TeraByte Unlimited

Thinkpad X1 Carbon, Windows 10 Pro, routinely updated
Machine NOT BOOTABLE, REGISTRY_ERROR BSoD boot loop
Trying to restore Windows partition only (1 of 2 on drive)
Partition is BitLocker encrypted

I have a recent full partition backup via TBWinRE with BitLocker suspended, "Read from volume".
I have a recent incremental backup via Image for Windows, booted into Windows.
I also have a full backup (IFW TBWinRE) of the failed partition the in that state (assumes all data preserved?).
I can/have used the Manage-bde commmand to unlock the partition before restore attempts.

All current restore attempts fail ERROR: "Unable to write first track", including:
-- Automatic restore from incremental back.
-- Normal restore from incremental backup (Multi-pass, Set active, Update boot, Restore first track).
-- Automatic restore from last full backup.

At one early point, a Normal restore with select options (including muti-pass) failed at the end with 2 successive errors:
1. Unable to update entry.
2. Boot entry cleared.

I cannot run CHKDSK /F because the "volume is write protected".
"Diskpart failed to clear disk attribute" when attempting "clear readonly".
DISKPART attributes disk displays:
Current Read-only State:Yes
Read-only: No
CHKDSK "scanned the file system and found no problems".

Can anyone suggest steps I might try to restore the Thinkpad to a working state?

It means it can't restore the first track. Either there are bad sectors in the first track or the controller is blocking it. What you can do is limit the number of sectors it will write, set the number of first track sectors to 1.

Actually, no. I do not believe that is the problem. At one point a CHKDSK command (no /F) ran successfully; it reported no errors.

The OS thinks the drive is write protected. Please note the "DISPART attributes" specified in my original post.
I cannot use REGEDIT to change the read-only status, as the changes to the hive are not retained across TBWinRE boots.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies\WriteProtect=0
DISPART fails, as noted in the original post.
I can unlock BitLocker encryption on the volume with manage-bde, but the "-off" command fails.

I cannot restore any ImageForWindows backup.
I cannot format the drive.

Can anyone offer any guidance?

The restore of the first track occurs directly to it not to any file system - you can also enable the global setting to delete restore destination. Did you try setting 1 to number of sectors to restore? But if nothing in Windows can write the first track / mbr then maybe its the driver?

Also you can use Image for Linux to restore (as well as Image for DOS or Image for UEFI) (which you can also use to clear the drive/delete partitions if needed).

Have you checked the BIOS for any security or protection option that blocks access to drives (or certain areas of the drives)?

As mentioned in the previous reply, have you tried deleting the existing partition prior to restoring? This would require re-enabling BitLocker after getting back into Windows, but can sometimes help when access is being blocked. If deleting prior to restore you wouldn't unlock or suspend BitLocker (the partition should be in the encrypted/locked state when deleted). The IFW option "Delete Restore Destination" can be used if not deleting it/them manually (Settings, General tab).

When you tried to format the drive, was BitLocker suspended/unlocked? If so, that would likely block those types of operations.

If the "WriteProtect=0" registry setting is required, you should be able to add that when creating the build so it's there on boot-up every time. See the "Adding/Editing Registry Settings" section in the following KB article for examples: https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/kb ... re-builds/

In addition to trying IFL, if you have a BootIt license you could see if Partition Work can make changes.

New Drive. Issue resolved.
Problem started with BSoD REGISTRY_ERROR boot loop.
To preserve all data, I created a IFW partition backup, of the failing partition, using TBWinRE.
I restored that failed partition image on the new drive, expecting to manually update CONFIG files. The system booted without error.
Therefore: The BSoD boot loop was a result of the drive failing, although that drive was readable. ????