Windows 10: Previous dual-boot: deleted old Win8, now Win10 won't boot

EDIT

What actually went wrong and how to prevent this from happening to you:

Solution #1 (slightly longer & requires two drives, but worked perfectly): Image your C:/ partition using Macrium, format & reinstall Windows (without any other drives connected) which allows Windows to create all the correct partitions, and restore your image back onto just the new C:/ partition. Instructions.

Solution #2: manually add the EFI partition that was missing. A normal clean install creates 4 partitions, but I only had two: I was missing the crucial EFI and the non-essential recovery partitions. Instructions.

-- original post below --

Hi! I had Windows 8.1 Pro x64 on an old hard drive (250GB). I installed a new hard drive (500GB) and did a clean install of Windows 10 on the new hard drive (using my Win8 CD key).

It worked fine for two weeks. I never booted into Win8 again, but every time I booted, it gave me the option of Windows 10 vs Windows 8. Always picked Windows 10.

Then, last night, I wanted to use that old hard drive with Win8 for storage. I formatted it via Windows and secure erased it (via gparted on a live USB--this did require disabling secure boot, but I re-enabled it after secure erasing). After rebooting, Windows 10 won't boot: "no bootable devices detected".

The hard drive with Win10 is still recognized in the BIOS, no problem. But, even in the BIOS, it's not seen as a UEFI bootable device.

What I've tried so far:

1. Startup Repair (using the Win10 USB live installer tool thing) -- "Startup repair couldn't repair your PC." Log file is blank, sadly.
2. bootsect /nt60 C: /mbr -> it works successfully, saying "successfully updated NTFS filesystem bootcode" and "bootcode was successfully updated on all targeted volumes", but I still can't boot.
3. bootrec /fixmbr -> completes successfully, still can't boot.
4. bootrec /rebuild bcd -> finds the Win10 install, I select it, and then it says, "the requested system device cannot be found."

I ran diskpart and here's what I'm looking at:

Code: List Disk Disk 0 - Online - 465 GB - 0 B (under free) - blank (under Dyn) - * (under Gpt)[/quote] That makes me worried. Should it be Gpt? It shouldn't, right?

Code: List Partition Partition 1 - Reserved - 16 MB (under size) - 1024 KB (under offset) Partition 2 - Primary - 465 GB (under size) - 17 MB (under offset)[/quote] Shoot, this looks bad, too, right? Shouldn't I have 4 partitions? I did a clean install and it was with "raw unallocated space". But, somehow, only two partitions. *Sad

Code: List Volume Volume 1 - C - NTFS - Partition (under type) - 465GB (under size) - Healthy (under status) - blank (under info)[/quote] --

Am I SOL? Is this unsaveable? *Sad I had no idea it was so bad to format a hard drive I hadn't even booted from in 2 weeks, but maybe that Win8 hard drive was handling some UEFI booting responsibilities that weren't passed onto the new Win10 clean installed hard drive. *Shock

:)

 

Deactivating Licence key

I am about to dispose of an old HP laptop. It came with Win 7, but I upgraded it to Win8.1Pro with a purchased retail DVD.

It was a candidate for a Win 10 upgrade and accordingly was upgraded to Win10 Pro, but by transferring to an SSD as Win8, then upgrading. The old HDD is a dual boot Win7 and Win8, and does still boot up on both OK - so a bit complicated!

I want to deactivate the Win8.1 key so I can transfer it to my daughters Desktop with Vista.

I understand the Win7 is an OEM so is locked to the old laptop, and that Win10 can't have the key deactivated.

So can I cancel the activation of the Win8 key, and how?

Thanks

 

won't update. returns to previous

I have dual boot. insiders won't boot and 1o won't update. after waiting it fails and returns to previous version. last 5 updates

 

How did you get from the 250GB to the 500GB? Did you clone? Because if you did, the drives will have the same ID and you can't boot with them connected at the same time.

 

Can you boot the system to the custom recovery media made by one of our members, Kyhi, and get a screenshot of the disk layout for us using the Macrium Reflect or AOMEI Partition Manager program he has on there?

Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Forums

.

 

Boot from Kyhi's recovery drive above. Open an elevated ("run as administrator") command prompt. Run the following command:

bcdboot C:\Windows /s C: /f ALL

The drive letters will be the drive letter that is assigned to the Windows 10 after booting from Kyhi's recovery drive.

 

No cloning or anything: totally clean install. It was a brand new drive, did nothing in Win8, and went straight into the Win10 install process via the USB drive. It asked me to pick the drive and I picked the new 500GB drive.

Sure! Unfortunately, both the Win10 images (x64 and x86) are at their share limits and I can't download them now. I'm checking to see if there's a mirror available.

