This is the best reason to skip all this stuff and jump right into using a bootable Linux Live pendrive. Nothing Windows has screwed up even comes into play. You are back at a nice clean desktop with the problem hard disk mounted and ready to fix. Most Linux distributions come with low-level system utility tools that have no equivalent Windows utility.

If Rufus is not the way you want to make a linux pendrive, there is always good old Unetbootin. It will download whatever variety of Linux you pick (from a list), create the bootable usb, and you are done. Rufus is just the "modern option". https://unetbootin.github.io

I do not like suggesting this to Windows users with problems. If they knew even a small amount Linux, they would already have fixed it. This is when the suggestion of Hirens can be a very good one.

 

that would of course depend on how your BIOS or boot sequence is already setup. we have no idea how you use your computer or what your BIOS looks like, it makes it difficult to offer advice when we have no intimate knowledge of your device.

you are in the best place to examine and decide if it needs changes..

 

This is the way provided someone already knows Linux, file system mounts, and basics of bash (or equivalent) scripting. The good thing is that Linux can bypass any Windows restrictions (outside Bitlocker) to fix shit, the bad thing is that Linux can bypass any Windows restrictions (like ACLs and file locks) to completely trash the system.

But recommending this unless I'm physically present if problematic since now the problem is twofold: making Linux work to fix a Windows problem. Not really something that's good to do in a non-realtime environment.

If the Linux route is taken the best way to deal with it is to mount the Windows disks, make backups (on top of hopefully existing backups), then attempt a fix.

Code:

WINUSERNAME=dummy
CLEANPATHS="/mnt/windows/Users/${WINUSERNAME}/AppData/Local/Temp/ /mnt/windows/\$Recycle.bin"
find $CLEANPATHS -type d -delete 2> /dev/null

 

Remove you hard drive and use it as a second one or an external in another computer.

 

This is all way beyond what a user needs to delete some media files like Kontakt libraries they overstuffed a system disk with. It's not a "Windows problem", it is user error.

Someone above mentioned the real Windows problem, and that is having all this data on a system disk; instead of having 2 partitions setup to make it easier, faster, and lose less data the next time they have to reinstall Windows again. lol. Even if someone wanted to boot the system to the pendrive and use a GUI partition tool like Gparted ,libparted, Gnome or KDE Partition Editors. That's very simple and close enough to oldskool Partition Magic that most Windows are capable of using them with no big scripting or other learning curve. You would hope, anyway...

The only reason to do this would be if he does not have a usb flash drive available.

The funny thing is he will fix it and "forget to update the end result" in the thread, so people can continue on and on, ad infinitum. This should have taken about 10 minutes to fix, not ten pages of forum posts.

 

Forget about all the other shit - just build a WinPE boot flash or disk and you should be able to troll around your system via command line and do what you need to do. Use this link to get the WinPE ADK media. Just DL the one for your OS. Depending on your comfort level you might need to familiarize yourself with the command line a bit. The mickeysoft process for creating the boot disk is as usual with mickeysoft - longwinded and all over the place. Here is the more streamlined process for dealing with the ADK once you get it installed for making a boot disk/flash...

 

Last edited: Apr 28, 2025 at 11:09 PM

I can't even get into safe mode. I hold down F8 and nothing happens. I'd never seen anything liek this, you got to remember my last operating system was windows XP

 

I tried to get safe mode I remember it was always F8, but it doesnt do anything. I managed to run dskchk took nearly 2 hours and did nothing.

 

I have to cmd now but I ran chkdsk clean up and it did not making im about to run dism

 

I'm still working on it about to try to the recycle bin empty through cmd and the dism method

 

Thanks for all the input guys in my many years on Windows 95-XP I've never seen this problem. I would think they would have some safeguard in place to reserve rhe Windows start files and not completely allow you max out the space on your C: drive

 

I did this and it's now "Diagnosing Your PC" which takes like 2 hours

 

If all you need to do is mount the system drive and empty the recyleBin you could have done this by now by booting to WinPE and navigating there thru CL...

 

OK so I just went out and bought a flash drive. I dont know know how to "mount the system drive" I used Cmd to empty the recycle bin and now its diagnosing my PC again. I cant get the pc to boot to safe mode and I have no clue how to boot to WINPE or what CL is lol. This is my first windows since windows XP.. shit was way easier back then.

 

I don't have chatGPT or ever used it. I've only used Grok on X

I just went and a got a USB drive about to go to another computer and install the files and attempt through recovery thanks.

 

So the Bin is empty now and it still wont start up? Sounds like something else may have gotten corrupted. Do you have a recent backup image of the system?

WinPE on a flash or cd will allow you to boot the system up apart from the local storage (which is broken apparently) so you can troll around the system like you're in DOS. You can change drives, look at files, etc, in a "dos" like command environment. "CL" (short for command line).

 

I just booted from the USB and I followed the steps and it still wont start up repair even after I delete the recycle bin. I remember doing system recovery back up but now it's not showing it. I can't get the computer info safe mode I have tried everything

 

Last edited: Apr 29, 2025 at 1:44 AM

I've tried booting from the flash drive and repairing the system it won't repair.

I have tried dskchk and it was an error writing the log file

I tried sfc scannow offboot and I got an error 1639

I tried Dism image revert and again error 1099
I tried Dism image restore health error 1099 the configuration registry database is corrupt.

I've done everything to try to force the PC into safe mode and it just won't do it.