Windows 10: Repair Corrupt Install From Boot Install DVD?

I might be doing something wrong here. I've got that generic key in there right now, you know?

All I get from that check that is Windows 10 Professional RTM retail. something like that.

That information pertains to that key?

We're after - what? Information pertaining to the installed OS?

p.s. I didn't look at your infinite loop recovery link for win7 until now. that's interesting. i think I'll give it a go.

 

You can run ShowKeyPlus from inside any windows10 OS, and plug in your system key that you're using, to find out what edition Windows it's good for - that's what I meant. We're trying to rule out the possibility that you installed the wrong version and that's why is doesn't activate.

Yes, have a good, long look at that link - it has some good stuff in there.

 

ah, okay. I just plugged the bad drive into this machine alongside the good drive. finally woke up I should have done that all along. just need to go into BIOS on every boot that i want to boot to a different drive.

and i swapped the regback files on the bad drive. i'll give it a go in a minute.

got any experience with an asus h170 bios? it seems really clumsy. doesn't have a 'shutdown' option and the only way out of it after swapping boot order is save and quit - upon which it tells you that you haven't changed anything......

*Smile

I'll run a couple of keys through showkeyplus. i've also got that on his hard drive now instead of only on that repair tools disk.

well it says that my old key is win10 professional rtm retail. doesn't say anything about versions.

 

I think you can d/l the manual here
Support For H170 GAMING M3 | Motherboard - The world leader in motherboard design | MSI Global

Seems to me you should be able to press a function key (usually F12) upon boot, to get the menu for a single time boot choice, instead of having to go into the BIOS and change it every time.

 

Of course, with UEFI, you choose Windows Boot Manager......

 

Okay then, you need to make sure that you've installed that, and not Single Language, or N version.

 

Thanks for the manual download link, excellent.

And the tips on the hotkey for straight to boot order. I think you're right though I haven't tried it yet, it might be F8.

But big news: I've got the old drive working!

I did the copy over of the RegBack files and that did it.

Wonderful.

Totally great. Now I'll rush to image it or something, copy it over to that new disk.

And then set up a regimen for periodic save points or whatever you call them. I thought it was automatic but

apparently not. My machine was unable to go back to somewhere good

Here's a pic of the 'basic info'. You'll see it says windows is activated.


.



This is a big relief. All my inetpub files, the whole IIS thing.... don't never want to have to rebuild all that. Got to get into this constant imaging, backing up, whatever...

I have to thankyou for all the help. It has been great.

*Smile

 

Great news! Happy dance! *Dinesh*Dinesh*Dinesh

Okay, I'm going to recommend Macrium Reflect Free, and suggest imaging the entire drive, and making weekly automated backups.
Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect - Windows 10 Backup Restore Tutorials
Setup your weekly instruction set, and make sure you check the box to "verify". Retain several sets, in case one goes bad.

I'm so glad for you! If you have any questions on the Macrium "images", please ask.

 

Hi...

me back again using the same thread....

I've cloned my C: drive with Macrium. It had a second drive on it: D: and the clone found that too corrupt to copy so it wouldn't complete until I ran chkdsk and after that the clone process completed minus the D: drive and I find now that my D: drive shows on Explorer but I get a 'not available' message when I try to access it.

I'm having problems with this drive still so I'd like to swap over to this cloned one.

What do I do? Just swap the SATA cables so's the new cloned drive is using the old SATA port the old drive used? Will that work? Is that how it's done?

 

Yes, just put the drive you want to boot from on Sata port 1

But I would just unplug the D drive to see if Windows boots on the clone first.

 

Or change the boot order in UEFI settings. But I have a touch of OCD, it would bug the heck out of me to have the computer boot from an "out of order" SATA port!

 

Looks like you have your own Win 10 retail key - that PID does not indicate a digital licence.

Run ShowKey again and save that key - that's what you will need when reinstalling without a digital licence.

 

Thanks for the tip about the key. I'll get onto it.

Things change fast sometimes and my win10 install has changed a bit in the last couple of days. Can I somehow update the clone to reflect today's reality or must I reclone on top of it?

It is getting dire I suspect. Every time I switch on I get that 'checking disk C:' thing... fortunately so far it has come out the end of it and we box on happily... but I fear imminent disaster. I was hoping the chkdsk I've done twice had maybe found and fixed all bad sectors but I guess it is maybe just a poor disk and it's going to keep getting them...

 

Chkksk is great for 'fixing' by moving data to readable sectors - nothing can fix a hardware fault, so yes backup and replace the drive, would be best. Don't write new data to a bad disk.

 

Ah... thread still being watched? Because I finally got around to testing the clone drive. I just disconnected the existing system drive.

It didn't work. Gave an error Oxc0000225 : missing or corrupt winload.efi if I remember right.

I guess I should try again.

Okay to just tell it to write over existing or would it be better to reformat the drive first - erase all partitions and reformat?