Computer can't find boot device

[Skull_Zockt]

Hey guys,

 

some months ago I setup a new SSD with Windows 11 on my pc. While doing that I still had my old Win10 drive installed.

On Startup I could decide which OS to boot into. I now removed my Win10 drive and there had to be some information needed to be able to boot on there.

The thing now is I already reformatted the drive. How can I fix my existing Win11 so I can boot back into it?

 

Thanks in advance,

Sky

[problemsolver]

1 hour ago, Skull_Zockt said:

Hey guys,

 

some months ago I setup a new SSD with Windows 11 on my pc. While doing that I still had my old Win10 drive installed.

On Startup I could decide which OS to boot into. I now removed my Win10 drive and there had to be some information needed to be able to boot on there.

The thing now is I already reformatted the drive. How can I fix my existing Win11 so I can boot back into it?

 

Thanks in advance,

Sky

Edit: for others coming here with similar issues follow this guide that already exists

Assuming you can't force the UEFI to boot to your drive, you're missing your EFI partition and also Windows Boot manager.

 

Before you do this, if you care about your files, I'd plug the SSD into another computer as an extra drive and copy any files off that you need. This way, if the steps below go wrong, you'll have the important stuff and can just reinstall Windows.

1. Boot your PC from a Windows installation disc or recovery disk. Hit “Shift + F10” simultaneously to enter Command Prompt.
2. Input the command lines below to shrink a partition to get unallocated space. You're going to want to pick the biggest partition in this case.

   diskpart
   list disk
   select disk x (x represents the sequence number o the disk where an EFI partition is required)
   list partition
   select partition n (n represent the sequence number of the partition to be shrinked)
   shrink desired=500 (shrink the partition by 500MB)

    

3. Now, you can create an EFI system partition by using the unallocated space with the command lines below.

   create partition efi size=200
   format quick fs=fat32 label=”system”
   create partition msr size=1128

    

4. Once the 2 partitions are created, use the commands below to install bootloader and other necessary apps.

   exit (exit diskpart)
   bootrec/fixboot
   bcdboot c:\Windows /s b: /f all

    

Needless to say, there's a (small) chance you'll lose everything during the partition shrink.

Here's my source for this. I've done this stuff myself, but referenced this guide for all the commands etc.

[Skull_Zockt]

26 minutes ago, problemsolver said:

Assuming you can't force the UEFI to boot to your drive, you're missing your EFI partition and also Windows Boot manager.

 

Before you do this, if you care about your files, I'd plug the SSD into another computer as an extra drive and copy any files off that you need. This way, if the steps below go wrong, you'll have the important stuff and can just reinstall Windows.

1. Boot your PC from a Windows installation disc or recovery disk. Hit “Shift + F10” simultaneously to enter Command Prompt.
2. Input the command lines below to shrink a partition to get unallocated space. You're going to want to pick the biggest partition in this case.

   diskpart
   list disk
   select disk x (x represents the sequence number o the disk where an EFI partition is required)
   list partition
   select partition n (n represent the sequence number of the partition to be shrinked)
   shrink desired=500 (shrink the partition by 500MB)

    

3. Now, you can create an EFI system partition by using the unallocated space with the command lines below.

   create partition efi size=200
   format quick fs=fat32 label=”system”
   create partition msr size=1128

    

4. Once the 2 partitions are created, use the commands below to install bootloader and other necessary apps.

   bootrec/fixboot
   bcdboot c:\Windows /s b: /f all

    

Needless to say, there's a (small) chance you'll lose everything during the partition shrink.

Here's my source for this. I've done this stuff myself, but referenced this guide for all the commands etc.

Hey man,

 

first of all thanks for the help. I managed to shrink my Volume. 

I now got the following partitions on my drive

PartNum   Type   Size   Offset

1 Reserved 16MB 1024KB

2 Primary 930GB 17MB

3 System 200MB 931GB

 

I failed on the create partition msr size=1128 command.

at first I thought that there is just not enough space, therefore I shrank my partition by an additional 1000MB.

