Solved Locked out, what to I try next?

[Mike1000]

No, the hard drive had no errors. It passed the system test OK. I think the problem was boot software

 

[file3456]

Know your chkdsk /r command.

CHKDSK /R attempts to use spare disk sectors, if any are available, to take the place of damaged sectors it finds, and then marks the original sector as “bad”, indicating it should no longer be used.

What's the Difference Between CHKDSK /F and CHKDSK /R? - Ask Leo!

My first post did mention software for HDD testing?

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OK W: has 4K in bad sectors, now repaired, will try booting again.

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No joy tried booting from your USB3_WIN7_2021 file but only got "No boot device available" despite running system checks and hardware passing OK.
Will come back to it later

This is possibly due to several things. Proper BIOS/UEFI configuration, how the ISO was burned to the USB drive, what type of USB port, etc.


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