Windows boot manager is broken
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brucine Posted messages 24390 Registration date Status Membre Last intervention -
brucine Posted messages 24390 Registration date Status Membre Last intervention -
Hello, I think I managed my Windows 10 reinstallation on a new hard drive poorly and I can't access my new installation without my old hard drive.
I'm trying to understand how Windows installations work at the moment. Basically, next to the partition we see appearing in "This PC," there is a hidden FAT32 partition where the boot manager or the MBR is located?
On the old disk, there is one of the partitions that I use to boot into Windows Boot Manager and if I disconnect this drive (the old one), I can't boot into anything.
I tried this tutorial but it didn’t work :/
Does anyone have a solution for me?
Thanks in advance!
I'm trying to understand how Windows installations work at the moment. Basically, next to the partition we see appearing in "This PC," there is a hidden FAT32 partition where the boot manager or the MBR is located?
On the old disk, there is one of the partitions that I use to boot into Windows Boot Manager and if I disconnect this drive (the old one), I can't boot into anything.
I tried this tutorial but it didn’t work :/
Does anyone have a solution for me?
Thanks in advance!
4 réponses
Hello,
If I understood correctly, it's normal: as soon as you install an operating system on a second drive, the boot sector will be located on the first one in multi-boot mode, so nothing will boot if you remove it.
If you want the second hard drive to boot independently, you need to remove the first one before installing the operating system on the second (and of course, beforehand modify the boot sector of the first one via BCDedit or whatever to remove the multi-boot).
If it's a matter of replacing the first drive with the second, you can now remove the first one.
If it's about booting the two drives independently, the PC will always default to booting from one of the drives; the only solution for booting the second would then be to go through the BIOS Boot Manager to select the second drive; not very practical, and one doesn't see much point in it, but everyone does as they please.
If I understood correctly, it's normal: as soon as you install an operating system on a second drive, the boot sector will be located on the first one in multi-boot mode, so nothing will boot if you remove it.
If you want the second hard drive to boot independently, you need to remove the first one before installing the operating system on the second (and of course, beforehand modify the boot sector of the first one via BCDedit or whatever to remove the multi-boot).
If it's a matter of replacing the first drive with the second, you can now remove the first one.
If it's about booting the two drives independently, the PC will always default to booting from one of the drives; the only solution for booting the second would then be to go through the BIOS Boot Manager to select the second drive; not very practical, and one doesn't see much point in it, but everyone does as they please.
Hello
the easiest way is to clone the old disk onto the new disk
If my answer helped you, click on the Thank you button.
Mark as resolved, if your problem is fixed.
the easiest way is to clone the old disk onto the new disk
If my answer helped you, click on the Thank you button.
Mark as resolved, if your problem is fixed.
Thank you for the replies!
The idea was precisely to start fresh with a new W10 because the old one was getting a bit messy.
I installed W10 on my new hard drive more than a month ago and I would like to avoid starting with a brand new W10, reinstalling everything, etc.
I would like to be able to remove the old SSD to put it elsewhere and still be able to boot my PC.
When I remove my old SSD, I see several empty slots in the boot choice (where I see Windows boot manager (480GB) when it is connected).
Is it possible to move the boot record to the new disk? (the 1TB one)
Thank you for your replies!
The idea was precisely to start fresh with a new W10 because the old one was getting a bit messy.
I installed W10 on my new hard drive more than a month ago and I would like to avoid starting with a brand new W10, reinstalling everything, etc.
I would like to be able to remove the old SSD to put it elsewhere and still be able to boot my PC.
When I remove my old SSD, I see several empty slots in the boot choice (where I see Windows boot manager (480GB) when it is connected).
Is it possible to move the boot record to the new disk? (the 1TB one)
Thank you for your replies!
I lost the grammar of the various utilities just allowing to write a boot sector on a disk, it has gone out of fashion, but since the attempt to "repair" Windows 10 on this disk, I fear that it can only be done at the cost of the data on this disk or even its formatting.
There's no point in complicating life for the sake of it, if this disk is meant to replace the other as a boot disk, the best solution is indeed to clone the old disk, there are several free software available for this purpose, such as Macrium Reflect.
There's no point in complicating life for the sake of it, if this disk is meant to replace the other as a boot disk, the best solution is indeed to clone the old disk, there are several free software available for this purpose, such as Macrium Reflect.
Yes, but I've already reinstalled everything on the new drive, the games, the software, the settings, etc. It took a long time and wasn't very fun.
I'm not really doing this for pleasure; I mainly want to save time and learn from this issue.
Otherwise, I'm going to try to install Ubuntu on the drive on a very small partition and its "GRUB" might let me boot into Windows with only the new drive in my PC.
It's a bit of a makeshift solution, but oh well, it might work. But if by this evening someone else has an idea, I’m all ears ????
Thanks and have a great day!
I'm not really doing this for pleasure; I mainly want to save time and learn from this issue.
Otherwise, I'm going to try to install Ubuntu on the drive on a very small partition and its "GRUB" might let me boot into Windows with only the new drive in my PC.
It's a bit of a makeshift solution, but oh well, it might work. But if by this evening someone else has an idea, I’m all ears ????
Thanks and have a great day!
Otherwise, I will try to install Ubuntu on the disk in a very small partition, and its "GRUB" might let me boot into Windows with only the new disk in my PC.
Well, no: for GRUB or any boot manager to suggest booting into another operating system in a different partition, that partition needs to be bootable.
We might be able to create the missing boot partitions on the new disk by following the instructions below and without formatting, provided that the partition table of this disk is GPT; otherwise, we will be in trouble if we cannot perform a dynamic MBR/GPT conversion, which is not guaranteed and should be approached with caution (you need to check which partition you are addressing):
http://woshub.com/how-to-repair-deleted-efi-partition-in-windows-7/
If we are sure we have transferred or backed up everything necessary (except the boot) onto the new disk, the radical solution is to delete the partition from the old one: by using the installation CD/USB if needed, Windows will necessarily recreate it in repair mode.