Need Help. My Acer Laptop no longer boots. Complete Black Screen. Upon inspection, C:\Windows got moved to found.000

So, a bit of backstory. My Acer predator Laptop is now having an issue where it turns on shows the UEFI Logo and does nothing. The last time it was working it rebooted itself at like 4 in the morning. I went to shut it down, and Windows has never booted up since. I've since done a full disk image backup using clonezilla in case it got messed up further. Now onto the weird stuff. I used a ubuntu live cd to browse the contents of the C Drive. Upon inspection, the Windows directory was gone, replaced by a 0 byte file. Wait that can't be correct, I thought, then plugged the OS drive into another working windows 11 machine I have, and indeed it was correct. I then later in the day discovered that THe windows directory got moved to a hidden directory called found.000. In that directory was the windows folder. I moved it back to the correct location, and the boot process got further. Now instead of a black screen, I get a blue screen saying "your computer needs to be repaired" followed by unknown error 0xc000007b.
So it looks like the directory is corrupted. I've ran chkdsk from command line on the drive, but it found no problems. With my WIndows 11 USB Drive bootable install, I tried running a DISM repair and SFC /scannow, under command prompt. Neither fix the problem. Basic stuff like startup repair I've already tried and failed. Furthermore DISM fails regardless of the source I use. DISM fails with 0x800f001f "the source files could not be found" This happens no matter what I try. I've tried using install.wim, install.esd, even going as far to plug the drive into my working windows machine and running the dism with an internet connection. It always fails. I'll attach the dism log. The command I use for dism is like this
DISM /image:F:\ /cleanup-image /restorehealth /source:G:\install.wim:6 /limitaccess
the paths are correct but it always fails. No matter what I try, dism fails.
Now my question is is there something that I can do to get this machine to boot without a reinstall. I'd do a repair install but windows doesn't boot. I have a working backup of the machine, but it is over a year old. I'd prefer to use that ONLY as a last resort. Is there any way to get windows to just rebuild the C:\WIndows directory???

ANy help is appricitated.

I'd use the restore from a backup but I'd also be prepared to reinstall Windows. The file named found.000 or other number used to indicate files were found during chkdsk and saved but they may have lost the association with a program, also could mean the boot process files are lost, hence the need to reinstall. Also involved is the moving of files causes the file path [location] of the files has been lost.

1) Test the drive with the Sea Tools bootable Long generic test



2) If the Long generic reports pass then consider a custom install




3) If the Long generic reports fail then manually backup files and replace the drive

Berton said:

I'd use the restore from a backup but I'd also be prepared to reinstall Windows. The file named found.000 or other number used to indicate files were found during chkdsk and saved but they may have lost the association with a program, also could mean the boot process files are lost, hence the need to reinstall. Also involved is the moving of files causes the file path [location] of the files has been lost.

Click to expand...

ok, i will consider going back to the macrium backup I made just over a year ago. also, In regards to C:\Windows, I assume it's impossible to just copy that directory from my working macrium backup. I assume that won't "just work" In any case, is there a way to either do a repair install of a non-booting windows?

zbook said:

1) Test the drive with the Sea Tools bootable Long generic test

SeaTools | Seagate US

SeaTools - Quick diagnostic tool that checks the health of your drive.

www.seagate.com

2) If the Long generic reports pass then consider a custom install

Custom Install Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to do a custom clean install of Windows 11 on your PC. When you perform a custom install of Windows 11, a clean install of Windows 11 is performed only on the same partition as the current installation of Windows to replace it. The previous installation is moved...

www.elevenforum.com

Restore Files from Windows.old Folder in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to manually restore files from the Windows.old folder in Windows 11. When you upgrade to Windows 11 from Windows 10, repair install Windows 11, custom install Windows 11, or update to a new version of Windows 11 (ex: Windows Update), a copy of the previous...

www.elevenforum.com

3) If the Long generic reports fail then manually backup files and replace the drive

Code:

2025-06-17 15:06:28, Info                  CBS    Total Detected Corruption:    3361



2025-06-17 15:06:28, Error                 CBS    Session: 6996_115406 failed to perform store corruption detect and repair operation. [HRESULT = 0x800f081f - CBS_E_SOURCE_MISSING]

Click to expand...

Does seatools work with NVME Drives? I forgot to mention that as well as my Laptop model.
It's a Acer Predator PH-315-54-760S
THe boot Drive is a 4TB Crutial P3 Plus NVME
Here's a screenshot of crystaldiskinfo with the drive plugged into a differnet working PC

There are multiple types of drive tests.

A drive can fail one and pass on another.

SMART testing (crystal disk) is an attempt to predict drive failure.

The Long generic is typically used for warranty replacement.


Drive damage that occurs during a power outage may have a Long generic test fail.

A SMART test often reports > 90%.

First of all, sorry you haven't made a more recent image, but something is better than nothing. Whether your drive tests good or you have to purchase another one, whether you recover from the old image or clean install, you can use the Ubuntu live disk to copy your personal files to external media and then copy them from the external disk back into your user account once you get windows back up and running. If you were syncing your personal files to Onedrive, they should automatically appear anyway.

Your clone is not worth diddly since you cloned a non-working install of windows.

glasskuter said:

First of all, sorry you haven't made a more recent image, but something is better than nothing. Whether your drive tests good or you have to purchase another one, whether you recover from the old image or clean install, you can use the Ubuntu live disk to copy your personal files to external media and then copy them from the external disk back into your user account once you get windows back up and running. If you were syncing your personal files to Onedrive, they should automatically appear anyway.

Your clone is not worth diddly since you cloned a non-working install of windows.

Click to expand...

That's roughly my plan. I've generally accepted that going back the backup isn't too bad an option. My plan is to use the macrium backup I made a year ago as a base, and update all my programs (thankfully this is easy, due to scoop, and winget) then compare personal files that changed from the backup to the current files on the disk. I'm going to use another drive to just copy the current personal files onto (cause it's an all or nothing thing when restoring drives with macrium)

another thing:
I'm still running the seatools live usb. I'm running the test on the 2 4tb drives I have in there. They are both crutial P3 Plus 4tb. The one drive has already finished and says it passed. The other is still running, and at 10% at the time of writing. I set both to do the long generic test. WHat seems wierd to me is that one drive is already done, the other is at 10% despite being the same drive. Why would this be? Also, I'm not 100% certian, but the drive that's finished I believe is the WIndows drive. I'll confirm when the test finishes