Windows does not boot
This is the situation that most of us don't like to see: we switch on our PC or notebook, Windows starts loading, and... it ends in a cryptic error message or just never goes anywhere. Or perhaps, it just never gets there, and keeps hanging at boot time with some BIOS or controller issue.
So, what next?
Don't panic.
About 80% cases of Windows not booting are not fatal and can be fixed without the dreaded system reinstallation, and even without having to disassemble the PC and generally do any hardware stuff.
The approach you should take is:
- Check whether you have added any new hardware recently
- If yes, remove it and try booting again
- If no, and you added some new program to the system recently, try to boot in safe mode. If this works, deinstall the program and try again.
- Is there an error message at boot time? We have an extensive list of Windows error messages where you can check for what to do.
- If none of the above works, safe mode boot fails, and there is no error message, you can try some of the complete system repair tools such as Spotmau PowerSuite.
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