Windows 10: Unable to boot Windows 10 from SSD suddenly due to msconfig startup

Hello and thanks in advance for any help,

first of all, I installed an SSD a couple months ago and cloned everything to it from my HDD. It all went beautifully. Windows booted off from SSD and all was good.

Now yesterday, I did a clean boot via msconfig, which meant that I disabled all services besides windows' (Selective startup) due to a program I was having difficulty installing (simconnect problem, but that's a whole other subject

). Then, I restarted windows a couple of times, hadn't put it to Normal startup (all services and startup programs) yet.

But then..... Wanted to launch all the services again and selected the Normal startup option, which was a mistake as I later realized. Then on the next restart, major lag and I couldn't understand what had happened. Then I saw that it started booting from HDD (It's sooooo freaking slow on HDD).

I'm pretty sure that this is because, when I selected Normal startup in msconfig, it checked the box to "Use original boot configuration" and somehow reversed back to HDD.

Everything is messed up currently. Chrome is back at the state, where it was, when I went to SSD (old tabs open from that time). And also, all startup services and desktop icon placement, is what it was back then.

Also, my SSD before, was C: and HDD was F:, but now, HDD is C: and SSD is I:. And the weird thing is that documents and files like that are on the C:/HDD now, but they were on SSD before. And on the I:/SSD I don't have documents at all, which should be the case for HDD. So I'm guessing that it created some kind of a symbolic link between those "windows necessary" files incl. documents etc? Because the disk space used for both the SSD and HDD is exactly what it was before yesterday, when this problem started.

I neeeeed to get windows to boot from SSD again and that SSD would be C: and HDD F: again. Changing boot order from BIOS, doesn't help. Taking out the HDD, doesn't help, windows didn't boot at all then. And in msconfig, it only recognizes OS on the HDD. (I'm feeling that all the windows files somehow got either symbolically copied/tied or smth from SSD to HDD)

My system is Asus N56 laptop. SSD is a Samsung 850 Pro 512GB, but not like that matters



Hope I didn't too big of a story and thanks in advance for any help.

:)

 

MSConfig in Win10 breaks startup recovery (Safe mode etc)

After running MSConfig on Windows 10 (any version including the latest anniversary update) and making any changes to startup services, booting into recovery options no longer allows me to get to the 'Startup' menu (The menu with the Safe mode options where
you choose a number). It boots straight past it back into normal Windows startup. It no longer boots to the startup selection screen after choosing to startup with that screen in the recovery options.

The only way to get into safe mode is by using MSConfig and the only way to get back to normal startup is also with MSConfig.

This occurred before the anniversary update but after doing an in-place-upgrade with the anniversary update I was then able to enter recovery and select Startup options under troubleshooting and it did indeed boot into the startup selection screen. However.
Upon running MSConfig, making a few changes like disabling a service or app and applying it I was then unable to get that menu ever again.

Can anyone confirm that making changes in MSConfig in Windows 10 causes the loss of the startup screen once selected and rebooted from the recovery options?

 

Windows 10 Pro Cumulative Updates Repeatedly Fail

Nothing I tried worked. I made the mistake of configuring "Normal Startup" instead of Selective in msconfig and I could no longer boot into Windows. Finally installed a fresh copy to another SSD.

 

Have you tried unplugging the power from the HDD and then booting? If you can get the SSD back as the boot drive you could then plug the HDD back in to get your files.

 

I would try system restore first. Select the restore point before you made any changes to boot options.
After that, in disk management select system partition on SSD and mark it active. But again first try to do a restore, because of changed path of files.

Although, you can always restore default paths to user files.

 

Hey, thanks for your answer. But yea, as I wrote that I tried that already *Smile OS won't boot at all when the HDD is unplugged.

Hey, thanks for your answer.

Unfortunately I don't have any system restore points. I think because the "protection" is off for the SSD? And I haven't saved any restore points manually.

But how do I get to choose the SSD system partition as active? Any guidelines/howto's? *Smile

Thanks,
Mihkel

 

What I would do:
Make a bootable USB flash drive, CD or DVD of Kyhi's recovery drive:
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Forums

Disconnect all drives except the SSD. Boot from Kyhi's recovery drive. Run Macrium Reflect. Under the restore menu is a utility to fix windows startup/boot problems. Run that utility. See if that rebuilds the boot files on the SSD. Then try to reboot with only the SSD installed.

 

You can make partition active in command prompt, or via disk management (manage computer) or via bootable USB and repair installation.

First follow the Navy LCDR advice and make a bootable USB drive, just in case. You can try also with Windows 10 ISO and then repair the SSD boot.

It would help to see you drives configuration anyway. Make a snip (screenshot) of disk management tool:

 

Thanks, will try.

Okay, will try when the ISO finishes downloading. But attaching a screen of my disk management in the meantime.

 

OMG OMG OMG!! THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!! *Biggrin It worked. Everything is back to normal! Exactly as it was before (at least on first/second look) *Biggrin. Unbelievable. I was already preparing my mind for a clean installation of windows *Biggrin.

Just for info: Macrium saw one windows installation, said that it's C: and disk was the SSD (but my windows booted from HDD).

I guess not needed anymore *Biggrin Thank you for your help though *Smile

 

Glad it worked for you, fresco!

 

It's good that you followed instructions from pro *Smile

 

The Macrium Reflect boot utility basically does everything you mentioned automatically. It has also fixed a lot of boot problems in the past that other utilities have failed at fixing.