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Difficulty: MediumTroubleshooting Windows OS Startup and Boot Errors

A technician is troubleshooting a Windows 10 workstation that displays a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) with the stop code INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE immediately after the system logo appears during startup. The workstation was recently updated with a new storage controller driver and a firmware update. Which TWO of the following troubleshooting actions should the technician take to resolve this boot issue?

  1. Boot into Safe Mode and roll back the storage controller driver.Answer
  2. Access UEFI/BIOS settings and verify that the SATA configuration mode matches the installed OS configuration (such as AHCI vs. RAID).Answer
  3. C
    Execute bootrec /fixmbr and bootrec /fixboot from the WinRE Command Prompt.
  4. D
    Run chkdsk /f /r using a Windows installation media to rebuild the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store.

Answer

The correct troubleshooting steps are to boot into Safe Mode to roll back the storage controller driver, and to check UEFI/BIOS settings to verify that the SATA configuration mode matches the installed operating system settings.
The INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE stop code indicates that the Windows kernel lost communication with the boot device during startup. Rolling back a recently updated storage driver in Safe Mode removes corrupt or incompatible driver software. Additionally, verifying that the BIOS/UEFI SATA controller mode matches the OS setup ensures the correct storage stack initialization sequence is used.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the stop code INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE and the context of recent updates.
Recognize that the Windows kernel lost access to the system partition during early boot due to driver incompatibility or mismatched storage controller settings.
This error specifically occurs when the OS kernel cannot read the storage volume containing boot files.
2
Revert recent driver changes via Safe Mode.
Booting into Safe Mode loads generic default drivers, allowing the user to roll back the updated storage controller driver.
Safe Mode bypasses non-essential third-party drivers that cause startup crashes.
3
Verify firmware storage settings in UEFI/BIOS.
Ensure SATA mode (AHCI, NVMe, or RAID) was not reset during the firmware update.
Operating systems installed under AHCI mode will crash with INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE if the firmware reverts to RAID mode.

Key Concept

Resolving INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE Stop Codes caused by driver corruption or SATA/NVMe controller mode mismatches.
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Topics

Troubleshooting Windows OS Startup and Boot Errors

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