Windows 10: Lost my Windows 8.1

Hello,
I am not sure when it happened, but, somewhere along the line, the Windows 8 startup option quit working. Can it be recovered. I only have a pre-first W10 preview system image........
Any information or ideas, appreciated!


:)

 

Windows 10 update

No, it tried to go back to recovery and all data was lost except the Windows 8.1 OEM. Now I am using 8.1 and lost all my data. My friend had this problem with his video card. He just reinstalled windows from insider preview DVD.

 

no windows media player in windows 10.

My copy was windows 8.1, upgraded to windows 10

the soundis lost

 

Hi glenn
Can you post a picture of disc management please. If you need help with that let us know.

 

Hello Charlie,
Thanks and yes I need a hand in finding disk management in W10.
Much appreciated!

 

Found it!

 

Glen Looks like you have two active partitions. Did you ever have a boot menu or has it been missing since you installed 10.
You could try doing start up repairs with the 10 advanced options found in Settings / update and recovery.
Did you use Uefi instructions to do your 10 install*Smile

 

What is not working? It looks like you are booted from Windows 8?

 

Hello Charlie,
I am currently getting a boot menu with 10 as default and with Windows 8. When I tried to boot to W8 it fails. I do not recall the particulars of the W10 Preview installation. When it first became available as I did care for W8 and this is not my main computer, I did what was necessary by Microsoft. It has been updating since. The second drive is not has some Macrium system images of W8 and why it has a system reserved partition is a mystery. I do not recall doing such with Windows 10 since it's installation. I see a Windows.old and a Windows.old.000 in my C:\ drive.
Thanks for any assistance!

 

Hello Ztruker,
I can not boot to my Windows 8, don't know for how long. Normally don't even see the Boot menu and it just boots to W10.

 

Glen
So you are saying this pic came from your windows 10. Cause it has win8 as the boot partition in this pic. Can you tell which partition is win 8 by the amount of space used?

 

Good Day Sir,
The C:\ Windows 8 CP is the C:\Drive running Windows 10, it boots to a version screen 10 tech preview as default (which auto boots if not picked within a certain period of time) and Windows 8 as the secondary choice. When I choose the Windows 8 option, it fails to be able to run Windows 8. E:\ is my second physical drive and it is not really used much. Don't know how it has a system reserved partition!?!!?????

 

Try deleting your 8 boot entry in msconfig. Then recreate it with: Code: bcdboot (drive):\Windows[/quote] .

 

.[/quote] Hello cyberrufus,
Thanks, but that is a bit of skilled work that I don't presently possess and to me scary!

 

Hi glennc
If I am interpreting your drive management and other info correctly then you do not have an active windows 8/8.1 partition.
Drive c the "Windows 8 CP" is just the partition name and does not reflect the OS installed there it could just be called "OS" or anything else.
However the two windows old provide the clue as to what has happened, I guess you upgraded from windows 7 to windows 8 to windows 10 TP; 7 to 8 created a windows.old then 8 to 10 renamed that to old000 and created a new old.
The boot options got messed up along the way.
You need to attempt a roll back, I have not done this myself but I am sure there must be a tutorial on this site if you search for it