additional laptop, just take the SSD out and put it on the disposal laptop as a data disk. Then, start the laptop and see if you can get access to the SSD. If you can, just move your data out. If still not, maybe you can try another software (eg. aomei pe builder) to create a bootable disk to boot into your crashed computer to see if you can access the SSD.
Tip: if you cannot get access to the SSD while insert it to another computer, you are probably can't in the original machine. Thus, it have great chance to be physical damage. Then, the last solution is to take it to a computer shop to see wether they can recover your data or not.

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
Does bios see the ssd?

try making this on another PC: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/use-ubuntu-live-cd-to-backup-files-from-your-dead-windows-computer/ see if it can see the drive and copy your files for you.
 

Cyndro

Commendable
Jul 8, 2016
10
0
1,510
I tried that and Ubuntu did not detect the SSD. However, when I connected it, I did see the file browser flash, but nothing else. I'm more concerned about restoring the functionality of this SSD now. I can't seem to access it with anything. It comes up in Windows Disk Manager as I said before, but with no information, and I can't initialize it.

I also tried connecting the SSD inside the Laptop's SATA port, and then running Ubuntu off the USB. Interestingly, Ubuntu refused to run even though it runs itself off the USB.
 

scottDell

Commendable
Jul 21, 2016
3
0
1,520
Since you have an additional laptop, just take the SSD out and put it on the disposal laptop as a data disk. Then, start the laptop and see if you can get access to the SSD. If you can, just move your data out. If still not, maybe you can try another software (eg. aomei pe builder) to create a bootable disk to boot into your crashed computer to see if you can access the SSD.
Tip: if you cannot get access to the SSD while insert it to another computer, you are probably can't in the original machine. Thus, it have great chance to be physical damage. Then, the last solution is to take it to a computer shop to see wether they can recover your data or not.
 
Solution