Can't fix Windows 10 install - spinning circle of doom!

Copper Contributor

Hi

I have a problem that I'm stuck on regarding a client's WIndows 10 PC.

I cloned the hard disk to an SSD a couple of weeks ago as it was getting extremely slow to start up (and run). It's been running fine since then but a couple of days ago it wouldn't start and auto-repair failed. I removed the drive and plugged it externally into my PC. Disk health is fine (from chkdsk and crystal disk info), ran sfc /scannow which fixed a couple of things, tried reinstalling the drive and it boots to endless spinning circle. Safe boot just goes to black screen and no further. Ran offline dism /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth from windows 10 install disk /sources and then sfc again - no problems found. Still boots to spinning circle (and if I reset then goes to failing auto-repair again).

The original hard disk, when replaced in the system, boots fine (albeit slowly).

I can't restore to a previous system snapshot  as there are none found on the SSD. I am extremely reluctant to reinstall windows as it appears that only recent copy of the drive - i.e. apps etc is the hard drive I have removed and some of the apps required are no longer extant.

Any ideas would be welcome - either on how to diagnose the problem further or how to fix it... I would like to get the computer working with the SSD again rather than just give up and go back to the HD...

I had thought that I might copy the entire windows directory (offline) from the working disk to the SSD just to see if that allows me to boot but maybe that idea is nuts?

Many thanks

1 Reply
You may try boot with a Windows installation media and perform a repair install.
In addition, you may install Windows on the SSD and if that worked, then install applications and copy your files.