Total Boot Failure After Removing Second SSD - Win 10

(1) I thought you had two disks. Why does your List Vol seem to show only one? That simple form of BCDBoot was supposed to find the EFI (if a UEFI install) or System Reserved (if Legacy) on its own to put new boot files inside. And my suspicion was that it is on your secondary disk. But leave the secondary unplugged for now. Later, we'll want to plug it in to see what partitions are on it. I don't want to see another EFI or System Reserved on it.

Did the "BCDBoot  E:\Windows" say it completed successfully?

(2) This List Vol, however, does suggest a complete installation is on the primary disk. But you left out the File System column. The 100 MB partition is the right size for either, but EFI would be FAT32, & System Reserved would be NTFS. Is the 100 MB partition FAT32 or NTFS? Going also by size, the 860 MB partition is the Recovery partition. E is the only one large enough to be the Windows partition. "OS" is the label you should see for it in File Explorer.

Volume 0 G DVD-ROM 0B

Volume 1 C Data Partition 100MB <<<EFI or System Reserved?

Volume 2 E OS Partition 237GB <<<Windows partition

Volume 3 F Partition 860MB <<<Recovery Partition

Volume 4 D ESD-USB Removable 14GB <<<Win 10 Installation USB drive

(3) "Data" as a label seems wrong whether that is EFI or System Reserved. It should be "ESP" (EFI System Partition) like mine, or it should just say "System Reserved". That makes me think the partition's type code is wrong which also is a reason for a failure to boot. Or, maybe, if it's a System Reserved partition, it just needs to be set Active. Let's try...

DiskPart <<<Enter DiskPart

List Disk <<<Is there an asterisk under GPT...?...

DISKPART> List Disk

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt

---------- -------- -------- --------- ---- ----

Disk 0 Online 931 GB 2048 KB * <<<It's UEFI if an asterisk is there

List Vol <<<Is Vol 1 still 100 MB & still have letter C?

Select Vol 1 <<<Then select it

Detail Part <<<Show its details

Exit <<<Exit DiskPart

DIR C:\ /a <<<Let's see its folders/files

(a) My Detail Part shows an EFI partition type...

DISKPART> Detail Part

Partition 1

Type : c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b <<<EFI

Hidden : Yes

Required: No

Attrib : 0X8000000000000000

Offset in Bytes: 32768

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info

* Volume 2 S ESP FAT32 Partition 99 MB Healthy System

What type is shown for you? If it's a lot smaller, yours is a Legacy installation. Then, I think the type ID should be 07. Also, the partition needs to set Active. Does it say "Active" anywhere in your result?

(b) My DIR shows an EFI folder...

C:\WINDOWS\system32>DIR S:\ /a

Volume in drive S is ESP

Volume Serial Number is FAD1-673D

Directory of s:\

05/09/2017 12:25 AM <DIR> EFI

09/29/2017 08:41 AM 1 BOOTNXT

What folder is on yours?

(4) That error message (by mentioning "winload.exe") suggests your installation is Legacy. It would say "winload.efi" if UEFI. Let's try to verify it with...

BCDEdit /Enum {Bootmgr}

C:\WINDOWS\system32>BCDEdit /Enum {Bootmgr}

Windows Boot Manager

identifier        {bootmgr}

device            partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume1     <<<What is your Device value? It will indicate

                                                                                             whether there is a system partition at all.

                                                                                               Sometimes there isnone, then C: doubles

                                                                                          as the System partition.

path               \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi <<<Does yours say ...efi here or is it ...exe?

description     Windows Boot Manager

locale             en-US                                                    

inherit             {globalsettings}

default            {current}

resumeobject          {f8d976f9-df94-11ea-b1d0-74e6e2074932}

displayorder            {current}

toolsdisplayorder    {memdiag}

timeout                   30

Did you run that command earlier to see the locale? Did it work? If it worked earlier but not now, it suggests the type code of EFI/System Reserved was good before but bad now. Or, maybe, that it just needs to be set Active. We'll have to fix it.

That's right. BCDBoot regenerates the boot files. It's more likely to succeed, I think, if your installation is UEFI. I have a suspicion your EFI partition may be on the secondary disk while the Windows partition is on the primary. That is why it wouldn't boot without it. If the simple form of BCDBoot won't work, we'll give it more parameters. Good luck.

