Setup Installation :: Inaccessible Boot Device Error And Now BCD File Missing

I am having a problem with a new Dell Inspiron 15 3520 that came with Windows 8 installed and that I had been using for only a month when it went bad.

The problems started when I turned it off about ten days ago, and went I turned it back on a couple days later, and it was stuck in the apparently famous Windows 8 "Automatic repair couldn't repair your pc"/BSOD loop. I was not able to boot into safe mode. System restores made no difference. Somewhere along the line I found something that said that I had an "inaccessible_boot_device error".

From the repair menu maze, I was able to get to a command prompt. I used this to copy almost all of my files off of computer.

Chkdsk showed no bad sectors, no bad partition records, or other irregularities. sfc returned "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations". Some test (I do not remember which) showed that the boot record and BCD were fine. The Dell hardware diagnostic test showed everything working fine.

I am thinking that it is possible that the source of this was a virus or mechanical problem (I saw no evidence for either). If I had to guess, however, I would imagine that the computer stopped working after an automatic update pushed a corrupted/incompatible driver. I have seen discussions online about people having problems with NVIDIA video and/or SATA AHCI Controller drivers, and Windows 8 getting corrupted and stuck in the BSOD loop from that. At some point I saw a Windows Update Log (I am not sure where), that showed that, as Windows shut down the last time it was functional, automatic updates installed a new AHCI driver.

I tried downloading some new drivers for the 3520 from the Dell web site and installing them on the dead computer through a thumb drive and the command prompt. The downloads are all executables, however, and when I tried to run them, I get the message, "the subsystem needed to support the image type is not present". I believe that this message means that the driver executables are 32bit apps and won't run from a 64 bit command prompt. I also tried to use the "Drivers and Utilities" disk that came with my PC to do some driver rollbacks, but, I can't understand the file names or folder structure on the disk, and, when I try some to run some of the exe files ("setup.exe", for example) to get a gui interface, I get the "the subsystem needed to support the image type is not present" message.

After working on the problem for a while, I borrowed a friend's Windows 8 installation disk set. The computer will boot to the repair options off of the 64bit disk, but not the 32bit one. I did attempt a System Refresh off of the 64bit disk, and got back the message, "The drive where Windows in installed is locked. Unlock the drive and try again."

Around the time that I was messing with the BIOS settings to get the computer to boot off of the Windows 8 disk, I started getting a message "Your PC needs to be repaired - Boot Configuration Data file is missing some required information -- File:BCD -- error code 0xc0000034" at the start of my boot ups. I am not sure if I deleted a file somewhere during my repair efforts, or if I am getting this message because the computer is confused in efforts trying to boot off of the DVD. I get this message even with the DVD removed and the BIOS set to boot off of the Windows Boot Manager, however, so I am guessing that a file is now missing. And the message stops me from getting into the repair menus/command prompt any other way except through the installation disk.