But, in the mean time, I bet I can find a Macrium Reflect that has a live USB version and just boot from there?

 

Wait, can I do this from the Windows 10 installation tool? I have a Command Prompt there from "Repair your PC" (instead of Install now) -> Troubleshoot -> Advanced Options -> Command Prompt?

Is that command prompt OK or I need the command prompt from Kyhi's recovery image?

 

Should be able to do it from Windows installation disk command prompt, as long as the installed Windows 10 gets a drive letter.

 

It does have a drive letter, from what Diskpart showed me (the normal C).

So, I ran the command from the Windows 10 installation tool. It seemingly worked because it said "Boot files successfully created." Yet, when I tried to boot, same error: "No bootable device is detected."

It's odd; all of these things are seemingly "working" (except Startup Repair and bootrec /rebuildbcd), yet it still can't boot. I'll work on getting a partition layout from Macrium.

Thank you kindly for your help so far; I really appreciate it!

 

Booting from Kyhi's recovery drive - then run Macrium Reflect on it. Under the restore menu is a utility for fixing Windows startup/boot problems. Run that utility, see if that brings everything together to get the new hard drive to boot.

What happened was that when you installed Windows 10, the setup program saw the system partition and boot files on the old hard drive and, by default, updates the old system partition/boot files to add Windows 10 as a second option rather than creating a new system partition and boot files. When you formatted the old hard drive, you erased the system partition and boot files too.

If you want a 100% independent clean install on a new drive, you need to install Windows onto the new drive with no other drives connected. After that is done, then you connect your old drives and just add boot entries for the previous OS to the new system partition/boot files.

 

OK. I'm still searching for a mirror (OneDrive sharing limit exceeded, unfortunately); does the normal Macrium Reflect WinPE environment have this restore menu or is that just in Kyhi's?

I can install Macrium Reflect on another Win10 x64 PC (though just Win10 Home instead of the Win10 Pro on the system I'm using--don't think that matters, though?) and then create the Macrium WinPe Rescue USB from there? Or....maybe it's just better to wait until Kyhi can provide another mirror?

Ohhhhh, I understand the problem. True; I was surprised when it automatically configured the dual-boot option. Shucks...well, now I know. I had an inkling about removing the Win8 drive, but I had thought--incorrectly--that because it was technically an upgrade and technically that I was using the Win8 key, it would be better if I left the Win8 drive in. Thank you for the explanation.

On a whim, I hadn't tried Startup Repair in a few hours, so I gave it another shot: still nothing. I think it's going to take some partition management tricks--you're right. I really should have 4 partitions, not 2.

 

The standard boot disk created by Macrium Reflect will have the fix boot utility.

 

OK, great. With some help, I'm into Macrium! *Biggrin

Did not get so far, unfortunately. Apparently, I don't have any active partitions.

Restore Tasks -> "Fix Windows boot problems"

It found my Windows 10 installation on C! That was a good sign. But, on the next screen, it wants me to select an active partition ("loaded from the Master Boot Record. This can be any 'Primary' partition on the boot disk on your PC.") and there are none available. Nada, nothing listed, waited 2 minutes, nothing showed up. I tried, on a whim, to just click next, but Macrium then says "! No active partition".

In Diskpart, I remember, you can set partitions as active. I want the Windows (465GB sized) partition active, right, not the 16 MB System partition, right?

 

EDIT:

Update. I tried Diskpart's set as "active partition" method, but I got an error:

Code: DISKPART> list disk Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt -------- ------------- ------- ------- --- --- Disk 0 Online 465 GB 0 B * Disk 1 Online 119 GB 0 B DISKPART> select disk 0 Disk 0 is now the selected disk. DISKPART> list partition Partition ### Type Size Offset ------------- ---------------- ------- ------- Partition 1 Reserved 16 MB 1024 KB Partition 2 Primary 465 GB 17 MB DISKPART> select partition 2 Partition 2 is now the selected partition. DISKPART> active The selected disk is not a fixed MBR disk. The ACTIVE command can only be used on fixed MBR disks. DISKPART>[/quote] The 119GB is not another hard drive; it's actually the USB flash drive that I'm using. So, the only Windows 10 installation is on that 500GB hard drive (which is showing up as 465GB).

EDIT2: Well, I have discovered that GPT drives don't use 'active' partitions, only MBR drives do. I'm unsure why Macrium requested one, as it correctly identified it as a Win10 installation, but maybe Win10 can be installed as an MBR sometimes.

So, I heard some people in Kyhi's thread being suggested to try EasyBCD. Unfortunately, that isn't working, either: