Blue screen startup errors on Windows 10 and 11
Why does this happen?
The Windows start up error shows when your computer has a problem reading the system's start up, or boot files. The computer can still "see" the drive but for whatever reason the files it is trying to use can not be fully accessed.
We often see this in our computer repair business. The issue appears software related, but it is most often the sign of a hardware problem. Many people tend to believe it is "virus" or malware related. More often than not it is not, and in fact a problem with either the drive, or the system RAM memory.
In earlier versions of Windows this error could be repaired using chkdsk, or repairing the system's boot files. However in newer versions of Windows, after all user software attempts to fix fail, it is hardware (hard drive) related problem.
How to test?
First thing we would do in a situation like this is run both a hard drive test, and then a memory test via an outside, usually Linux based installer. Parted Magic is a handy tool containing several hardware tests. We use this daily in the course of our computer repair business services.
What about my data?
Luckily the computer still sees Windows on the computer. This means, that even if the drive is failing, there is a good chance the data is still there. With data recovery software we can often get the data from the failing drive.
Note there is no way to fix a failing hard drive, the only thing you can do is replace it and install a fresh version of Windows on your laptop or desktop computer.