Windows Boot Sequence Loop Failure

Question

Windows Boot Sequence Loop Failure

Will S 0

Hi, I've had my Alienware Aurora R8 on auto-update for several weeks now, and I thought yesterday (11/01/25) would be no different. However, when I went to power my computer on, I found it in an Automatic Recovery failure loop. I've spent about two days running through each possible advanced recovery technique, discovering through the command prompt that my PC no longer has Windows installed through the /scanos command which returned "0 programs found". I manually repaired the BCD and when that didn't work, I decided to just redownload Windows from an external USB .iso file. The USB was reformatted using Rufus and numerous sources guiding me through the process. It appears to be partitioned correctly as the PC recognized it as a UEFI bootable drive in the BIOS. If it helps, I turned off safe mode and CSM. However, when I use the advanced recovery tool to boot from a drive, it said there were no drives found compatible with my machine. Any advice? I want to just recover as much data as I can from a recovery center first, but if it's been wiped I have no qualms with a full redownloading of Windows from an earlier update since I think that could be the problem. I really miss my puter :'( Thank you for your time, hoping to hear back soon.

Will S 0 Reputation points

2025-11-05T03:36:00.4+00:00

I also had a WD 1TB external hard drive attached to the computer at the time of the issue if that helps. To respond to the AI solutions, I went through the Windows Media Creation tool to download the .iso file. I used each command prompt recovery technique and all failed. I am able to do use a live Linux USB but I think I'm simply just too inexperienced to do it and would probably irreparably damage the machine going down that road. If it does come down to a compatibility issue with the USB drive, how would I work around that, if possible?

3 answers

Your answer

Will S 0 Reputation points

2025-11-05T03:36:00.4+00:00

I also had a WD 1TB external hard drive attached to the computer at the time of the issue if that helps. To respond to the AI solutions, I went through the Windows Media Creation tool to download the .iso file. I used each command prompt recovery technique and all failed. I am able to do use a live Linux USB but I think I'm simply just too inexperienced to do it and would probably irreparably damage the machine going down that road. If it does come down to a compatibility issue with the USB drive, how would I work around that, if possible?

Answer 1

It sounds like you're experiencing a complex boot issue with your Alienware Aurora R8. Since you've already attempted various recovery techniques and found that Windows is no longer installed, here are a few steps you can consider:

Check BIOS Settings: Ensure that your BIOS settings are correctly configured for UEFI boot. Since you mentioned that CSM is turned off, make sure that the boot mode is set to UEFI.
Recreate the USB Installation Media: Even though you used Rufus, it might be worth trying to recreate the USB installation media again. Make sure to select the correct partition scheme (GPT for UEFI) and file system (FAT32) when formatting the USB drive. Use the official Windows Media Creation Tool if possible, as it can simplify the process.
Use Command Prompt for Recovery: If you can access the command prompt through the recovery options, you might want to try repairing the boot configuration again. Use the following commands:
- bootrec /fixmbr
- bootrec /fixboot
- bootrec /scanos
- bootrec /rebuildbcd
Data Recovery: If you want to recover data before reinstalling Windows, consider using a live Linux USB to boot your computer. This can allow you to access your files and back them up to an external drive.
Full Windows Reinstallation: If all else fails and you are okay with a complete reinstall, ensure that you have backed up any important data first. You can then proceed with the installation from the USB drive.

If the recovery tool is still not recognizing the USB drive, it may indicate a compatibility issue or a problem with the USB itself. Testing with another USB drive or port could also help.

Good luck, and I hope you can recover your system soon!

Answer 2

Hi, Will. After reading through your conversation with Francisco, I believe there is a very high likelihood that you are dealing with a hardware failure of your SSD or hard drive. That would help explain why everything that you did that should have worked, didn't work.

I would suggest running hardware diagnostics on your drive. Most of the manufacturers have diagnostic utilities posted on their websites. Most of them run on Windows. You may need to find another computer (spare computer, friend's computer, work computer, etc.), install your drive in a spare slot, download the utility, and run it. If the drive itself is broken, the utility will usually let you know.

At least if you know you have a bad drive, you will know what you are up against. You may even be able to get a warranty replacement of your drive, if applicable. You probably will not be able to get the data back, however, unless you go to a company that specializes in data recovery, and even they may not be able to get it back.

But if you do have a bad hard drive, it is time to move on. Get a new drive (or a warranty replacement), install it in your computer, and start over. If there is something on the old drive that just cannot be replaced, you can try looking for data recovery companies and see if they can recover it. But even in that case, you would still need a new drive to get your computer up and running again.

Or if you cannot find a spare computer, you may consider buying that new drive anyway. If it turns out that old drive somehow tests ok, then maybe keep it as a spare, though I don't know how much I would trust it.

