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Got a new (old) PC, and every time I try to power it on, it posts, goes through bios, then before trying to load windows, it restarts itself, everytime, it won't go past the bios menu, have tried removing all peripherals and clearing CMOS, and even have a windows install USB, it just restarts itself before it can boot to anything else.

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    Likely the drive has failed. Boot with a bootable USB Key to see
    – John
    Aug 25, 2021 at 18:18
  • Have tried, does the same thing, and the same drive works fine in another machine, also tried different sata and power cable
    – Henry Oliver
    Aug 25, 2021 at 18:45
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    If you remove all hd's and boot, it should fail complaining about no bootable device. If it still cycles, then I guess it is broken.
    – Bib
    Aug 25, 2021 at 18:54
  • GPT or MBR? Please edit your question
    – Ramhound
    Aug 25, 2021 at 19:58

2 Answers 2

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Try an alternative OS that can run from the USB drive, without needing the HDD -- that would allow you to try to salvage files from the HDD, and to try to troubleshoot the boot issue with various disk repair tools. Just change boot order, and be sure to disable Fast Startup or Quick Boot in BIOS, or the PC will continue trying to recover data from the HDD on startup. Here two suggestions:

  • Ubuntu Linux: See the Foss guide for creating a live USB flash drive. You can run from the USB drive, use the preinstalled browser, LibreOffice suite, and (limited) disk tools. If you like Ubuntu, you could try installing on the HDD, if it's not badly damaged.
  • Ultimate Boot CD: You can Run Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD) from your USB memory stick. UBCD contains numerous tools to fix disk issues, such as DiskCheck and Parted Magic. UBCD is not meant as a complete OS, but as a repair tool.

If you cannot boot from USB, likely there are issues with BIOS or hardware which are not as easy to troubleshoot. You can replace the lithium coin cell used for the system clock and sometimes BIOS, but other than that, hardware repair is best done in a shop.

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Got a new (old) PC, and every time I try to power it on, it posts, goes through bios, then before trying to load windows,

Tests prove the drive is OK, and it may be that Secure Boot is preventing starting with USB.

So get a new copy of Windows and install that. That should very likely work. The existing install has likely been damaged and never repaired.

A Windows installer on USB will bypass secure boot.

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  • Secure Boot wouldn't prevent a drive from being used unless it wasn't GPT.
    – Ramhound
    Aug 25, 2021 at 19:57
  • True but I have seen corrupted operating systems not booting so that I why I suggest installing Windows again.
    – John
    Aug 25, 2021 at 19:59

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