My Unexpected BSOD Journey — From System Recovery to an Important Lesson

Lately, I’d been struggling to keep everything on track — balancing study plans, personal projects, and daily life. I was ready to finally focus and study for a solid 8 hours. But almost immediately, my PC threw a huge curveball: a BSOD error related to the NTFS file system. I thought it was just another BSOD, so I tried a force shutdown and reboot just so it would disappear and I could sit to study, but after a couple of reboots, I discovered that this was more than ‘Just a BSOD’, it was a signal that my file system was corrupted.

The first thing I tried was to head over to advanced repair options, open the command prompt as admin, and run the command chkdsk C: /f /r. This is a command that checks for bad sectors in the file system and repairs them. But turned out the system was RAW, and the command couldn’t run. It meant that the PC couldn’t even identify the file system, and the stop code NTFS_File_System made sense.

At first, everything felt overwhelming. My hard drive’s file system was corrupted, and Windows couldn’t read my system drive — it showed as RAW or unallocated. Honestly, I cared about the data, but I reminded myself that data can be recovered or redownloaded from backups or online sources. My priority was to get the PC working again. So I decided to reinstall Windows.

As I was going through the process, which I will be explaining down below, I ran into another infamous BSOD, IRQL_not_less_or_equal, something that we tried to troubleshoot in our blog about BSODs.

This was beyond frustrating, but I kept my cool and simply restarted the process, and this time it worked.

I was lucky enough to know some tech basics, but if you don’t, here’s a simple step-by-step guide to help you get through this kind of BSOD and recover your system without panic:

Step 1: Understand What a Bootable USB Is

A bootable USB is a USB flash drive prepared with special software that lets your computer start up (or “boot”) from it instead of the damaged hard drive. This is crucial when your system drive can’t load Windows.

Step 2: Get Another Working Computer

To make a bootable USB, you need access to another working PC (like a friend’s or an alternate device).

Step 3: Download the Official Windows Media Creation Tool

Go to Microsoft’s official site and download the Windows Media Creation Tool. This program will download the latest Windows installation files and prepare your USB drive.

[embed]Download Windows 11 (Current release: Windows 11 2024 Update l Version 24H2) There are 3 options below for installing or creating Windows…www.microsoft.com

During the installation of the tool, remember these steps:

1. Download the tool, and make sure you remember where it is.
2. Insert the USB into your PC, make sure it has a capacity of minimum 16 GB. I used a 64GB one, so I didn’t have any issues; however, as per the documentation, you can use an 8GB USB as well.
3. Make sure that if the USB stick has data, you copy that somewhere else, as making it a bootable USB will erase all its data.

Step 4: Create the Bootable USB

• Run the Media Creation Tool.
• Follow the prompts to create a bootable Windows USB installer.
• Safely remove the USB from the alternate PC by right-clicking it and choosing eject.

Step 5: Boot Your Problem PC from the USB

• Insert the USB into the troubled PC.
• Restart and enter the BIOS/UEFI settings (usually by pressing Del, F2, or F12 during startup). You can look up how to do it if you’re not sure. (In some systems, Windows also allows you to recover from another device from the advanced repair menu, so you don’t have to go to the BIOS.)
• Change the boot order to prioritize USB devices first.
• Save and exit BIOS — your PC should now start the Windows installer from the USB.

Step 6: Reinstall Windows

• Follow the on-screen prompts.
• If you see your hard drive listed as “RAW” or “unallocated,” you may need to delete existing partitions and create a new one to install Windows fresh (note: this deletes all data on the drive).
• Now, when you are deleting these disks, you will see that one disk shows up with the suffix USB. Do not touch that disk. There will be two such partitions, one will be the USB, let’s say it is Disk 1….USB, and then there will be Disk 1 unallocated space, which is the free space on your USB drive. Do not touch it. Except for that, whatever disks you have, make sure to select them all, and click delete partition from the options until all you have is a single disk, except for USB, and it says unallocated space.
• Proceed with installation.

Step 7: Troubleshoot Installation Errors

• If you hit errors like IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, try reinstalling without switching USB ports, or check your USB drive and hardware connections. This might not be your case, but just a heads up in case you find it troubling.

Step 8: Connect to the Internet

• Use Wi-Fi, Ethernet, or USB tethering from your phone to get online once Windows is installed.
• One thing to remember is, there was an issue with my PC where it was not detecting my Wi-Fi drivers. Due to this, I had to connect my phone and turn USB Tethering on so that my laptop could update properly.
• Your PC might just ask you to connect to a network, in which case, you can just select your local Wi-Fi network.
• You might get an option to enter a product/license key, just select that you don’t have one, for now.

Step 9: Run Windows Update

For this, press Win + I to open settings, go to updates, and select update all, and when they finish downloading, click on restart now.

• Let Windows download and install all updates and drivers.
• This may require multiple restarts and can take time — be patient.

Step 10: Create a Restore Point

Once your system is stable and updated, create a restore point to save this clean state. This way, if things go wrong later, you can roll back easily.

To create a restore point, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Windows icon, search for Create a Restore Point.
2. Go over to the System Protection tab, click on Configure, select Turn on System Protection, and set the max usage slider to 5%.
3. Hit Apply and then Ok.
4. After this, you will see a button that says Create…
5. Click on the button and set a name for the restore point, e.g., Post Reinstalling Windows, and then click on Create.
6. After that, you can proceed to installing the applications you want.

PRO TIP: Do not use the Chrome browser; use Brave instead.

