Unable to Boot from Hard Drive I/O Error and Error 0xc000000f

6arrett · 06 Dec 2014

The story begins yesterday (around 2 pm) after my screens just went black. I sat there for a while and waited before just turning the computer off and restarting it. It booted back up just fine and so i decided to run my AVG PC tune up to check for any errors, and it came back with "You have not run DSKCHK in over 5 months." So through AVG PC Tune Up I selected thorough scan and hit OK. It told me i needed to restart the computer to begin the test so i hit OK to restart, but it didnt. I proceeded to put my computer into Turbo mode for no real reason what so ever, and then i restarted the computer. It booted up into the DSKCHK scan and i let it run. It took about an hour and a half and every thing seemed fine. The scan completed and the computer restarted into this error:
"Boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible."
Please insert windows recovery disk and click to allow windows to repair errors.
Error 0xc000000f

So after a several minutes of trying to get the disk to be read i finally got the windows repair in and doing its thing.

In the mean time i was looking up other solutions/watching youtube and after about 4 hours of the screen saying "Attempting repairs" I looked up how long it should take and then i got frustrated and shut down the computer. After that I surfed forums for hours trying to figure out how to get the data off the hard drive, none were a success but i learned about Hirens boot and got it. Its kind of a blur what i did yesterday night after that. But in the end I went back to system restore and let it run all night. I got up at 8am this morning and it was still running, so i very stupidly opened up command prompt as it was running and Ran Diskpart Clean. After I ran DISKPART CLEAN the attempting repairs finished like 5minutes later. I hit finish and the computer rebooted into the recovery again, so i shut down the computer and took the disk out, rebooted, and came to I/O Error please insert boot disk and hit enter to continue.

At the moment I am in Hirens boot running Test Disk to try and recover the data.
Test disk DOES detect my 1TB Hard drive but
I received "partition sector doesn't have the endmark 0xaa55" from the initial scan and then hit the quick scan option, after which i selected some disk and hit deep scan.
And that it current where i am.

ALSO: I was trying to figure out what the recovery disk would like on a working computer with the same operating system and When it is searching for an OS, the working one comes back with "Windows 7" "9310000MB" ANd the Broken one came back with "Window 7" " 0MB" i dont know if that means anything but that was the difference that made me run DISKPART CLEAN ON BOTH OF THEM...

TLDR; THe current error that i need help with is that I "Accidentally" ran DISKPART Clean command on 2 computers, One that was perfectly fine and one that seemed to have a damaged hard drive.

Too add to my pain, Next Week is finals week and i didn't back up my data. Luckily i have this old Desktop so i can still do my homework and study, but i do have some very important data on the computer that was having boot errors. Also the 2nd computer i ran diskpart's clean command on is not mine.

I have Hirens boot which has Test Disk on it and Photo Rec, it is currently running deep scan on the computer that had hard drive errors. Once it has finished i would like information on how to use it to recover a lost partition and stuff. BOTH computer ask for Boot devices when turned on with no disks inside.

TLDR Again; Super Basically: I "Accidently" erased data from my already INACCESSIBLE hardive using DISKPARTS clean command.

Errors: Error 0xc000000f Boot selection failed because require device inaccessible (assuming thats my hardrive) and after using diskpart clean i get I/o error please insert boot device.

WHAT IM ASKING FOR: Recover the lost data from the drive.

What Ive Tried: System Restore: Doesn't find any restore points.
System repair: Does nothing/freezes on attempting repairs.
Hirens Boot/Test Disk: No success so far, still working on it.

MouseGolf · 06 Dec 2014

I don't see anything in there about creating a System Image on a portable external HDD or SSD. Everyone learns this the hard way.

OK. Did you try doing a system restore to an earlier time before these errors occurred? You would do this by using your Windows Repair Disk which you created soon after you purchased your new computer.

Control Panel/Backup and Restore/Create Repair Disk (upper left side)

6arrett · 06 Dec 2014

MouseGolf said:

I don't see anything in there about creating a System Image on a portable external HDD or SSD. Everyone learns this the hard way.

OK. Did you try doing a system restore to an earlier time before these errors occurred? You would do this by using your Windows Repair Disk which you created soon after you purchased your new computer.

Control Panel/Backup and Restore/Create Repair Disk (upper left side)

Yes i did and it couldnt find any ( which doesnt make sense because AVG creates a restore point before making changes... but yea i tried twice and it couldnt find any )

MouseGolf · 06 Dec 2014

6arrett said:

MouseGolf said:

I don't see anything in there about creating a System Image on a portable external HDD or SSD. Everyone learns this the hard way.

OK. Did you try doing a system restore to an earlier time before these errors occurred? You would do this by using your Windows Repair Disk which you created soon after you purchased your new computer.

Control Panel/Backup and Restore/Create Repair Disk (upper left side)

Yes i did and it couldnt find any ( which doesnt make sense because AVG creates a restore point before making changes... but yea i tried twice and it couldnt find any )

If you have no restore indexes made automatically or manually (by you) then your System Restore may be disabled on your C: Drive. Or, you are using a Disk Cleaner that deletes your System Restore Indexes. Or, you have an infection that has attacked system files including System Restore files and is deleting them. Lastly, your HDD does have surface problems and may need to be replaced (highly unlikely).

Unless someone offers you a solution to this problem you can always remove that disk, plug it into another computer as a secondary drive and try to access it after the other computer boots-up. You could do this with a desktop computer or use an external HDD case which can be plugged into a USB drive.

If you are able to access the HDD from another computer you can save all your files to a Flash Drive or external drive or the computer you are using. After all your files are copied to a safe location you could reinstall Windows on your own computer. After that is completed copy your files back to your pristine copy of Windows.

