Windows BSOD – Fix ‘INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE’ Loop After Repartitioning and Installing Ubuntu Gnome

bootbsodpartitioningUbuntuwindows 10

Windows 10 x64 v1607 won't boot after I reprtition my single 1TB HDD and installed Ubuntu Gnome 16.04.1 LTS amd64. it keeps doing a BSOD "INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE".

My exact steps:

  1. Boot from Ubuntu Gnome 16.04.1 LTS amd64 on USB drive.
  2. 'Try Ubuntu Gnome' option.
  3. Shrink Windows partition from 850GB to ~= 350GB in GParted.
  4. Move recovery partition (I have created a System Repair Disk) (also in
    GParted)
  5. Create new ~=350GB FAT32 Partition.
  6. Use Ubuntu Gnome installer; use 'install alongside Windows' option. Installer succeeds.
  7. Restart. Grub menu comes up, select Windows. Windows shuts down. I didn't see exactly what happened, but I came back and my PC was competely off. Turn back on.
  8. Grub comes back, Windows again. Windows bluescreens with 'INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE'. Restarts. Automatic Repair fails. Restart.
  9. Choose Windows at Grub again. Same bluescreen. This time no Automatic Repair – just shuts down.
  10. Choose Ubuntu Gnome at grub. Boots successfully.
  11. Restart, choose Windows. Again, bluescreen, no automatic repair.

I can access my Windows partition from Ubuntu Gnome. I created a Restore Point before I started the steps above. Can I use my Restore Point, and if so, how? Or should I use my recovery drive? Or get a fresh Windows image and reinstall?

Best Answer

It turned out that my disk had been converted to a Dynamic Disk somehow. This prevents you from having two boot partitions on one disk.

Multi-boot environments

If you're running a multi-boot configuration on a computer, you should not convert basic disks to dynamic disks. Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 2000 all support dynamic disks; however, you will cause problems if you upgrade a basic disk to a dynamic disk if you have all of these operating systems installed on the same machine.

Source: http://searchenterprisedesktop.techtarget.com/tip/When-not-to-convert-basic-disks-to-dynamic-disks

I had to completely reinstall Windows using a recovery drive and gave up trying to dual boot; I just virtualised instead. I suspect dual-booting could still work, but I can't really be bothered to go through that. If anyone does have any experience in this, I'm sure that would be helpful for others with this problem, but, like I said, I don't want to do that.

If you has this problem, it is almost definitely because your disk is dynamic. It can be converted to basic but the disk must be emptied (cleaned and all volumes deleted) first. If using option 2, 3 or 4 in the tutorial linked below, all data on the disk will be deleted, including the operating system(s). Backup any data you do not want to lose. If using option 1, backup the drive anyway if it contains any important data.

How to convert a dynamic disk to a basic disk: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/26829-convert-dynamic-disk-basic-disk.html

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