Boot error 0xc000000f when swapping old HDD

[Jinnigan]

I have 3 hard drives: 1 SSD, and 2 HDDs.

Windows 10 is installed on the SSD.

 

For black friday I bought a new 4TB HD. My intent was to copy all the data from the old HDDs over to the new one. I didn't have enough wires to have all 3 plugged in at once, so I unplugged one HDD and plugged the new one in it's place.

 

However, when I unplugged an old one and put the new one in, I get an error 0xc000000f when I try to boot. It won't let me move forward and wants me to make a repair or new installation of windows. I don't really want to install a new copy of windows over my old one. It also did not go away when I reset the configuration to how it was before.

 

All hard drives have been visible in BIOS, regardless of configuration.

 

I have re-seated all wire connections.

 

Any suggestions?
 

[Radium_Angel]

6 minutes ago, Jinnigan said:

Any suggestions?

Did you ensure in the BIOS that the drive to boot from didn't change?

[Jinnigan]

2 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Did you ensure in the BIOS that the drive to boot from didn't change?

Yeah, I have been trying to boot off the SSD the entire time. It's able to boot off a USB flash but not the SSD for some reason.

[Radium_Angel]

23 minutes ago, Jinnigan said:

Yeah, I have been trying to boot off the SSD the entire time. It's able to boot off a USB flash but not the SSD for some reason.

Ok, do this:

 

Put everything back the way it was.

Ensure it will boot.

 

If successful, then shut down, disconnect other 2 HDDs, but not the SSD, and see if it'll boot 

If successful, add only 1 pre-existing HDD, and try again.

If successful, disconnect the HDD, and connect the other HDD, see if it'll boot.

If successful, report back.

Leave the new drive off for the time being

[Jinnigan]

Well. It does not boot at all, whether in original configuration or with just the boot drive connected.

 

So I ended up just reinstalling windows on a new SSD, since I was going to swap out the SSD anywyays. Configuration: New SSD, New HD, 1 Old HD. Transferred over files from old drive 1 to new drive. Then I swapped out old drive 1 for old drive 2, and I started getting the same error. Unplugged both HDDs and have just the SDD plugged in. Still no good.

 

At this point, I updated the BIOS just in case but it might be too late for whatever that might've benefited. H97M Pro4 motherboard. Not sure that's where the problem is, though.

[Jinnigan]

I ended up brute forcing it by simply reinstalling Windows three goddamn times, but after reviewing with a friend here's what we think happened: 

 

windows keeps a master boot record. the MBR identifies how and where an operating system is located.

the drive that windows decides to install the boot record on may not be the same drive windows itself is installed on.

 

probably when i was shuffling drives around it broke the MBR somehow. there are commands you can enter in the repair console to rebuild the mbr. if anyone else is reading this, you'll have to google for it.

 

that being said, this doesn't explain why the same problem would come up even after returning to the original configuration. that's computers for ya.