Total Boot Failure After Removing Second SSD - Win 10

Anonymous
2022-07-14T20:03:36+00:00

Windows 10: I have a primary disc for the OS and a secondary disc for just data (or maybe not???). I took out the secondary disc (in order to a bigger one in) and rebooted. I got a boot failure and Windows automatically tried to repair the issue, but it failed. I then replaced the secondary disc (so system is back as it was), but this did not solve the problem. During the "automatic repair process" it must have broken something.

The only thing that comes to mind is I may have split the pagefile to both discs, so when I took the data disc out it may have gotten confused.

So far, I have seemingly tried all of the "safe mode" options, other than than an option to restore a new Win 10 OS (last resort). I'd like to be able to at least somehow get into the OS so I can can deactivate licenses and put them on a new computer. At least some way to transition stuff to a new computer.

I guess in prior Windows versions (I'm still old school dating to 3.11), but this thing would not have happened. It all started with an automatic repair process that changed things such that putting the drives back "as is" didn't resolve it.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Performance and system failures

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  1. Igor Leyko 112.4K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2022-07-16T17:15:52+00:00

    Do you still have boot failure and automatic repair process?

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-07-16T15:29:22+00:00

    Some udpates. I ran BCDBoot  E:\Windows     

    Is E:\ correct? This is the largest partition and also the one that windows is (but not sure if its actually a boot partition).

    Before BCDBoot, it would be up to the recovery menus (the same ones as you have when you boot from a install disc and choose repair). However, after running BCDBoot, this is what the system boots to now:

    Your PC/Device needs to be repaired.

    The operating system couldnt be loaded because the digital signature of a file or one of its dependencies couldn't be verified.

    File:\Windows\system32\winload.exe

    Error code: 0xc000428

    You'll need to use recovery tools. If you have any install media (like a disc or USB device), contact...

    For reference, this is from List Vol. The weird thing is that I don't know what "Data" is. Maybe its a boot drive? I also don't know what Volume 3 is.

    Volume 0 G DVD-ROM 0B

    Volume 1 C Data Partition 100MB

    Volume 2 E OS Partition 237GB

    Volume 3 F Partition 860MB

    Volume 4 D ESD-USB Removable 14GB

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-07-16T06:25:17+00:00

    Licensing data is on Microsoft servers enabling disk drive replacement or reinstalling Windows.

    Consider performing a custom install.

    For a custom install files are saved to Windows.old and a fresh version of Windows is installed.

    Drivers and applications need to be reinstalled.

    Important files are restored from Windows.old.

    A custom install is performed using a bootable Windows Media Creation Tool (MCT) (Windows 10 iso).

    These are some links / tutorials:

    https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/148005-how-restore-files-windows-old-folder-windows-10-a.html

    https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/9230-download-windows-10-iso-file.html

    https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

    https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/120352-custom-install-windows-10-a.html

    https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/148005-how-restore-files-windows-old-folder-windows-10-a.html

    If there are no files that need to be backed up then perform a clean install:

    https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1950-clean-install-windows-10-a.html

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-07-16T03:05:31+00:00

    Reporting back...

    I identified the appropriate driver as e:

    Step 5 was a success

    Step 6 did not work. I entered the information exactly as is (triple checked), but using e: as the drive. It just hangs with a blinking cursor. Interestingly enough, the example when just typing SFC use all caps for the switches. When I used all caps, it did not hang, but did not run either. This seems odd to me since I would not think it is case sensitive. In any case, this is just a check, so I moved on to Step 7.

    Step 7 reported back:

    Error: 4448

    An error occurred accessing the temporary folder X:\windows\TEMP\XXX

    where XXX is a long string.

    Ensure the path to the temporary folder exists and that you have Read/Write permission on the folder.

    The DISM log file can be found at X:\windows\Logs\DISM\dism.log

    I was able to drill down to X: and see that X:\windows\TEMP\ exists. However, I don't know why the failure occurs. When I removed the USB drive, there is no \windows\TEMP folder, so I don't know what X: even is.

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  5. Anonymous
    2022-07-15T20:15:00+00:00

    Thanks, I will work on that and report back!

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