How To Fix a PC That Boots Into BIOS Instead of Windows

If your PC boots into BIOS instead of Windows, we’re here to show you how to fix it.

When this happens, the BIOS might be set to prioritize a device that doesn’t have Windows installed, the boot files could be missing or corrupted, the drive might not be detected, or there could be recent hardware or system changes.

To fix it, you’ll need to check your boot order, make sure your drive is recognized, and repair or reinstall Windows if necessary. Find step-by-step instructions for all of these below.

How do I fix BIOS boot loop?

1. Check the hardware connection

1. Make sure your hardware is properly connected.
2. Remove any recently added hardware.
3. Try removing the CMOS battery temporarily or replacing it.

2. Disable Fast Boot and set your system drive as the primary option

1. Access the BIOS utility.
2. Go to Advanced settings, and choose Boot settings.
3. Disable Fast Boot, save changes and restart your PC.
4. Set your HDD as the primary booting device and confirm changes. The PC automatically goes to BIOS issue should be resolved.

3. Run the Windows Repair tool

1. To utilize the Windows Repair tool, you’ll need a bootable Windows USB stick/DVD.
2. Connect the flash drive/DVD to your PC, and set it as the Primary Boot Drive.
3. Restart your PC and wait for the bootable device to load. After it finishes loading, choose the Repair your computer option and follow through with the process.
4. This should fix the existing errors and make the system boot properly.

What’s the difference between UEFI and BIOS?

The Basic Input/Output System, or BIOS, is the firmware discussed in the preceding section on the boot mechanism.

It has a wide variety of utility operations that enable it to read the boot sectors of any associated storage and output information to the screen.

The abbreviation UEFI refers to the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface. It performs the same functions as a BIOS. Still, there is one fundamental difference between the two: all of the information regarding initialization and starting is stored in a .efi file rather than on the firmware.

This .efi file is kept on the hard drive within a specialized partition called the EFI System Partition (ESP).

To learn more about BIOS, we have a great guide on how to update BIOS that you might be interested in.

Regarding BIOS, many reported that Windows skips BIOS, but we covered that issue in a separate guide.

If you’re still having trouble, you might need to reinstall Windows using bootable media or even update your BIOS to fix deeper compatibility issues. And if Windows seems to skip BIOS entirely, we’ve covered that in a dedicated guide too.

We hope that our recommendations from this article were helpful for you to solve your PC’s unusual behavior. For more suggestions, please access the comments section below.