6arrett · 06 Dec 2014

MouseGolf said:

6arrett said:

MouseGolf said:

I don't see anything in there about creating a System Image on a portable external HDD or SSD. Everyone learns this the hard way.

OK. Did you try doing a system restore to an earlier time before these errors occurred? You would do this by using your Windows Repair Disk which you created soon after you purchased your new computer.

Control Panel/Backup and Restore/Create Repair Disk (upper left side)

Yes i did and it couldnt find any ( which doesnt make sense because AVG creates a restore point before making changes... but yea i tried twice and it couldnt find any )

If you have no restore indexes made automatically or manually (by you) then your System Restore may be disabled on your C: Drive. Or, you are using a Disk Cleaner that deletes your System Restore Indexes. Or, you have an infection that has attacked system files including System Restore files and is deleting them. Lastly, your HDD does have surface problems and may need to be replaced (highly unlikely).

Unless someone offers you a solution to this problem you can always remove that disk, plug it into another computer as a secondary drive and try to access it after the other computer boots-up. You could do this with a desktop computer or use an external HDD case which can be plugged into a USB drive.

If you are able to access the HDD from another computer you can save all your files to a Flash Drive or external drive or the computer you are using. After all your files are copied to a safe location you could reinstall Windows on your own computer. After that is completed copy your files back to your pristine copy of Windows.

okay i will try that, thank you

gregrocker · 06 Dec 2014

I would not use anything AVG nor has it ever been recommended here that I've seen in all 6 years we've been the top tech forums, after it bloated up about ten years ago and never slimmed back down. All we see are problems with it. If you used its optimizing suite then you should know right off that these are completely unneeded in an OS as featherlight as Win7, which only needs a perfect install on adequate hardware with the most minimal upkeep - all discussed in Clean Reinstall Windows 7.

So since you used a tool we see only problems with, and its optimizing suite which is often death to Win7 and which apparently wiped out the very System Restore points it said it was setting for you, I would strongly consider doing a perfect reinstall following those steps, then saving the completed install as a backup image so you never have to do it again.

6arrett · 06 Dec 2014

gregrocker said:

I would not use anything AVG nor has it ever been recommended here that I've seen in all 6 years we've been the top tech forums, after it bloated up about ten years ago and never slimmed back down. All we see are problems with it. If you used its optimizing suite then you should know right off that these are completely unneeded in an OS as featherlight as Win7, which only needs a perfect install on adequate hardware with the most minimal upkeep - all discussed in Clean Reinstall Windows 7.

So since you used a tool we see only problems with, and its optimizing suite which is often death to Win7 and which apparently wiped out the very System Restore points it said it was setting for you, I would strongly consider doing a perfect reinstall following those steps, then saving the completed install as a backup image so you never have to do it again.

Dang I didn't know that, thanks for telling me, i will definitely do what you've reccommended but i really do need to know if there's anyway i can get that data off the drive, i havent tried the solution i said i would above yet but i did use Hirens boot mini Win XP and tried to find my local drive from there but it was not listed. Do you have any advice or is my last hope to take it to professional data recovery people?

Also, what antivirus do you reccomend because i have AVG Antivirus installed on all 4 of my PC's and my brothers.

I "accidently" used Diskpart Clean command on 2 of the desktops. So far the Testdisk scans havent found anything.

jumanji · 06 Dec 2014

As I have understood: (Correct me if I am wrong.)

PC #1: There is a problem with the hard drive. In addition you had run Diskpart Clean.

PC #2: No problem with the PC. Yet you had run Diskpart Clean. So it no longer boots.

Immediately we shall take up PC #2.

Follow these instructions to the dot. Do not deviate and attempt anything on your own. I repeat Do not deviate and attempt anything on your own. If in doubt, stop and ask for guidance.

1. Download Partition Wizard bootable CD ISO from Bootable Partition Manger | MiniTool Partition Wizard Bootable Edition. It is pwhe8.1.iso (48.3 MB)
2. Burn the ISO to a CD
3. Safely remove any and all USB drives/ Flash drives on PC#2 and boot into Partition Wizard on the CD, using the one time boot menu.
4. Partition Wizard Main screen will show your system drive. Rightclick on the drive icon on the left in the drive map > Rebuild MBR > Apply > Yes > OK. This will write the MBR code to the first Sector.
5.Again Rightclick on the drive icon on the left in the drive map > Partition Recovery > Full Disk > Next > Quick Scan > Next. This will after the Quick Scan is completed will bring up a screen showing all the partitions found.
6. Post a screenshot for further instructions on selecting the correct partitions.

( In general you will select only those partitions which when ticked will show the drive preview map at the bottom as it was before without any unallocated space.)

AddRAM · 06 Dec 2014

AVG ?

All you need is Microsoft Security Essentials and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, both are free

gregrocker · 06 Dec 2014

6arrett said:

...i really do need to know if there's anyway i can get that data off the drive, i havent tried the solution i said i would above yet but i did use Hirens boot mini Win XP and tried to find my local drive from there but it was not listed. Do you have any advice or is my last hope to take it to professional data recovery people?

Also, what antivirus do you reccomend because i have AVG Antivirus installed on all 4 of my PC's and my brothers.

I "accidently" used Diskpart Clean command on 2 of the desktops. So far the Testdisk scans havent found anything.

If you used Diskpart Clean command on partitions containing data you need then you will need to undelete those partitions using the boot CD for Partition Wizard Partition Recovery Wizard - Video Help.

Once the partitions are recovered you can boot the Win7 disk to Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console to an external HD, another HD, or flash stick. If the partitions were not not deleted using Diskpart Clean command then the data should be there if you'll browse into the partition which contains the data which may have a different letter in boot mode.

The easiest way to rescue files and advice for AV's and any other recommended tools and methods are all in Clean Reinstall Windows 7.