PCR, thanks for the reply. The disc is not corrupt so I have already copied all the files from it to another disc. But that doesn't help too much. I need to actually get into Windows to deactivate some legacy licenses and also see how some programs are set up, etc. There are also some legacy programs that I would like to use occasionally that can't be installed anymore (some require dead server links to be installed and/or updated). In effect, I'd really like to get it working again, even if its just in a limp mode.

I reread your response and this first part may be in regard to just the files. And the second part may be with respect to getting it to boot. I will look into this further.

(1) Try this way to backup your files. Notepad works very well at a Command Prompt of the Recovery Environment...

(a) Plug in a USB drive on which to copy your files.

(b) Get to the Recovery Environment, I.e, boot to the Win 10 Installation USB drive,

     & click to "Repair your computer" (instead of to install).

(c) At the "Choose an Option" screen,

     click "Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Command Prompt".

(c) Enter Notepadat the Command Prompt. It opens in GUI mode.

(d) In its File menu, select Open.

(e) Set Notepad to display all file types with its requestor at bottom.

The files you want are likely in the personal folders at "E:\Users&lt;your user name>". Remember to Refresh the screen after a paste. Additional notes...

o  Notepad's left pane has only "Quick Access", "Libraries", & "This PC".

o  Click This PC to switch from C: to the USB drive & vice versa.

o  Double-click a drive or folder in the right pane to open it. Or just select it, then click the Open button at bottom. But ensure nothing is in the filename box, or you get an error message (if it isn't a text file).

o  Right-click a file or folder, & select Copy. That seemed instantaneous.

o  Go to the USB drive, right-click in Notepad's right pane, & select Paste.

     I had an hourglass for just about a minute - or was it two - for 1.3 GB.

o  When the normal pointer reappears, right-click in the right pane, & select Refresh - or I think you never will see it.

(2) Regenerate the BCD (Boot Configuration Data) & other boot files at the Command Prompt...

(a) Enter these commands...

DiskPart          <<<Enter DiskPart

List  Vol           <<<Show the drive letters

Exit                  <<<Exit DiskPart

Here's what mine looks like in the recovery environment...

DISKPART> List Vol

  Volume ### Ltr    Label            Fs              Type            Size     Status        Info

  -------------  --- -----------    ---------   ----------    --------- -----------   --------

  Volume 0      D                                        DVD-ROM        0 B  No Media

  Volume 1      C  PCR Hard     NTFS         Partition      930 GB  Healthy                <<<My Windows partition

  Volume 2          ESP               FAT32        Partition        99 MB Healthy      Hidden     <<<EFI System partition

  Volume 3          WinRE NTFS         Partition      847 MB Healthy

DISKPART> Exit

Leaving DiskPart...

(b) Identify your Windows partition by its Label & Size, then enter...

BCDBoot  E:\Windows            <<<Presuming your Windows partition is E: in that environment

That's the simplest form of that command. It uses default values for everything else. But, if your language is not English, get the Locale value from "BCDEdit /Enum {Bootmgr}". Then the command would be...

BCDBoot  E:\Windows /L  en-US <<<But there's no need for it if it is en-US

C:\WINDOWS\system32>BCDEdit /Enum {Bootmgr}

Windows Boot Manager

identifier        {bootmgr}

device            partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume1     <<<What is your Device value? It will indicate whether

                                                                                             there is a system partition at all. Sometimes there is

                                                                                             none, then C: doubles as the System partition

path               \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi <<<Does yours say ...efi here or is it ...exe?

description     Windows Boot Manager

locale             en-US                                                    <<<Locale

inherit             {globalsettings}

default            {current}

resumeobject          {f8d976f9-df94-11ea-b1d0-74e6e2074932}

displayorder            {current}

toolsdisplayorder    {memdiag}

timeout                   30

If this simplest form of BCDBoot won't work, we can get a tad more complex. We'll need to know whether yours is a UEFI or a Legacy installation & where the EFI (for UEFI) or System Reserved (for Legacy) partition is located.

Hi Brian,

My name is Igor, I have 12 Microsoft MVP awards. It's a pleasure for me to help others and I'll do all my best to help you. I'm sorry you have a problems.

Please use Windows installation media and try recovery steps described at

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/402603...

Note, Step 7 may be faulty unfortunately.

And some tips how to troubleshoot boot problems you may find at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/client...