But yeah, try running diagnostics on that drive, see how it goes. Good luck!

Alex Zorrilla 0 Reputation points

2025-12-20T11:57:33.47+00:00

Reading through the specs of the Alienware Aurora R8, it looks like it should be able to handle a fresh Windows 11 installation with no issues. Maybe a driver update here and there, but that is it.
The motherboard seems to support PCIe 3.0 x4, NVMe. So there is no point in buying the fanciest Gen 5 SSD out there, because your computer would still be running it as Gen 3. For reference, here are the maximum data rates for the different Gen interfaces:

SATA3 = 600 MB/sec
Gen 3 = 3500 MB/sec
Gen 4 = 7000 MB/sec
Gen 5 = 14000 MB/sec

If you can compare specs on SSDs when you are buying them, keep in mind that your transfer rate will always top out at 3500 MB/sec. If you find a Gen 3 and a Gen 4 going for about the same price, the Gen 4 will usually be the better buy, even if you can only run it at Gen 3 speeds. That is because Gen 3 SSDs are usually speced to something below 3500, whereas Gen 4 will at least have the possibility of hitting that 3500 ceiling.
Will S 0 Reputation points

2025-12-20T22:17:38.6733333+00:00

Suppose it can’t be helped, I’ll bite the bullet and just get a new ssd for the old girl. It’s about that time of year anyways.

Answer 3

Francisco Montilla 25,005 Independent Advisor

Hi Will,

Based on everything you tried, the fastest path that both lets you rescue data and avoids the Rufus quirks is to rebuild the USB with Microsoft's own tool and boot it directly from the one time boot menu, then copy your files out before doing a clean install.

On a working PC, run the Windows Media Creation Tool and let it write the installer straight to a blank 8 GB or larger USB. Do not use Rufus for this step. The Media Creation Tool makes a FAT32, UEFI, Secure Boot compatible stick that Alienware systems pick up reliably.

Back at the Aurora, power it off fully. Unplug every other USB device including the WD external drive so the firmware does not get confused and so no boot files end up on the wrong disk. Power on and immediately tap F12 to open the one time boot menu. Choose the entry that starts with UEFI and matches your USB brand. Avoid the Advanced recovery > Use a device menu you tried before, because that is exactly where non-Microsoft sticks often show as not compatible.

When the Windows setup language screen appears, do not click Install now yet. Press Shift+F10 to open Command Prompt. Type diskpart, then type list disk. If you see your internal drive listed with the expected size, type list vol to see volumes and note the drive letters. Type exit to leave diskpart. Then use a copy such as robocopy C:\Users\YourName D:\Backup /E /XJ /R:1 /W:1 adjusting letters as needed. This way you get your documents, desktop, pictures, downloads and game saves before making any changes.

If list disk shows the internal drive but there are no volumes under list vol, stop and do not initialize or format anything. That suggests the partition table or file system is damaged and a professional recovery service is the right next step.

If list disk does not show the internal drive at all, press Esc to close Command Prompt and reboot to BIOS Setup. On many Dells it is F2 on power on. In BIOS look for storage settings and set SATA or Storage mode to AHCI, and disable Intel Optane if it is enabled. Save changes and try the F12 boot again. If it still does not appear in list disk, the drive may have failed.

Once your files are safe, you can run a clean install from the same Microsoft USB. From the first screen click Install now, choose I do not have a product key and pick the same Windows edition you had before. When you get to the drive selection screen, highlight each existing partition on the internal drive and delete them until you have one block of unallocated space, then click Next. Leave Secure Boot on and CSM off. After the first desktop, reconnect the WD drive and copy your data back.

If you hit any step where the USB still will not boot, that points back to the stick itself. Recreate it with the Media Creation Tool again, try a different USB port on the back panel, or a different flash drive model. Keep all other USB devices unplugged until you are at the Windows setup screen.

Tell me exactly what you see in list disk and list vol, and whether the drive appears after switching to AHCI. From there I can guide you the rest of the way.

Will S 0 Reputation points

2025-11-05T05:07:22.36+00:00

I went through and used the Windows Installer tool from start to finish, plugged it into the PC with every other USB device removed except for the keyboard so I could press F12 to access the BIOS, booted from the USB which it recognized, made it to the installer, opened the Shift+F10 command prompt, and finally made it to the list volumes step. There were four volumes, one my hard drive, two smaller volumes I didn't recognize, and a fourth I did recognize as the USB. They didn't have drive names. Does that mean I shouldn't declare a name for them and just have the drive taken to a service center? They totally did appear, just without a letter and a label. For reference, the status of all drives appear as 'Healthy'.
Francisco Montilla 25,005 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2025-11-05T17:25:04.48+00:00
What you are seeing is normal in Windows Setup. You do not need to name or label anything. You only need to temporarily assign a drive letter to the big NTFS volume so you can browse and copy your files.

