New Hard drive - PC won't boot without old (non system) disk
- Thread starter gupott
- Start date
As mentioned earlier, bcdboot.
During a clean install Windows setup creates a System partition, after the image (WIM) is applied to the OS partition the bcdboot command copies boot files from the Windows folder to the System partition. If you format the HDD with a single partition the boot files are copied to the root.
If your new HDD only has the single OS partition your copied from your old HDD then run this command from WinPE.
bcdboot c:\windows /s c:
You can get in to WinPE from Windows setup, press shift+F10 or F11, I never remember.
You nay need to change the driver letters to something other than C:. Diskpart and List Volume will show you which driver letter your OS partition is using,
I have made things worse!! I am typing from my old laptop.
I tried Hirens CD yesterday but to no avail. Currently when I turn the pc on it stops on Windows Boot Manager and says (abridged) Windows failed to start. File:\boot\BCD. Status:0xc0000098. Info The Boot Configuration Data file doesnt contain valid information for an operating system.
I am going to try again this morning what Mujja suggests. I will report back.
I tried Hirens CD yesterday but to no avail. Currently when I turn the pc on it stops on Windows Boot Manager and says (abridged) Windows failed to start. File:\boot\BCD. Status:0xc0000098. Info The Boot Configuration Data file doesnt contain valid information for an operating system.
I am going to try again this morning what Mujja suggests. I will report back.
Just to confirm, this is not a new install but wanted to remove an empty old HDD from the system but couldn't boot without it despite it not being the windows install disk. Anyway, past that, as won't boot either way.
So this is what I have just done;
Installed Hirens BootCD PE Windows 10 and put onto USB
Went to the command prompt
used bootrec.exe /ScanOs to check windows install, confirmed on D:\
put in bcdboot d:\windows /s d: - Boot files successfully created. Shutdown and remove usb.
Restart and then exactly the same error message - dammit.
Any other suggestions?
So this is what I have just done;
Installed Hirens BootCD PE Windows 10 and put onto USB
Went to the command prompt
used bootrec.exe /ScanOs to check windows install, confirmed on D:\
put in bcdboot d:\windows /s d: - Boot files successfully created. Shutdown and remove usb.
Restart and then exactly the same error message - dammit.
Any other suggestions?
A bit more digging around
If I try bcdboot c:\windows (checked that C: is correct on restart) get - failure when attempting to copy boot files
I then had another look around on the internet and tried the following bcdboot c:\windows /s c: /f ALL (/f all relates to UEFI, BIOS or ALL, I thought all sounded good) and it worked!
Thanks so much for the help and suggestions all!
If I try bcdboot c:\windows (checked that C: is correct on restart) get - failure when attempting to copy boot files
I then had another look around on the internet and tried the following bcdboot c:\windows /s c: /f ALL (/f all relates to UEFI, BIOS or ALL, I thought all sounded good) and it worked!
Thanks so much for the help and suggestions all!