My Journey So Far

When I went through this, I faced all these challenges, but step by step, I got through them. Even though I cared about my data, I prioritized getting my system working again first. Windows didn’t ask for a license key during install because my laptop has a digital license embedded in the firmware, so activation was automatic once I connected to the internet.

While Windows updated, I worked on this blog on my alternate PC, making the most of the downtime.

Now, I’m waiting for all updates to finish so I can finalize my setup, create that restore point, and move on to building a BSOD testing lab for future troubleshooting practice.

Final Thought

If you ever find yourself facing a scary BSOD or system failure, don’t panic. With a little guidance and patience, you can recover your system — even if you’re not a tech expert. This guide is here to help you take the first steps confidently.

If this helped you, congratulations. Post this point, I am going to dive into the reasons that might have been behind all these issues, but before you stop reading, I would request you to run two checks on your system, completely harmless.

First, open the command prompt as an administrator.

1. Run the command powercfg /batteryreport. This will save the battery health diagnostics and will save the file inside your System32 folder. You can open it up and note the ratio of Full Charge Capacity to the Design Capacity (basic math), and if it comes at around 90 percent or more, it is healthy.
2. Run the mdsched.exe command, and select restart now. This will take some time and tell you if your memory has any issues.

I would recommend doing this before installing anything, just in case.

🧨 How a Drive Becomes RAW (File System Corruption Causes)

🛑 1. Sudden Power Loss or Forced Shutdown

• Pulling the plug, holding the power button, or sudden power cuts while data is being written can corrupt:
• MFT (Master File Table)
• Boot sector
• File system journal

Most common cause on laptops or PCs without a UPS.

🐞 2. Bad Sectors on the Drive

• If your disk develops bad sectors where NTFS metadata is stored, it becomes unreadable.
• These can happen due to:
• Age
• Manufacturing defects
• Physical shock (dropping the device)
• Overheating

🦠 3. Malware or Ransomware

• Some malware intentionally or accidentally damages partition info or filesystem headers.
• Ransomware may corrupt partition tables to lock out users.

🔌 4. Unsafe Removal of External Drives

• If an external HDD or SSD was removed without “Safely Remove Hardware,” the system may not have finished writing the NTFS structure.

💾 5. Corrupt or Outdated Storage Drivers

• A bad SATA/NVMe driver can cause writes to go to the wrong sectors, corrupting the file system.

🧬 6. Improper Dual-Boot or Partitioning

• Messy dual-boot setups (Linux, macOS) or partitioning tools like GParted used incorrectly can overwrite NTFS structures.

🧪 7. Defective Storage Controller or Cable

• A faulty SATA/USB cable or motherboard controller can:
• Interfere with writes
• Causes bit rot (incorrect data being written)
• Crash during I/O, leading to partial writes

🧼 8. Faulty RAM or Overclocking

• Corrupted data in memory being written to disk can mess up NTFS.
• Overclocked/unstable systems often corrupt file systems.

🛡️ Prevention Tips (For the Future)

• Always shut down properly — avoid forced shutdowns.
• Use a UPS (battery backup) to protect against power cuts.
• Regularly run:chkdsk C: /
• Avoid heavy disk activity while multitasking if using an older HDD.
• Use Windows Security or Malwarebytes to keep malware out.

Personally, if you have read my other blogs, I kept having these BSODs and I had a habit of improperly shutting down my laptop. A few days ago, I noticed that when I unplugged my PC from charging, it triggered a black screen, very unusual indeed.

That kind of behavior often points to sudden power transitions or disk I/O interruptions, which can easily corrupt the file system — especially on older or unstable drives.

Let me break this down:

⚡️ What Likely Happened:

🔌 1. Unplugging While Writing to Disk

If your PC was writing something to disk (e.g., system files, updates, background apps), and you unplugged the charger:

• Some laptops instantly switch power states.
• If your battery is weak or not properly calibrated, the system might do a hard suspend or sudden power glitch.

➡️ This interrupts NTFS operations mid-process and can corrupt the file system, leading to:

• Drive turning RAW
• BSODs like NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM
• Boot failures

🧠 2. Black Screen + Delay = Power State Bug

• The black screen before waking up is a sign of a failed sleep transition.
• Some systems improperly handle S3/S4/S5 (suspend/hibernate/shutdown) states when power is lost suddenly.
• This could cause:
• Delayed resume
• Memory was not flushed properly to disk
• Incomplete disk shutdown → file system damage

🔋 3. Weak or Faulty Battery (Not in my case)

If your battery is:

• Failing
• Not charging properly
• Dropping voltage suddenly

Then the laptop might not cleanly hand over to battery power when unplugged. It instead drops power like a crash → file corruption.

🛡️ How to Prevent This in the Future

✅ Once you reinstall Windows:

1. Disable Fast Startup Control Panel > Power Options > Choose what power buttons do > Change settings > Uncheck "Turn on fast startup"
2. Disable Sleep/Hibernate during charging or battery Control Panel > Power Plan Settings > Change Advanced Settings
3. Keep your laptop plugged in during updates/installs Never unplug while system tasks are running.
4. Run Battery Report Open CMD as admin:

• powercfg /batteryreport

It will generate a report showing battery health battery-report.html In your user folder.

Use chkdsk C: /f weekly It fixes early file system issues before they escalate.

This was how I turned a catastrophe in the toughest of times into an opportunity to learn, and you can too.

And hey, I understand that these things must be really frustrating and can happen to anyone, just be patient. And keep in mind to properly shutdown your laptop after work, make sure it doesn’t overheat, and do not keep it charging forever unless you’re doing a resource intensive task.