You are already at the Windows installer with Shift+F10 open, so do this exactly.

Type diskpart and press Enter. Type san and press Enter.

If the policy is not Online All, type san policy=onlineall and press Enter.

Type automount enable and press Enter. Type list disk and press Enter.

If your internal disk shows as Offline or Read-only, type select disk 0 then type online disk then type attributes disk clear readonly.

Type list vol and press Enter. Identify the large NTFS volume that matches the size of your Windows partition. The tiny FAT32 volume around 100 to 300 MB is EFI, and the small NTFS volume around a few hundred MB to a couple GB is Recovery. Do not touch those. Type select volume N replacing N with the number of the large NTFS volume. Type detail volume and confirm the size and that it is Healthy. Type assign letter=E and press Enter. If E is taken by the USB installer, use another letter like G.

Type exit to leave diskpart. Type notepad and press Enter. In Notepad choose File > Save As. In the left panel open the newly assigned drive letter, for example E:, then open Users, then your profile. Now plug in your WD external drive, wait 10 to 20 seconds, press F5 in the Save As dialog, and it should appear. You can right click and copy your folders out to the WD drive from this dialog.

If you prefer the command line, close Notepad, then run a copy like this, adjusting names as needed:

robocopy E:\Users\YourName X:\Backup /E /XJ /R:1 /W:1

Replace X with the letter of the WD drive and YourName with your user folder.

If list vol shows the big volume as BitLocker, stop here and tell me, because you will need the 48 digit recovery key to unlock it before copying. If list vol shows the big volume as RAW, also stop here, because that indicates file system damage.

Once you confirm you can see your files under E:\Users and start copying to the WD drive, your data is safe. After that, you can proceed with a clean install on the same screen by clicking Install now, choosing I do not have a product key, picking the same edition you had, then deleting only the partitions on the internal disk and installing into the resulting unallocated space. But first, get the files off with the steps above.
Will S 0 Reputation points

2025-11-05T22:30:21.55+00:00

I've done everything up until this point

In Notepad choose File > Save As. In the left panel open the newly assigned drive letter, for example E:, then open Users, then your profile. Now plug in your WD external drive, wait 10 to 20 seconds, press F5 in the Save As dialog, and it should appear.

My Users file reads as empty, is that alright? Everything else was present and the drive was healthy as far as I can tell. I believe my primary user account has been run through OneDrive, I think that's important to distinguish. Since the majority of that data has been stored on a cloud somewhere, is this process still going to recover the files I didn't run through that software? Thanks again for your help, I'm a student so apologies for the weird response times.
Will S 0 Reputation points

2025-11-05T22:35:31.2766667+00:00

Oh, I missed that I could just do this through the command prompt, whoops.
Will S 0 Reputation points

2025-11-05T23:03:00.2633333+00:00

Okay, seems like the user folder itself is corrupted and unreadable. I plugged in the external drive (which had also corrupted but I got sorted out) just to see if it'd work, and ran the robocopy line from the hard drive to it. It returned:

Error: Retry Limit Exceeded The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable. Error 1392 (0x00000570)

For reference, this happened after I've already unlocked the drive and can access files through the notepad window.
Francisco Montilla 25,005 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2025-11-06T01:34:55.76+00:00
Error 1392 means the file system metadata for that folder is damaged, which is why Users looked empty and robocopy quit. The fix you can try before a clean install is to repair the volume offline with chkdsk, then copy your data with robocopy but using error tolerant switches.

Stay in the Windows Setup environment with Shift+F10 open. Make sure you are on the correct drive letter you assigned earlier. I will use E as the example below. Type the following, pressing Enter after each line:

E: chkdsk E: /f

If it asks to dismount the volume, answer Y. Let it finish fully. When it returns to the prompt, run a quick verification:

chkdsk E:

If you still see lots of errors or unreadable segments, you can escalate to a deeper surface scan. It takes much longer, but it can salvage directory entries:

chkdsk E: /r

After chkdsk completes, try the copy again. First plug in your WD drive and note its letter in Notepad's Save As dialog if needed. Then use robocopy with switches that skip junctions and never retry on bad files so the good files keep moving:

robocopy "E:\Users" "X:\BackupUsers" /E /XJ /R:0 /W:0 /COPY:DAT /DCOPY:DAT /MT:8 /TEE /LOG:"X:\backup_log.txt"

Replace X with your WD drive letter. This will pull every profile under Users, including hidden content like AppData, but it will skip system junctions so it does not loop. If you know your exact profile name, you can narrow it:

robocopy "E:\Users\YourName" "X:\WillBackup" /E /XJ /R:0 /W:0 /COPY:DAT /DCOPY:DAT /MT:8 /TEE /LOG:"X:\backup_log.txt"

If you used OneDrive Known Folder Move, your Desktop, Documents and Pictures also live inside your OneDrive folder. After chkdsk, browse to E:\Users\YourName\OneDrive in the Notepad Save As window. If it is there, include it in the copy with:

robocopy "E:\Users\YourName\OneDrive" "X:\WillBackup\OneDrive" /E /XJ /R:0 /W:0 /COPY:DAT /DCOPY:DAT /MT:8 /TEE /LOG+:"X:\backup_log.txt"

Only proceed to a clean install after you have copied what you need. If chkdsk reports it cannot complete, or the Users folder is still unreadable afterwards, stop and consider a professional recovery service rather than writing further to the disk.

