Inaccessible boot device error in Windows is actually one of the blue-screen of death errors.
Blue screen of deaths or BSODs occurs when a system encounters a fatal hardware or software malfunction. In most of the cases, the system crashes and stops responding, and the only way to get unexpected screen is by rebooting the system.
This is not a new error for Windows, it has been present since the first Windows NT operating system was released in 1993, and even after 20 years, Microsoft is still trying to figure out ways to completely get rid of the error. These errors can occur because of many reasons including – overheating, issues with power supply, device driver corruption or malfunctioning of the hardware.
In fact, most of the times, these errors are caused by device hardware or problems with the software of hardware drivers. The might also be caused because of the low-level software running on the kernel of the operating system.
As we mentioned, blue screen of death completely freezes the screen and the only thing to restart your system. Now, this sudden restart can lead to loss of data that was not saved by the user. If you are using programs like MS Office that has an auto-save option, then you can recover your data, but if your or the application did not save your data, then it’s probably gone.
When the system is crashed, there is also a file called mini-dump created by Windows which has all the information and logs of the error. If you are curious to find out the reason behind the error, then you should definitely check this file. You can find this information in the Windows Event Viewer. A file is created for every application that crashed.
Reasons behind Inaccessible Boot Device Error
This is probably the most common and scariest error for users. Here are some of the possible reasons why this error could have occurred.
- System files are damaged
- Hard disk or the RAM has got corrupt
- Device drivers have been incorrectly configured
- Driver conflict
- Registry files in Windows have been corrupt
- Virus corruption in the system
Ways to Fix Inaccessible Boot Device Error
Update all the drivers
To resolve inaccessible boot drive error, try checking if any of the disk drivers need to be updated. To do that, follow the steps below:
- Go to the My Computer icon on the desktop, right-click on it and select Manage
- This will open the Device Manage on your system, which will list all the device drivers present on the system
- Right-click on each of them to see if the Update option is activated on them if it is the device probably needs to be updated
- If you find a yellow sign in front of these drivers, then that signifies that there is some issue with the driver. Try uninstalling and installing it again
Check for Damage to The Hard Disk
If your hard disk has been damaged or gone corrupt, then it could be a reason for the inaccessible hard disk error. To check for damage, you would need to use the CHKDSK command in Windows Recovery Console. To do that, follow the steps below:
- Go to the Start Menu, type command and press CTRL + Shift + Enter
- The Window Recovery Console will open
- The new dialogue box will ask ‘Yes/No,’ type Yes and press Enter
- Now, type the command CHKDSK/F and press enter
- If there are any issues, you will come to know here
- Restart your system and see if the issue has been resolved
- Configure Boot Options
This option should be used if you recently installed new software or hardware on your system and you suspect it to be the reason behind. With this option, you can go back to a previous system setting which wasn’t throwing any error.
To change the boot settings, follow the steps below:
- Restart your system and press F2 on startup until you see a new screen come up
- A new advanced boot options screen will open
- Toggle to the option ‘Last Known Good Configuration’ with arrows and press Enter after selecting it
- This should roll back your system to the previous boot settings
- Check BIOS
BIOS is the first settings you should check if you are facing an error like this. But, be sure to follow the exact steps, or you might get into some trouble
- Restarted your system and press F2
- On the BIOS settings screen, you will find several options
- Go to Main and select SATA mode
- In the new list of option, toggle to AHCI mode and press enter
- Save the changes by pressing F9
- Restart your system to see if the problem has been resolved
- Check and Repair Registry Files
Repairing registry file is a very complicated and advanced task. If you haven’t done it before, we really wouldn’t recommend doing it on your own. If there are damaged registry files, then we would recommend downloading an efficient windows data recovery software and working through it.
Remove any Hardware That was Recently Added
This isn’t always the case, but sometimes newly installed hardware can cause an inaccessible device error on the system. If you have recently installed new hardware, and you only started getting the error after the hardware installation, then you should definitely try running the system without the hardware to see if it was the reason behind the problem
There are many blue-screen of death errors, which continue to haunt Windows users, and sometimes they can lead to loss of data. Always backup your system and if there has been some data loss because of abrupt screen freezing, then you can opt to use an efficient data recovery software like Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery.
Author Bio: – I am Computer expert and geeks with over three years of experience in Data recovery.