Windows 10 Can't open explorer at all after multiple automatic repair issues

[phantom16]

So I am stepping in for my father who is having some issues with his laptop. For a few days now, he couldn't get into windows 10.

Upon starting the computer, a big white rectangle would flash during POST, and then it would load for a second before going into the blue diagnostic screen like:
Link Removed

If I clicked continue, it would just bring us right back the diagnostic tool again.

Going into the troubleshooting menu, I discovered 3 "operating systems" listed. The first option was something like "Windows Diagnostic Tools" (it was the interface we were in at that time), and the next 2 options were both Windows 10 on the C: drive (there is only one OS, so I thought it curious that it was listed twice).

I tried running the repair option in the troubleshooting menu on both entries of the windows OS, but that didn't work.

Somehow or another (I unfortunately can't quite recall how I did it), I managed to get one of the Windows OS entries listed at the top. I restarted the computer, and it finally did log into windows although it took forever. I logged into the account, but the background was missing. Upon loading windows, an error came up, but it was really long and I failed to write it down :/ I'm sorry. I messaged my dad to send me a screenshot of the error and I will post it as soon as I get it.

Until then...

The OS is not working and obviously so because the background is just black. I can't click the windows button in the bottom-left corner of the screen (simply nothing happens if I do), and trying to get explorer open (win+E or double clicking on recycling bin) yields an error:
"An attempt was made to reference a token that does not exist."

At this point, we just want to access the photos that haven't been backed up and then reinstall the OS.

I would open the run command with Win+R and I opened cmd and tried SFC / scannow
nothing

through win+r > msconfig, I managed to get the pc to boot into safe mode (I could not find that option anywhere in the blue diagnostic window).
Reboot, but that didn't help, still the same errors.

I did some research with the above posted error message and found quite a few messages referencing software that was not on the laptop (as far as I could tell at a glance, they all sounded like server software or something), but they all mentioned running :
for /f %s in ('dir /b *.dll') do regsvr32 /s %s
in cmd, but that didn't help either.

We don't know what happened, but it appears his computer is bricked and I don't know what to do. The windows repair functions didn't seem to work, and we can't even access the data.
Any other ideas before resorting to just replacing the HDD and completely reisntalling windows and accessing he photos in the old HDD with a HDD enclosure?

 

[Neemobeer]

If you can get back into Windows, from a command prompt, run sfc /scannow and chkdsk /R


If it is taking a very long time to boot the hard drive may be failing. If you can download Seagate tools, run that and it should give you a health status on the drive.

 

[MikeHawthorne]

If you can't do as Neemo suggests and If it's not hard drive failure, but you can't get back into Windows...

If all else fails make a Bootable Ubuntu disk, and boot your computer into Ubuntu.
Back up all the data you have on your C:\ drive some place else, so that it's safe, if you have an external hard drive use that or large USB drives or DVDs.

Once that's done you won't lose your data if you have to do a wipe and reinstall or use the manufactures utility to restore the computer to it's original condition.

Download Ubuntu Desktop | Download | Ubuntu

Do this on any computer, read the instructions on how to create a bootable disk, or USB stick.

When get back to your computer and boot to the disk, don't click Install, just let it boot from the disk and use it to copy your data someplace safe.

Mike

 

[phantom16]

We've done sfc /scannow and it didn't find anything, and it didn't help.

We'll give chkdsk /R a shot, though, and see how that goes.

Worst case: Yeah, I think I'll just download a linux distro and attempt a one last attempt at saving the data. Thanks guys!

 

[Josephur]

I think you should check the event viewer directly after the error message is shown. Check both Application and System log and see if there's more details to the error that might point you/us in the right direction.