Tell me exactly what chkdsk reports at the end, and whether robocopy starts transferring files after the repair. From there I will guide you through the clean install step.
Will S 0 Reputation points

2025-11-06T14:27:32.65+00:00

Okay, I let chkdsk run the long /r command, and now Users isn't appearing in E: at all, where before it just showed an empty file. I found that out after opening the Notepad>Save As menu. I queued up the robocopy command just to see if it'd run and while it knows where it should be pulling from and where it's going. It doesn't seem to know where the backup log text file is, despite it being visible in my external drive, producing this error:

Error: Invalid Parameter #10 : "\LOG:X:\backup_log.txt"

Is this a professional help kind of problem?
Will S 0 Reputation points

2025-11-06T14:31:27.3633333+00:00

Okay, I let chkdsk run the long /r command, and now Users isn't appearing in E: at all (leaving the drive unnamed), where before it just showed an empty file. I found that out after opening the Notepad>Save As menu. I queued up the robocopy command just to see if it'd run and while it knows where it should be pulling from and where it's going. It doesn't seem to know where the backup log text file is, despite it being visible in my external drive, producing this error:

Error: Invalid Parameter #10 : "\LOG:X:\backup_log.txt"

Is this a professional help kind of problem?
Francisco Montilla 25,005 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2025-11-06T14:51:15.8233333+00:00
What you are seeing now means your robocopy command failed because of a small syntax typo, and you first need to re-confirm you are looking at the correct volume and path before deciding on professional recovery.

Stay at the Windows Setup screen with Shift+F10 open. Recheck the letters and then try a clean copy without logging:

diskpart list vol

Identify the large NTFS volume that holds Windows. Select it and give it E again. Then give your WD drive the letter X:

select volume N assign letter=E select volume M assign letter=X exit

Verify you are on the right disk and whether Users exists or was moved. These commands will tell us:

E: dir E:\ /a dir E:\Users /a dir E:\found.* /ad

Now try the copy with the corrected robocopy syntax. The error you saw happened because the switch started with a backslash, while robocopy switches must start with a forward slash.

To keep it simple, skip logging for the first run and just move the data:

robocopy "E:\Users" "X:\BackupUsers" /E /XJ /R:0 /W:0 /COPY:DAT /DCOPY:DAT /MT:8

If that works, you can add logging like this exactly, note the forward slash before LOG:

robocopy "E:\Users" "X:\BackupUsers" /E /XJ /R:0 /W:0 /COPY:DAT /DCOPY:DAT /MT:8 /LOG:"X:\backup_log.txt"

If Users still reports File not found, check whether chkdsk parked recovered items in a folder named found.000.

If you see found.000 in the earlier dir output, try copying it wholesale. You will not get original names, but you will salvage content:

robocopy "E:\found.000" "X:\Recovered\found.000" /E /R:0 /W:0 /MT:8

If you do see Windows and Program Files on E: but no Users and no found.000, that is a strong sign the directory index for Users was irreparably damaged. At that point stop writing to the disk.

Either proceed directly to a clean install knowing you will rely on OneDrive to re-sync the cloud-backed folders afterward, or hand the drive to a professional recovery lab if you have local-only files you cannot lose. OneDrive content will come back after you sign in post-install, but anything that never synced exists only on this disk and further writes will reduce recovery chances.

Send me the exact results of the three dir commands above and whether the plain robocopy completes. From there I will tell you whether it is time to install or time to escalate.
Will S 0 Reputation points

2025-11-10T21:43:06.19+00:00

Okay, I ran the directory commands:

First, a found.000 with a timestamp within the directory of E: \ from about 9 months ago.

Running the next line returned that

Users wasn't found within the directory E: \ .

The third line returned that under the directory of E: \

<DIR> found.000 <DIR> found.001 0 File(s) 2 Dir(s) [about 2TB free]

Running the robocopy line, I get that E:\Users isn't found [Error 2 - 0x00000002]
Will S 0 Reputation points

2025-12-18T05:49:47.95+00:00

I haven’t managed to fix my computer since the last correspondence, I miss my computer :’(

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Windows Boot Sequence Loop Failure

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