Windows 10: strange results attempting to repair boot

I just wanted to share a weird experience I had and wanted to see if anyone had this experience before
So I installed an old hard drive into my pc then removed it. When I started up windows again, I was getting the "please install a proper boot device" I couldnt boot into my windows SSD

I created a windows 10 usb stick on another computer but instead of reinstalling, I wanted to see if I could fix the problem.

I went into command prompt and realized the boot partition didnt have a letter assigned to it so I assigned the letter E which still didnt work

I went back into command prompt and used the command bcdboot C:\windows but forgot to switch the C to an E so when I restarted the computer, instead of booting into the usb windows installation/repair menu, it booted up windows...

Heres the weird part, it didnt boot windows on the usb...it booted into windows on my regular windows SSD, I could see all my files and my local disk was my ssd and not the usb stick (see photo attached)

Now the only problem i'm having is, if I remove the usb stick, windows freezes.

Does anyone know the next step I can take to resolve this and make windows boot from my SSD again?

:)

 

Windows 10 boot hangs on “Preparing Automatic Repair.” WinPE DVD command prompt fix results in “Path not found: “C:\boot” and “bootrec /fixboot” Access is Denied

Dear community,

We have a Windows 10 1709 machine (Dell Optiplex 5050) in our office that starts up and goes directly to Windows Automatic Repair. Upon closer inspection, I discovered two "Windows Boot Manager" entries at startup, neither of which load into Win10
1709 installed on the 256GB SSD.

Selecting the first Windows Boot Manager entry goes straight to
"Preparing Automatic Repair," followed by "Diagnosing your PC," but hangs here and never completes diagnosis.

Selecting the second Windows Boot Manager entry makes the Dell BIOS logo appear briefly, and then regresses to a black screen.

The first solution I tried was to rebuild the existing boot configuration data (BCD) store using Windows Recovery Environment straight from a
Windows 10 1709 DVD:

1. Bootrec /rebuildbcd

“Result: Successfully scanned Windows installations”

Total identified Windows installations: 0

The operation completed successfully.

The second step I tried was to remove any existing BCD stores manually, and then rebuild them again.

1. Bcdedit /export C:\bcdbackup
   
   

Next, I ran the “attrib” command to gain access to manipulate the BCD.

1. Attrib C:\boot\bcd –h –r –s

But ran into the following problem: “Path not found – C:\boot”

Next, I renamed the file

1. “ren C:\boot\bcd bcd.old”

But also ran into the following problem: “The system cannot find the file specified.”

I then ran a series of bootrec commands in the following sequential order:

1. Bootrec /fixmbr

Result: The operation completed successfully

1. Bootrec /fixboot

Result: Access is denied

1. Bootrec /scanos

Result:

"Successfully scanned Windows installations"

Total identified Windows installations: 0

The operation completed successfully

1. Bootrec /rebuildbcd

Result:

"Successfully scanned Windows installations"

Total identified Windows installations: 0

The operation completed successfully

I then ran a System File Checker command on the C: drive as follows:

1. Sfc /scannow /offbootdir = C:\ /offwindir=C:\Windows\

Result: “Windows Resource Protection could not start the repair service.”

Next, I obtained some disk volume information using diskpart commands as follows:

1. Diskpart
2. List disk

Result: Disk 0 Online 238GB
Gpt: *

1. Sel disk 0
2. List vol

Result:

Volume 0 D CCCOMA_X64F (Win10 1709)
DVD-ROM 4.47GB Healthy

I then attempted to run bcdboot to copy boot files straight from a Windows 10 1709 DVD:

1. Bcdboot C:\Windows /s D: /f UEFI

Result: “Failure when attempting to copy boot files”

Issue: The Windows PE environment does not detect any identified Windows installations. It also does not detect a C:\boot folder exists, and it says “Access denied” when running the
"bootrec /fixboot" command. How can I create a new C:\boot folder if I get a "Failure when attempting to copy boot files" error? I have exhausted my troubleshooting efforts on getting this BCD rebuilt. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

Best regards,

Jonathan

 

Windows 10 Repair Boot Loop

Hi Jed,

If your computer is stuck in a boot-loop state of Windows, it could mean that automatic repair isn't able to repair a corrupted or broken system file, but attempts to repair it over and over again. For us to assist you properly in resolving this boot-loop
state, kindly respond to the questions below:

• Did the issue occur even after removing the USB wireless mouse?
• Aside from running DISM, what other troubleshooting steps have you done? This is for us to know and to avoid any duplication of efforts on your end.

We look forward to your response.

 

laptop doesnt boot automatically

This is what happened.

1. Did a repair install and later disabled hibertnate in CMD.
2. Enabled legacy option ROM in BIOS.
3. After a few times startup ( i used the system in such mode for 5 days), changed boot option back to default.
4. Vola!! It boots automatically to win10 without any keypress. Tested it with many starts to confirm the same.
5. Re-enabled hibernate option using CMD and later selected Fast Startup.
6. System booted normally, without the need for any keypress.

I do not know exactly whether such steps resolved the problem or what else happened, hence cannot suggest above steps.

Many thanks to all members who helped to troubleshoot problems.