Solved Broken boot

Eddward · Jun 27, 2022

Hi guys,

I would like to ask you to help me to fix booting of my Windows 11.
There was an electricity outage and now system is booting only to UEFI BIOS. I have created Windows 11 bootable USB key and this is what I got from list vol command.
Before that I tried automatic repair but did not help.
Partition with 464GB is where system is located, should have letter C not sure why it was changed to letter D, maybe this is the root cause of the problem? But anyway. I can not see EFI label. Only option is volume 3 I think.
Partition with 1863GB is a Data disk.
There is set UEFI boot with GPT.
Don't want to screw it up more even though there are tutorials, but missing EFI label surprised me.

Could you please navigate me ? Maybe just switch naming of C and D will help ?

Thanks a lot

cereberus · Jun 27, 2022

Try this - on another pc, install Macrium Reflect Free and create a usb Rescue drive.

Then boot from it and select "fix windows boot problems" and follow instructions.

Eddward · Jun 27, 2022

I have only Windows 10 on another pc, will this work ?

hsehestedt · Jun 27, 2022

You can perform the task that cereberus suggested from a Windows 10 system just fine.

I just wanted to address your question regarding the drive letter assignments. What you are seeing is 100% normal. When booting from WinRE / WinPE based media, the drive letter assignments there may be different than your full Windows installation.

Eddward · Jun 27, 2022

Okay created USB Rescue drive for Win 11, booted it, application found my installation on C: and my SSD drive. Finished it, restarted and still the same. Did not fix it unfortunately.

Megahertz · Jun 27, 2022

Welcome to the Forum Eddward
Please edit your profile with ALL your hardware specs. It will help us to help you

System Specs - Fill in at Ten Forums

How to Fill in your System Specs at Ten Forums

www.tenforums.com

During POST launch the boot menu. Is there Is there a Windows option?

Eddward · Jun 27, 2022

Thanks :)
Updated system specs.
There is nothing during post launch. Firstly motherboard logo, blink cursor and straight to bios, after restart the same again and again.
It is like that I have enabled option to go straight to bios after turning on pc, but I don't.

This is what I did.
Went okay but nothing changed.

Megahertz · Jun 27, 2022

Did you were able to launch the boot menu (F12 during POST)?
Do you have another drive that once had Windows on it?

Boot from WinRE or from a Win10 or win 11 installation drive and open a CMD window (Shift+F10) and type:
diskpart
sel disk 0
list vol (identify your Windows vol (D: ?))
exit
chkdsk x: /f (replace x with windows volume found above)

Report

Next step will be to recreate the boot manager on the EFI Fat32 partition.

Eddward · Jun 27, 2022

Thanks for that.
As you can see from the screen in the first post I did diskpart, select disk 0, list vol - Windows is on Volume 1, letter D.

Currently I have ongoing chdsk /f /r on C: which is my data disk, so I choose wrong disk, but nevermind... 40 mins left and will do on windows volume then.

Eddward · Jun 27, 2022

Can not do chkdsk d: /f as it is write protected... am I doing something wrong ?
but from chkdsk d: there are some error it seems...

no I dont have another drive that once had Windows on it... drive from laptop maybe

Megahertz · Jun 27, 2022

Write protection is very strange.
Do you have any kind of encryption, like bit locker, on it?

Eddward · Jun 27, 2022

no nothing what I am aware of

Megahertz · Jun 27, 2022

First thing is to correct the logical issues on your drive. I don't have a solution. I have to think about.

SIW2 · Jun 27, 2022

You can attempt to remove the write protection. Might work or not depending what caused the issue. From what you have described, I suspect it wont work, but it worth a try.
diskpart
sel dis 0
attributes disk clear readonly

Megahertz · Jun 27, 2022

Remove write protection in Diskpart

This method applies to the drive that has been set as readonly. It will clear readonly attributes.

1. Type diskpart in CMD and hit Enter. Click on Yes in the pop up confirming dialogue.

2. In Diskpart, type following commands in sequence and each of them comes with an Enter.

list volume
select volume n (where n is the write-protected drive, in this case 1)
attributes disk clear readonly
exit

Go back to CMD and type CHKDSK D: /f, you’ll find the disk checking runs smoothly.

Solved: Cannot Run CHKDSK Write Protected on Windows 11/10/8/7

Windows says it cannot run CHKDSK because the volume is write protected? Come and learn how to remove write protected on hard drive for CHKDSK in Windows 11/10/8/7.

www.diskpart.com

Eddward · Jun 27, 2022

This worked, or said that was cleared successfully:

diskpart
sel dis 0
attributes disk clear readonly

But still can not do chkdsk d: /f

selecting volume 1 and then attributes disk clear readonly

did not work, Diskpart failed to clear disk attributes

So not working

tried chkdsk d: /f /r /x - did not work
tried attributes disk clear readonly on volume 1 - did not work
tried even create registry key StorageDevicePolicies - WriteProtect with value 0 - did not work / there was no such registry key after reboot... probably expected if the drive is read only ?

And there are no other options it seems, so maybe I am stuck. Or maybe some windows safe mode or something will not help ?
In worst case scenario I would like to ask you to help me to at least backup this drive from bootable USB app to external USB drive. Then I can do fresh install and restore hopefully without corrupted files.

SIW2 · Jun 27, 2022

If you have a corrupted filesystem, it wont be easy making a sucessful image backup.

cereberus · Jun 27, 2022

My experience is if the Macrium Reflect method does not work, the issue is due to a corrupted C drive partition rather than the boot partition, and no amount of trying to repair things will work.

I hope I am wrong in your case.

Eddward · Jun 27, 2022

It is quite possible I think. Format C and clean install will be possible then hopefully, but I would like to save some data if possible before that. While exporting backup of registry I can see everything on C, so it is not like unaccessable... I am willing to even manually copy some files, but I have no experience how to do outside of windows environment. This is M.2 NVMe disk, if it was SATA then I can plug USB to SATA adapter and copy whatever, but I do not have M.2 to USB adapter, so only option is via some bootable tool. Maybe to try first kind of image, if not then manually pick files. It is not a data drive, so there is nothing major, but still.

edit:
or maybe I can just boot clean Windows from USB drive to browse and copy files from this disk to another one, that could be easiest way if it will work

SIW2 · Jun 27, 2022

edit:
or maybe I can just boot clean Windows from USB drive to browse and copy files from this disk to another one, that could be easiest way if it will work

yes you can, but it is a bit awkward unless you want to do navigating and copying fom command prompt

an alternative is to open cmd prompt, type notepad ( then press enter)

when notepad pops up, click File >save and you will get a browse window ( select All files in the dropdown).

Then you can see what you are doing.

You can borrow my boot media which will make it a lot easier as it has a desktop, explorer and so on.

1904v3.iso