Windows 8.1 pc won't start following uninstall of Avast

Question

Windows 8.1 pc with a 120gb SSD primary and 1tb HHD secondary.

i decided to uninstall Avast as we have a spare licence on a paid anti virus package. The pc was checked to make sure all updates were done and drivers were current with a restart after each. But after uninstalling Avast and restarting I noticed the message *Preparing Automatic Repair,which was not successful.*After which it attempted to diagnose. I have tried to Refresh but it says *There was a problem with refresh. No changes were made.*it says there are no System Restore points. Start up repair couldn't repair PC and gave the log file location which I opened via the command prompt. That states Number of root causes = 1. All tests show results completed successfully and error code = 0x0, apart from one, which is 

Name: Registry Hives test

Result: Completed successfully. Error code = 0x0

Time taken = 859ms

Root cause found:

---

Registry is corrupt

Repair action: Registry roll back

Result: Failed. Error code = 0x2

time taken = 0ms

Now I don't know what to do! BUT before I do anything I want to consider and would ask for advice on this, the 120 SSD that Windows is on is almost full. I would consider getting a larger capacity especially if that may be a better workaround. So can anyone advise..... Should I try and somehow get the problem resolved with the existing SSD, or shall I get a new SSD and install Windows 8 on that and then try and extract what I may need off the old SSD? I should add I have a Windows 8 installation disk and then updated to Win 8.1 via a download.

i should additionally add..... I'm not an expert with these things so will need easy to understand help!

thank you in advance

Answer 1

Thanks for getting back to me. My issues are the exact same as the original  thread. After unistalling  avast my 8.1 win goes into a repair loop,  no access to desktop, safemode, refresh doesn't work.  etcetcetcetc tried everything original thread and more. Take it no solution found.

Answer 2

Hi again Jane,

Could you please clarify if you are getting the same error message or did something else happen after you followed the above mentioned steps.

Depending on that we can move on and provide you with exact steps to recover your Operating System.

In the meantime we can try to force the system to open the legacy style recovery console and restore the PC to "Last Known Good Configuration" and check if it helps.

Here's how you do it:

1. In the Command Prompt of recovery console type in:

bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy

2. Press Enter and reboot.
3. Now you should have access to Windows 7 style Recovery Console.
4. Scroll down and select the option "Start Windows with Last Known Good Configuration".

Hope this helps.

Please get back to us with the updated status on the issue.

Answer 3

Hi Jane,

Thank you for posting your queries on Microsoft Community.

First of all let me clarify the choices that you presented are both valid and logical steps to recover the machine, however in my honest opinion I think that you should try to recover your primary 120GB SSD hard drive first and then if (in the unlikely event) we are unable to do so, we might install Windows in a different drive an recover the data from the SSD drive.

Now, the procedure that I am about to share uses Recovery Console . This tutorial also lists all the required steps in specific order to make sure that the process is fully completed. When you finish this procedure, the system returns to a state very close to the state before the problem occurred.

In these steps, you start the Recovery Console, delete (or rather move it to Windows.old folder which you can still access by the way) the registry files at their existing location, and then copy the registry files from the repair folder to the System32\Config folder. When you have finished this procedure, a registry is created that you can use to start Windows. This registry was created and saved during the initial setup of Windows. Therefore any changes and settings that occurred after the Setup program was finished are lost.

1. Keep tapping SHIFT+F8 during the early boot phase.

 2. Select Safe Mode Command Prompt from the menu.

 3. Log on as Administrator if prompted.

 4. Select Repair when prompted.

 5. Select the Command Prompt.

 6. Identify the correct drive letter for your Windows installation. It could be drive E: or F:. You do it by typing the commands

     dir C:\Win*

     dir D:\Win*

     dir E:\Win*

     until you find the Windows folder.

7. Type these commands(assuming C drive is the default Windows drive):

C:

CD WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG

REN DEFAULT DEFAULT.OLD

REN SAM SAM.OLD

REN SECURITY SECURITY.OLD

REN SOFTWARE SOFTWARE.OLD

REN SYSTEM SYSTEM.OLD

CD REGBACK

COPY DEFAULT C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG

COPY SAM C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG

COPY SECURITY  C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG

COPY SOFTWARE C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG

COPY SYSTEM C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG

10. Reboot normally.

If you have followed the steps properly, your machine should be starting up normally.

Hope this helps.

Please get back to us with the updated status on the issue.

Regards.

Answer 4

Thanks for this.  Can I please check first..... When I choose the Command Prompt for the Administrator it comes up with X:\windows\system32>.  When I type inthe first line of the command it comes up with this:

Answer 5

Hi

just to report back...... I have followed through all your instructions (checking it all was entered exactly as you said) but unfortunately there is no change - pc still will not work.

Anything else I can try?

thanks

Jane