Onedrive seems to have created its own drive G partition and moved my previous drive G partition to drive L

Further to my last Post...

went back to your instructions above before creating the recovery disk.

pressed shift+restart --->troubleshoot--=>Advanced OPtions--->>> but did not get command prompt.

one option was StartUp (change windows startup behaviour )

other one was UEFI Firmware Settings (restart to change UEFI settings).

At this point I decided to quit and wait for you suggestion on what to do next.

I have the recovery media so should I just do something with it? If so what?

Sorry to be such a pain but thanks for hanging in there with me. Much appreciated.

Cheers!

Garry

I was afraid Shift+Restart wouldn't work fully for you. Your ReagentC said it was disabled. Recently, when mine became mysteriously disabled, I also lost the bulk of the options. I was surprised I got there at all & had any options. Also, although yours does appear to have code for it in your BCD, it is weirdly setup compared to mine. It actually tries to go directly to the Recovery partition instead of setting up a RAM disk. If we get you a fit & proper BCD, all should be well with that.

But I'm getting cold feet. I don't want to put you in an unbootable state. Your BIOS Boot screen is different from mine. There is a two-way communication between Windows & BIOS using the Firmware Boot Manager ({fwbootmgr}) in the BCD. I'm hoping /RebuildBCD will scan your drives & create a BCD that essentially looks like mine, & then communicate the differences to BIOS. But I begin to wonder whether the task is too great now that I actually see your BIOS Boot screen. But I still do -- kinda mostly -- believe a backup of the BCD should get any damage undone if you could restore it.

(1)

(a) Is the Installation DVD you've got of the same or greater version of Windows that is installed? It would be best if that were the case.

(b)Boot to it, & at its Command Prompt, show a picture of...

DiskPart

List Vol

Exit

=== You should recognize the Windows volume by its label or size ===

=== Note its letter which may not be C: in this environment ===

=== Use that letter instead of X: in the following commands ===

MD X:\BU <<<Make a folder on "C:" named BU

BCDEdit /Export X:\BU\BCD_Backup <<<Backup the BCD into it

BCDEdit <<<Show partial BCD

That's just making the BCD backup, so you won't have to do it later should we decide to proceed.

(2)

(a) Is there more at that BIOS Boot screen, like whether it is in UEFI or Legacy mode or whether CMS is on or off?

(b) What do Boot Options 2 through 4 look like? I wonder whether one of them has an option for {bootmgr} -- just like that.

But I am getting cold feet about this. I'm glad you hesitated.

Hi PCR...

you said above ...*"*But I still do -- kinda mostly -- believe a backup of the BCD should get any damage undone if you could restore it."

where would I restore it from? The DVD that I created was done using the media creation tool and the version of windows that is on there would be same as now (as of Sept 13 without any windows updates done since then. 3 updates were done yesterday.) and I don't believe it has my system specific details in it.

as you asked above...

"(1)

(a) Is the Installation DVD you've got of the same or greater version of Windows that is installed? It would be best if that were the case.

(b)Boot to it, & at its Command Prompt, show a picture of...

DiskPart

List Vol

Exit "

as mentioned above, same version of windows but missing updates since Sept 13th 2021.

I will try booting to it and see what happens. Please standby. I will take pic of the screen and attach when i get back into windows (if I do!)

...edit... added the following

before doing anything else, I restarted and entered the bios---> boot tab and looked at the boot options for 3 to 5. pics of the screens are below.

Note that Boot option 4 is UEFI... is that what you referred to before? Should I boot from there or the installation DVD (if so can I select repair from there so I don't wipe out all in current C drive installation)?

note that option 4 is listed first followed by 3 then 5.

Where to go from here?

Cheers!

Garry

(1) It's the version (2004, 20H2, 21H1) that matters, not whether it has all the quality updates. A new version could possibly have new/altered tools in its recovery environment.

(2) "where would I restore it from?"

All of this work -- making a new BCD after backing up the current one & restoring the backup BCD (if necessary) -- is done from the Command Prompt of your Installation DVD.

(3) Note what it says in here...

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/bcdboot-command-line-options-techref-di

BCDBoot Command-Line Options

"BCDBoot adds a firmware entry in the NVRAM to point to the Windows Boot Manager. By default, this entry is placed as the first item in the boot list. Use the /p option to preserve the existing UEFI boot order. Use /addlast to add it to the bottom of the boot order list."

That's what I'm expecting BootRec to also do: Create a {bootmgr} option in BIOS (NVRAM) & set it as the default. Let's stick with BootRec, but, if it fails, then we'll try BCDBoot. Both of them definitely regenerate the BCD. BCDBoot also regenerates all the other boot files that go into EFI. And BCDBoot actually can be run from within a booted Windows.

(2) "where would I restore it from?"

All of this work -- making a new BCD after backing up the current one & restoring the backup BCD (if necessary) -- is done from the Command Prompt of your Installation DVD.

I booted from the DVD and after a long time it finally showed up on screen and had 2 options... Install or Repair. I chose repair then from the options presented, chose command prompt. Here is what DiskPart--->List Vol gave me...

I tried following your instructions above to do the backup and I managed to create the BU directory on C: but trying to do the backup it failed due to source not found. see red box on the following screen shot. I assume that this means there is no BCD?

I tried other commands as well after tis to see if I could get something going but nada...Nothing else seemed to work. see next screen shot red box .

At this point did not know what to do so just exited and rebooted using bios windows option.

In the following you talk about BootRec but I don't see where that comes into play from what you said to do.

That's what I'm expecting BootRec to also do: Create a {bootmgr} option in BIOS (NVRAM) & set it as the default. Let's stick with BootRec, but, if it fails, then we'll try BCDBoot. Both of them definitely regenerate the BCD. BCDBoot also regenerates all the other boot files that go into EFI. And BCDBoot actually can be run from within a booted Windows.

So if you will bear with me a bit longer, I would appreciate knowing what to do next.

If I were to upgrade to latest windows version 21H1 form current 20H2 might that fix it? Just a thought but I somehow doubt it.

Thanks again.

Garry