Black screen with cursor on startup

OkeyDoke12

I have a windows 10 desktop which was turned off during a update because of a power cut. When I restarted the machine it comes up as a black screen with a cursor. I have pressed f8 repeatedly but still nothing happens. I have pressed clt alt delete as well and nothing happens.

I bought the computer with windows already installed so I have no back up cd

human 19

when you switch on the PC , is there an option on the screen showing something like F12 boot options? it would only show for a couple of seconds.
If so, press this and see if it gives you a recovery mode or an option to to reinsatll Windows.

If not, get on to whoever sold you the PC and ask if there is a way of accessing a recovery patrition on the disc. A lot of manufacturers have such a partition on the disk. It may be why you dont have a spare disk in the first place.

OkeyDoke12

human 19 wrote: »

when you switch on the PC , is there an option on the screen showing something like F12 boot options? it would only show for a couple of seconds.
If so, press this and see if it gives you a recovery mode or an option to to reinsatll Windows.

If not, get on to whoever sold you the PC and ask if there is a way of accessing a recovery patrition on the disc. A lot of manufacturers have such a partition on the disk. It may be why you dont have a spare disk in the first place.

I will post a few pictures of the options I can get when the computer switches on.

OkeyDoke12

Second attachment

When the startup interrupt menu appears and I press any of the f buttons nothing happens it just switches back to the black screen with the cursor.

degsie

OP do you see a courser or a pointer? These are completely different things. If a pointer just press crtl or enter and then enter your password (blindly).

OkeyDoke12

degsie wrote: »

OP do you see a courser or a pointer? These are completely different things. If a pointer just press crtl or enter and then enter your password (blindly).

This is what I see it just keeps flashing.

I have no password when logging onto the computer

degsie

OkeyDoke12 wrote: »

This is what I see it just keeps flashing.

I have no password when logging onto the computer

The power outage may have corrupted windows os. If you could borrow another pc/laptop maybe try download a 'live' linux distro and run it from a cd/usb drive and see that works ok. You may be looking at re-installing windows in any case.

human 19

looks like F11 might be the best option. may give you a submenu including something like reinstall or restore factory settings(i.e. the equivalent of using an install disk)

Xterminator

^^^ warning, that will result in complete data loss.

OP, if you have access to another computer, download linux cinnamon from here https://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=217
and burn to a blank dvd.

if you boot up your laptop with that in the drive and choose boot from cd/dvd - linux mint will startup, but wont wipe your laptop.
(method of booting from cd varies a little from make to model eg Dell press f12 on boot up)

from here you can browse to your hard drive, and copy any files you want to keep to a usb disk. Its all plug and play, and you won't need any special skills or commands etc.

once you have backed up your files you can re-install windows. usually the manufacturer will have very clear instructions on their website as mentioned above, its often required to boot from a recovery partition on your hard drive.

OkeyDoke12

So I have obtained a genuine copy of Windows 8 and have it on a usb stick. When the computer loads up I get 2 options one is upgrade install which when I click on this appears you can see in screenshots

OkeyDoke12

The other option is custom install Windows only (advanced) only thing is I don't have a Windows disc I only have a copy on a usb. When I click on custom install this appears

Xterminator

OP the 2nd screenshot shows you have a recovery partition on your lenovo.

you should use that to reinstall windows, or you might not have the device drivers you need etc. Vanilla windows may not have the wireless driver etc, which means you cant get online and download what you need.

Assuming it is a lenovo, look here

https://support.lenovo.com/ie/en/documents/ht036037

(PS recovery will erase your hard drive ...)

riclad

recovery from the partition will install windows ,
But it,ll erase all your music, documents , data ,
as it formats drive c .

http://ntfs.com/ http://www.ntfs.com/recovery-toolkit.htm

theres a live cd here based on windows .
if you want an alternative to linux