inaccessible boot device help

cynder · Feb 22, 2024

ok, 3 days of head bashing a brick wall and i give in i need some help.

Tuesday my PC rebooted into a BSOD of "inaccessible boot device" after what i can only assume was thnaks to a windows update.

i have tried

rolling back updates
system restore points
using windows auto recovery (never works)
BCDEDIT commands (access denied)
using programs like nerosoft easyRE (broke worse)
tryed removing other drives (no luck)
tryed loading hyrens boot CD and useing easyBCD to re-write the boot tables (no luck)
i installed a "new" OS onto a second drive and started moving files across to "fuse" the new (bootable) os with my old one to basically "transplant" my OS onto the new bootable table (so far with no luck, moving in the old OS files seam to break the boot load somehow)

tools i have:

windows 11 install media
arch linux live CD
g-parted
hyrens boot cd (windows 11 PE)
nero easy re
clone-zilla (and an image of the windows partition)
a copy of the raw files from the drive i can use to splice and move across to fuze them back together

what i need:

i need my OLD OS bootable again, it has my work programs, setup, network creds, maped drives and more.
while i "have the files" i need the raw OS to boot. so that everything is like it was.
once booted we can image and do a nice migration and all kinds of stuff but for now i need the OLD OS to boot.

im open to odd ideas, off the cuff and out of the pocket crazy because at this point im out of ideas and i need help.

Pirilampo2 · Feb 22, 2024

One way to solve this would be:
- Install the operating system on another disk.
- Boot the computer using the new disk.
- Open EasyBCD and edit by adding a new system, just indicate the drive letter of the previous system and save the changes.
- Restart your computer and choose the drive you want to access.

zbook · Feb 22, 2024

1) Check the drive using Sea Tools bootable Long Generic test > take pictures > post images or share links

SeaTools Bootable | Seagate US

https://www.seagate.com/content/dam/seagate/migrated-assets/old-support-files/seatools/USBbootSetup-SeaToolsBootable.zip

2) Boot using a Windows 11 Media Creation Tool (MCT) (Windows 11 iso) > Windows Recovery Environment (RE) > troubleshooting > command prompt > type:

notepad
notepad
notepad

bcdedit
bcdedit | find "osdevice"

diskpart
lis dis
sel dis 0
det dis
sel dis 1
det dis
sel dis 2
det dis
lis vol

Save to notepad > save to a flash drive > upload into this thread

cynder · Feb 22, 2024

Pirilampo2 said:
One way to solve this would be:
- Install the operating system on another disk.
- Boot the computer using the new disk.
- Open EasyBCD and edit by adding a new system, just indicate the drive letter of the previous system and save the changes.
- Restart your computer and choose the drive you want to access.
View attachment 88052 View attachment 88053

i thought i had done a BCD repair like this but ill try again, might have done it wrong before.

im setting this up, i will need another hour to get back to you with info. files are transferring now for the attempt.

cynder · Feb 22, 2024

zbook said:
1) Check the drive using Sea Tools bootable Long Generic test > take pictures > post images or share links

SeaTools Bootable | Seagate US

https://www.seagate.com/content/dam/seagate/migrated-assets/old-support-files/seatools/USBbootSetup-SeaToolsBootable.zip

2) Boot using a Windows 11 Media Creation Tool (MCT) (Windows 11 iso) > Windows Recovery Environment (RE) > troubleshooting > command prompt > type:

notepad
notepad
notepad

bcdedit
bcdedit | find "osdevice"

diskpart
lis dis
sel dis 0
det dis
sel dis 1
det dis
sel dis 2
det dis
lis vol

Save to notepad > save to a flash drive > upload into this thread

question, what does the det command do?

is that deleting something?

ill be doing yours after i try the easyBCD edit above yours. stand by <3

zbook · Feb 22, 2024

det = detail

detail

Displays information about the selected disk, partition, volume, or virtual hard disk (VHD).

detail

Reference article for the detail command, which displays information about the selected disk, partition, volume, or virtual hard disk (VHD).

learn.microsoft.com

detail disk

Reference article for the detail disk command, which displays the properties of the selected disk and the volumes on that disk.

learn.microsoft.com

cynder · Feb 22, 2024

zbook said:
det = detail

detail Displays information about the selected disk, partition, volume, or virtual hard disk (VHD).

detail

Reference article for the detail command, which displays information about the selected disk, partition, volume, or virtual hard disk (VHD).

learn.microsoft.com

detail disk

Reference article for the detail disk command, which displays the properties of the selected disk and the volumes on that disk.

learn.microsoft.com

awesome, thanks for the clarification.

sorry if that came across as suspicious, not really knowing what im doing with the CMD i was worried this was the equivalent of "have you tryed the master key combo alt+f4"

Porthos · Feb 22, 2024

cynder said:
"have you tryed the master key combo alt+f4"

That was fun in the 90's chat room days.

abactuon · Feb 22, 2024

for Windows 10

Stop error 7B or Inaccessible_Boot_Device troubleshooting - Windows Client

Learn how to troubleshoot Stop error 7B or Inaccessible_Boot_Device. This error might occur after some changes are made to the computer.

learn.microsoft.com

cynder · Feb 22, 2024

Porthos said:
That was fun in the 90's chat room days.

i know right, well they got more elaborate now but im always just a tiny bit suspicious of commands and comobs i dont know juuust in case.

side question, want some cheese? :wink:

cynder · Feb 22, 2024

abactuon said:
for Windows 10

Stop error 7B or Inaccessible_Boot_Device troubleshooting - Windows Client

Learn how to troubleshoot Stop error 7B or Inaccessible_Boot_Device. This error might occur after some changes are made to the computer.

learn.microsoft.com

thank you for the link, added to the list to check it out next. :)

Porthos · Feb 22, 2024

cynder said:
side question, want some cheese?

SIW2 · Feb 23, 2024

Have you got a shadow copy at a point before you had the problem?

I have had success creating a wim image of shadowcopy. Then applying the captured wim to either a diferent partition on the same disk, or onto another disk. Then fix the osletter and bcd entry .Done it several times.

Not difficult to do with suitable boot media .

cynder · Feb 23, 2024

Pirilampo2 said:
One way to solve this would be:
- Install the operating system on another disk.
- Boot the computer using the new disk.
- Open EasyBCD and edit by adding a new system, just indicate the drive letter of the previous system and save the changes.
- Restart your computer and choose the drive you want to access.
View attachment 88052 View attachment 88053

ok didnt work, i get a black and white page saying "boot manager failure" pic provided.

FreeBooter · Feb 23, 2024

Please boot your computer with Windows Setup Media and from Windows Recovery Environment start the Command Prompt.

Please type the below command into Command Prompt and press the Enter key.

The following command scans integrity of all protected Windows system files and repairs files with problems when possible.

Code:

Sfc  /Scannow   /OFFBOOTDIR=C:\   /OFFWINDIR=C:\Windows

Please replace partition letter C: with Windows installed partition letter. When the computer boots into Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) environment, the drive letter assign to Windows partition may not be C: drive letter because Windows 7, 8 , 8.1, 10 and 11 creates a separate system partition when it's installed from scratch. The system partition contains boot files WinRE assigns the system partition the C: drive letter and the Windows installed partition will be assigned any other drive letter, usually D: drive letter is assigned to Windows installed partition. The Bcdedit | find "osdevice" command can be used to find out the drive letter of the Windows installed partition, the output of the Bcdedit command is similar to this osdevice partition=D:. The drive letter after partition= is the drive letter of the Windows partition.