My son has a Dell Optiplex 9020, i7 4th Generation, 8GB RAM, Nvidia GTX 1030 video card, with a 1TB SATA hard drive. And the system shows the following error message only on reboot:

“Invalid or damaged bootable partition.”

Only OS is Windows 10 Pro. UEFI mode and secure boot disabled, system is in Legacy Boot mode.

If powered on, it boot fine and everything works as expected.

If a reboot occurs, the system halts just after the BIOS/UEFI firmware splash screen and it says "Invalid or damaged bootable partition" and just hangs there. If I power off and back on, everything works as expected.

We have booted up the install media and done a Repair at the command prompt...

• bootrec /FixMbr <- Completes with no issues.
• bootrec /FixBoot <- Returns "Access denied"
• bootrec /ScanOS <- Shows [1] F:\Windows and [2] F:\Windows.old\Windows
• bootrec /RebuildBcd <- Shows both but returns "Element not found" when you select either or all to add

Otherwise everything is working normally... But this causes a problem with Windows updates that reboots randomly at night or at other times a reboot is necessary.

Any thoughts on how to go about correcting this, or would the best solution simply be to reinstall Windows?

5

1 Answer

The problem turned out to be an old USB MP3 player that was connected to a USB port. Disconnecting the device allowed the system to boot or reboot without issue.

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