Check if your device is damaged or not functioning properly.
Check if your device is damaged or not functioning properly.
I checked how things began and where I am now. I thought I had a virus on my computer, scanned it, and believed I removed it. I even rolled back a few weeks earlier, and everything seemed fine. The next day I turned it on and saw a blue screen with the error code CRITICAL PROCESS DIED (Windows 10 OS). It took me some time to fix things. I ran DISM to repair a corrupted system image, tried SFC /Scannow, but those didn’t help. I went through all the settings until I decided to reinstall Windows 10 from a flash drive. When I selected the drive, it said “The selected Disk is of the GPT partition Style” and refused to install. I clicked Format, but it just loaded for a second and did nothing. I turned the computer off and back on. Now I’m at the recovery screen with no working options—the same blue screen appears again, but I can access BIOS. I’m not sure what to do next.
Consider using an unused external hard drive that isn’t connected. Perform a clean installation on that drive, then restart and connect the other drive. Use BIOS settings to verify the new drive is selected before saving and launching Windows. After completing the clean install, run a virus scan and error check on the old drive before trying any recovery attempts. This approach reduces the risk of damaging the boot drive, which can make recovery more difficult if files are lost.
Your PC isn't completely damaged, but the starting code on your hard drive might be faulty. Avoid making too many changes if you have important files stored there and haven't made a complete backup elsewhere.
You're aiming to reinstall Windows without using any files from your computer. That's a good start. Just keep in mind you'll lose all existing files. When prompted about the installation location, select each partition and choose Delete. After this step, you should see one drive listed as "0." Proceed with installing Windows there. If you need to recover your data (photos, documents), you may have a chance, but we'll need an alternative method.