Windows 10: Unaccessible disks from boot menu and installation media

Hello everyone,

I got a new computer and with that I went from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10. Now I encoutered some problems that probably are all connected. I am not sure if this is the best subforum but with my limited knowledge I guess it is driver related.

The issues / symptoms:

1. I copied a VHDX file to E:, added a boot menue item, but it didn't work (I may have done something wrong though).
2. I had Macrium Reflect (Backup Software) create a bootable thumbdrive and when checking found when having booted from it, I can only see the first drive (which is particularly bad, because the backup files are on other drives) , and no network either.
3. I had Macrium Reflect create a recovery partition with a boot menue item; having booted this partition I can only access the first drive, and no network either.
4. I created a new VHDX file on C: and installed Windows 10 Pro there, which worked fine. I had booted several times from partition C: and from the VHDX when I deciced to install the Mainboard (LAN, chipset, RAID, Audio) and VGA drivers in the VHDX. Since then it does not boot anymore. Booting loops a few times, then boots to the boot menue and boots the default installation on the C: partition.
5. Booting a Windows 10 installation thumbdrive or DVD I can only access the first drive.
6. Twice now (got the new PC last Friday) in the morning all drives but the first (C had disappeared. They reappeared after reboot. The PC was switched on all night because I moved files from the old computer to the new one. Every file had been copied sucessfully to a drive missing in the morning.

OS Version: Windows 10 Pro (Version 10.0.19042.630)
The storage configuration is as follows:
Code:

Disk 0 (C is an NVMe SSD which is always accessible.
Disk 1 (E are two spinning drives in a RAID1 configuration.
Disk 2 (D is a SATA SSD which is accessible only from Windows 10.
(Disks 3, 4 and 5 are thumbdrives and the attached VHDX.)

The onboard SATA controller is in RAID mode.

It appears that all SATA drives cannot be accessed unless Windows is running. I wanted that RAID1 configuration because RAID1 has saved me twice with my last PC, where I had 2 x 2 drives in this configuration, and each RAID1 group had a disk failure in the past years, which didn't bother me much, because I could keep working and easily fix it.
I don't mind a potential perfor,ance loss, because work data is to be processed on the SATA SSD and eventually the results will be stored on Disk1 plus be archived to a Synology NAS.

Searching the internet I found that I can export all drivers from my running Windows 10 installation (which I did). But I did not find how and where to place them on my installation thumbdrive. There are many posts describing how to add them to a WIM file, but I do not have such and don't even know what it is. *Sad Also, I don't even know if this would help.
Besides, I'd guess that probably the Windows 10 drivers cannot run in a Windows PE environment?

I am scared that with more experimenting I might destroy the last working installation on Disk0.

Is there any suggestion on how to proceed?
Is it even possible to include the RAID and LAN drivers in boot manager and Windows PE (for Macrium Reflect)?

If this cannot be done, can I safely switch from RAID to AHCI and then implement some kind of Windows replication to keep the disks synchronized?


My apologies for the long post - I tried to give as much information as possible.

Thanks a lot for any help! *Smile

:)

 

Installation media boots to command prompt

I've just booted from known working install media to see exactly what it does when booting. The sequence of events is...

1. Windows logo on a black screen
2. circling dots appear beneath the logo
3. light blue 'Please wait' screen with circling dots
4. a command prompt window (very briefly)
5. the initial Setup page appears

Do you see steps 1-3? If so, it appears you have stopped at step 4, suggesting that something on the disc cannot be read.

Does the disc boot properly in another machine? If so, try cleaning the laptop's drive lens then try booting from the disc again.

If not, make new install media with Microsoft's Media Creation Tool, either as a bootable USB, on an ISO that you can burn to another disc. At Step 8 in Option One of this tutorial you can choose between making a USB or an ISO.

Download Windows 10 ISO File

 

Disk boot failure after removing old Vista partition

Thank you for the reply, muchomurka! As I indicated in my post, I have already tried all the steps you suggested to no avail:

- I cannot choose startup repair since the computer does not boot from the installation media
- I cannot use command prompt since the computer does not boot further than the POST screen
- I have disconnected and tried out all hard drives individually.

Since I had Win 10 up and running a few hours ago, I can say with 100% certainty that none of the hardware is faulty.

The real mystery is, how come the system won't boot from any media without an empty disk containing an old Vista boot sector being on top of the boot priority list? And which steps to take now that I've cleaned this disk and it does not exist anymore?

Would appreciate any ideas and pointers!

 

No startup boot menu

Hello Kimoefat,

Thank you for posting your concern in Microsoft Community and welcome to the Windows 10 Family.

As an initial recommendation, I would suggest you to access the System configuration utility and check if the Operating System installation path for Ubuntu exists. To do so, follow the below steps.

• Type msconfig in the search bar and select System Configuration from the search results.
• Select the boot tab in the System configuration console to check if the installation path for Ubuntu exists.

If it exists, next logical step is to check if the boot menu time out has been set to 0, which results in Boot menu not showing up.

The boot menu time-out determines how long the boot menu is displayed before the default boot entry is loaded. It is calibrated in seconds. To change the boot menu time-out, use the Bootcfg
/timeout switch. Valid values are from 0 through 999. You cannot use Bootcfg to set an indefinite time-out.

You can run the following Run command line to set the boot menu time-out accordingly. To do so, follow the below steps.

• 
  Press Windows key + X, select
  Command prompt (Admin) to bring up elevated Command prompt
  
• 
  Type in the following command: bootcfg /timeout 10
  
  timeout 10 will set the time frame to 10 seconds
  

However, if the Boot path for Ubuntu does not exist in the boot menu of System Configuration utility, I would suggest you to check if the Ubuntu is overridden by the Windows installation or if the Ubuntu installation files are corrupted.

Hope the above information is helpful. If you need further information, feel free to write to us and we would be happy to help you.

Thank You.