How I responded to 0xc0000225 required device isnt connected or can't be acce(Win8.1)

[GoodEnough]

Friend got this boot up error on their Win8.1 laptop.
It would basically be stuck in a booting/reset loop and never get to Win.

I didn't know if the HD was dead, or if the MBR was just corrupt.

1) I made a recovery Win8 USB drive, which took almost an hour to make.
2) I went into F2/BIOS and booted from the USB.

3) I chose "Troubleshooting->Advanced->Repair".
After an hour, the laptop just shut off, so I tried it again.
It finally said "Can't repair"

5) I went back into the USB utilities and opened the CMD prompt.
I noticed I could access "User/Name/Documents/*" so I used XCOPY (/e) to copy the entire documents folder onto the USB drive.
This was a very nice development, since I assumed I would have to remove the laptop HD and plug it into a 2.5" enclosure and connect it to another PC to copy the files off.
So, at least user has their files right now.

So far, did I take the right approach?

Since the files have been pulled off the machine, I think the next step is to just try the boot USB "Restore" feature. Is that right?

 

[GoodEnough]

I used this
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/create-reset-refresh-media

I thought of one thing that could have gone wrong.
I had no idea if the Win8 laptop was 32 or 64bit.
I picked 64bit when making the USB recovery.
Maybe I will try making it again, under 32 bit, and see if repair works.

 

[Elixer]

Well, you did manage to get some files, so, that is always a good thing.
As for your specific issue, if repair couldn't fix it, you might be able to repair install it.

 

[GoodEnough]

I got all the files, as far as I'm aware of when doing the "XCOPY *.* F: /e"
When the user is ready to wipe the laptop, I will first try "repair install", but now that the Docs files are off, it really makes sense to just wipe the damn 2 year old thing, and start fresh.