Windows 10: Unable to boot from C drive

This is a 5 yr old custom built machine by Digital Storm. Specs as follows: AMD-FX-6300, 6 cores; MSI MB-970A-G43 Plus; 32 GB DDR3 /RAM; Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti; Windows 10 Home, v 2004. This is my brother's machine which I do most of the upkeep on. The other day I put 2 sticks of DDR3 8GB RAM into his machine, the we fired up the machine and there was a message about hitting the F1 key (?) F2 key for default settings. We chose option 2 and nothing has been right since. System did it's whirly-gig-thingy, then restarted and went straight to Windows Repair. Claimed it couldn't repair, options were to shut down or Advance settings. Every shut down and restart was the same. I went into the BIOS to check the booting order. It wasn't a lot of help, since his BIOS doesn't give a drive name, just a boot manager disk. Two years ago, I reinstalled windows on both our machines using an 256 GB SSD. That is all we use the SSD's for. Kept our HDDs for games and other info. He has a 1TB HDD he uses as L drive and for some odd reason, his system is trying to boot from that HDD. I checked his disk manager and the L drive is listed as disk 0 and his C drive which is the SSD is listed as disk 1. I am not sure how to correct this. Nothing works in the BIOS screen, seeing how I don't see the SSD listed anywhere in the boot sequence. I've got ideas, but I'm afraid of really messing something up, so I though I would come to the experts to see how to correct this. I can boot his machine to windows by hitting F11 on the logo screen and clicking on his SSDin the list and It loads right up. I thought the C drive was suppose to be disk 0. I am sure a clean install would be the first choice, but I am really trying to figure out what went wrong. Sorry, this is so long. I'm just very frustrated.

:)

 

Unable to boot the computer.

Hi Samid,

Thank you for posting your query on Microsoft Community.

Before we proceed, we would require more information to assist you further.

• 
  What is the make and model of your computer?
  

I suggest you check if you are able to boot into Windows Recovery Environment using installation media. Follow the steps provided below and check.

• • Insert the installation USB and boot Windows 10 from it.
  • In the ‘Windows setup’ page select the ‘language to install’, ‘Time and currency format’ and the ‘keyboard or input method’ and click on ‘next’.
  • Click on ‘Repair your computer’ and select ‘Troubleshoot’.

Check if you are able to boot to this window. If you are unable to boot to this window, I suggest you to contact the manufacturer and check.

Hope this information is helpful. Reply us with this information to assist you further.

Thank you.

 

Unable to boot the PC

Hi,



Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.



We understand your concern as you are unable to boot the PC. In order to get clarity and to assist you accordingly, please reply with the answers to the questions below:

• What is the Windows 10 version and Build installed? (Type
  winver in Windows search/Run command)
• What is the make and model of the PC?

• 
  Are you aware of any changes on the PC prior to this issue?
  

I would suggest you to export and delete the BCD store and rebuild the BCD store. Refer the steps mentioned below:

1. Create
   a bootable media and boot the PC using the media.
2. On
   the initial setup screen, select the language and other
   preferences and click on Next. (If you don't see the setup screen, your PC might not be set up to boot from a drive. Check your PC manufacturer's website for info on how to change your PC's boot order, and then try again.)
3. Now,
   click on Repair your computer.
4. On
   the System Recovery Options screen, select Troubleshoot>
   Advanced options > Command Prompt.
5. Now
   type in the commands and hit Enter:
   
   bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup
   
   c:
   
   cd boot
   
   attrib bcd -s -h –r
   
   ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old
   
   bootrec /RebuildBcd

Regards,

Aditya Roy

Microsoft Community – Moderator

 

GPT disk conversion for both data drives and C drive


Macrium Rescue disk can be used to convert from MBR to GPT and vice versa without doing a fresh install of Windows.

1. Download Rescue6.1.1081X64.iso - Google Drive and use Rufus to create a bootable USB disk. Skip this step if you've already created the Macrium Rescue disk.
2. Download: BootEFI_Only-00-00.zip - Google Drive . Unzip to an external or an internal HD
   NOTE: This is a copy of the first 3 partitions of my current Windows 10 x64 (450MB Recovery, 100MB EFI and 16MB MSR)
3. Boot up Macrium Rescue disk and create a backup of your current Windows to another internal/external HD. It serves 2 purposes: you'd have a backup of your current Windows in case things go wrong and then use it to restore the C drive on the next steps.
4. Next, switch the BIOS to UEFI and use Macrium to restore the first 3 partitions downloaded in step 2 to your current MBR Windows. No need to convert or Format, Macrium will do it.
5. Again with Macrium, select the backup image from step 3, and copy back the C drive after the 3 partitions.
   After this step, you should have: 450MB, 100MB, 16MB and C drive (GPT partition scheme)
6. From Macrium, click on Fix the Windows Boot Problems
7. Reboot. Your Windows should be in UEFI mode.