8.1 Update, Now Won't Boot. All Recovery Media Black Screen With Mouse

Hi Everyone,

I tried updating to Windows 8.1 Update 1 and in didn't go through properly (it hard froze and crashed) and now won't boot past the BIOS. I cannot get into Windows and I cannot get into the Recovery Menu.

I tried recovery USB's and any I create either from a 3rd party or Windows itself results in loading to a black screen with a mouse cursor. Only one worked, Acronis (probably because its Linux) and it showed all the drives ruling out a hardware issue but sadly it cannot repair Windows.

So it seems I might be a victim of the black screen issue some had when moving to Update 1.... BUT the difference is I cannot boot into the recovery menu at all and any recovery media boots to a black screen.

Can someone please help me get out of this screen and actually boot into anything which will allow me to try to fix the MBR or go back to a restore point.

I thought the point of recovery software was that it loads no matter how corrupted Windows is... obviously not! Something is stopping all of them booting properly.

Thanks

 

That's correct. Everything PE based including install media boot's to a black screen, like it's gotten into the PE environment and then not loaded any further.

I cannot boot to the built in recovery screen or install media 'repair your computer' screen. So I cannot get to a command prompt. Why all PE media is booting to a black screen makes no sense to me as its the only way to recover the corrupt W8 install.