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

Okay, is the Macrium backup function working in the PESE environment? (I've never tried it - only restore.) If so, you could try this: Make an image of the C partition of the 500GB drive on to your old 250GB drive. The image will be compressed so it should be roughly 60% in size. Then, clean install your 500GB drive with W10. Boot back into the PESE environment, and drag the C image from the 250GB drive over to the C partition on the 500GB drive.

 

Ohhh, OK. Yes, it looks like Macrium is working fine. That sounds like it's definitely possible. And, it'll finally get Windows 10 to make those darned partitions.

Let me grab that other drive.

 

Yep. Let us know how it goes. *Wink

 

Definitely! About 40% done on the C:/ image--luckily, it only had ~270GB on it, anyways, so with compression, it'll surely fit onto the 250GB drive. If not, I can up the compression in Macrium. While it was working, I've made the next steps. Let me know if I'm making any mistakes here. I do the secure erases just so that I always start with raw, unallocated, zeroed out SSDs so Windows installation can alignment everything properly. But--to be safe--I'll make sure I disconnect any drives that *aren't* getting erased. That would be sad, after all this work, haha.

And I enabled image verification on the Macrium backup, too.

Code: Image C: partition to 250GB SSD Secure Erase 500GB SSD Disconnect 250GB SSD (the missing step!) Boot Win10 installation tool and install to 500GB SSD (confirm all 4 partitions are made successfully) Shut down, reconnect 250GB SSD, boot into Macrium Copy C image from 250GB onto C partition on 500GB Shut down, disconnect 250GB SSD Boot into Win10 on 500GB If all is good, re-connect 250GB for Secure Erasure and we're finally were we want![/quote] 8:04pm = Macrium image created and verified. Barely made it! 212GB in a 232GB SSD, haha. It looks good (a single file) so I'm going to take the plunge and wipe the 500GB SSD clean.

8:24pm = 500GB successfully secure erased. 250GB (with C: backup) disconnected. Booting with Win10 tool and installing.

8:35pm = 500GB drive successfully showed up as unallocated space. Only drive present during the install, as expected. Currently at "Getting files ready for installation (75%)"

8:43pm = Booted into Windows 10 clean install on the 500GB. Shutting down, re-connecting 250GB drive, and booting into Macrium.

 

8:04pm = Macrium image created and verified. Barely made it! 212GB in a 232GB SSD, haha. It looks good (a single file) so I'm going to take the plunge and wipe the 500GB SSD clean.

8:24pm = 500GB successfully secure erased. 250GB (with C: backup) disconnected. Booting with Win10 tool and installing.[/quote]
Yes, everything looks good. Image verification is a must - glad you did that.*Smile

p.s. on my clean install with UEFI+Secure Boot (GPT), I have only 3 partitions.

 

Yup, totally! Just in case, hehe. Thanks for double-checking, too. It makes sense in my head, but I just want to be sure.

OK, yes, I've seen 3 partitions only, too, on clean installs. I just booted into Macrium now after reconnecting the 250GB drive and there were actually 4: Recovery, System, MSR, and Primary. Hopefully, it should be OK, too, haha. I'll post a screenshot after Macrium finishes copying the image.

 

Sounds good.

 

in your PIC of two GPT partitions...

you need to shrink the windows partition 100MB
and create an efi partition..

create partition efi size=100 format quick fs=fat32 label="SYSTEM"

 

AND WE'RE BACK, BABY! IT WORKS. Everything is just like I had it. Wowza. What a ride it's been. Thank you hugely for the help; the image trick was it. Now, we've got robust partitions actually made by Windows (instead of me trying to hack them together) and Win10 is right back where I wanted. You are amazing. Thank you--I really appreciate all your help.

And, Disk Management does in fact just show 3 partitions; I think that 16 MB one is not visible or maybe it gets deleted after install.

Here is what Disk Management shows:





Macrium Layout:

 

Oh, gosh, I just saw this! Ohhh, OK, right. Apparently, that 450MB recovery partition isn't required, so it was just this one partition missing. But, I think it has to be in front of the Windows partition and moving it, etc. sounded a bit complicated.

But, thank you. Hopefully, when someone else makes the same mistake I did, they'll be able to see your reply first (I'll mark them both in the OP) and they can try it first, as it does sound faster.

 

YES! Macrium to the rescue again! *Smile So glad it's working now!

You're right - I forgot about that....

 

retest the my PE ISO download

 

Right? Whew; it's a major sigh of relief. I had set it all up 2 weeks ago and it took the whole weekend to get everything installed again on the 500GB. Another weekend saved--thanks again.

The new mirrors are working perfectly, *Smile Thank you for providing such a valuable resource to the community. I want to put it on my flash drive now, haha, permanently! *Biggrin

 

Cheers! Enjoy the weekend! *Thumbs

 

Hi!

I know this is an old post, but it helped me as well.
I had the same problem as ikjadoon. Following simrick instructions I managed to solve it too.
One caveat, tough. After restoring the original Windows partition with boot recovery media created with Macrium Reflect (to the rescue, again!) and BEFORE entering Windows, head to "Restore tasks" -> "Fix Windows boot problems" to ensure a new MBR is written according to the recovered installation.

Than you both, guys! *Wink