Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge
Having your Windows PC start up is something that’s normally taken for granted — until it pauses mid-boot. You may be faced with a serious problem that needs some serious troubleshooting.
Here are some key steps for dealing with problems that may come up when you’re booting a Windows PC. With loads of possible hardware and software combinations out there, it’s hard to be definitive about what might have gone wrong or how to fix it, but this should at least get you pointed in the right direction.
A reminder: sometimes you’re going to need to replace or reformat your main Windows drive when this happens, and that’s why it’s essential that you always have all your files and folders safely backed up.
One more note: if you’ve got an…