But after that I still got the same error. I don't know if it helps if I post the german error message.

 

Is there any information I could provide you that would help?

 

 

[problemsolver]

Just now, Skull_Zockt said:

Hey man,

 

first of all thanks for the help. I managed to shrink my Volume. 

I now got the following partitions on my drive

PartNum   Type   Size   Offset

1 Reserved 16MB 1024KB

2 Primary 930GB 17MB

3 System 200MB 931GB

 

I failed on the create partition msr size=1128 command.

at first I thought that there is just not enough space, therefore I shrank my partition by an additional 1000MB.

But after that I still got the same error. I don't know if it helps if I post the german error message.

 

Is there any information I could provide you that would help?

 

 

It looks like you already have a System partition for some reason (the one that's 200 MB). In that case, run the last step

bootrec/fixboot
bcdboot c:\Windows /s b: /f all

 

[Skull_Zockt]

11 minutes ago, problemsolver said:

It looks like you already have a System partition for some reason (the one that's 200 MB). In that case, run the last step

bootrec/fixboot
bcdboot c:\Windows /s b: /f all

 

I have the system partition as I just created it, the second partition I could not create.

 

For some reason your last 2 commands are not being recognized. Do I need to quit diskpart before executing them?

As of now I just get a list of possible DISKPART commands when I try to execute bootrec or bcdboot.

[problemsolver]

4 minutes ago, Skull_Zockt said:

I have the system partition as I just created it, the second partition I could not create.

 

For some reason your last 2 commands are not being recognized. Do I need to quit diskpart before executing them?

As of now I just get a list of possible DISKPART commands when I try to execute bootrec or bcdboot.

Ah, I think we both misunderstood each other. You're only creating one partition (which in your case, it looks like it already existed somehow).

 

The only other step is fixing that partition. So yes, if you're trying to enter those commands in diskpart, that won't work. You need to exit it.

I'll update the directions to include that command

[Skull_Zockt]

4 minutes ago, problemsolver said:

Ah, I think we both misunderstood each other. You're only creating one partition (which in your case, it looks like it already existed somehow).

 

The only other step is fixing that partition. So yes, if you're trying to enter those commands in diskpart, that won't work. You need to exit it.

I'll update the directions to include that command

Running form one problem to the other.

 

Command now is recognized, but I get "Acces Denied" Error on the "bootrec /fixboot" command

 

When I quit i am on "X:\sources" Do i need to go into a secific drive or folder?

[problemsolver]

17 minutes ago, Skull_Zockt said:

Running form one problem to the other.

 

Command now is recognized, but I get "Acces Denied" Error on the "bootrec /fixboot" command

Edit: Don't do this... this is for an MBR drive, not a GPT drive.
Okay, then try this:

Bootrec /scanos
Bootrec /fixmbr
Bootrec /fixboot
Bootrec /rebuildbcd

Edited December 25, 2023 by problemsolver
Fixing my stupidity

[Skull_Zockt]

1 minute ago, problemsolver said:

Okay, then try this:

Bootrec /scanos
Bootrec /fixmbr
Bootrec /fixboot
Bootrec /rebuildbcd

 

All command except fixboot ran successfully. Still getting the same error on that one "Access Denied"

[problemsolver]

16 minutes ago, Skull_Zockt said:

All command except fixboot ran successfully. Still getting the same error on that one "Access Denied"

Deleted because don't want someone losing their data

Edited December 25, 2023 by problemsolver
Deleted

[problemsolver]

Ah, someone has written a guide for this! Although it doesn't look like it will help you in this specific case.

 

[Skull_Zockt]

6 minutes ago, problemsolver said:

Ah, someone has written a guide for this! Although it doesn't look like it will help you in this specific case.

 

Yessss... Managed to get it to work. My issue was that I have multiple drives in my system and therefore I had to change the following command a little.

 

1. bcdboot C:\Windows /s b:

Instead of C I had to choose E.

 

For some reason in the OS the drive with Windows is shown as C: but in diskpart it was E:

 

Well man, can't thank you enough. Would have been a pain to reinstall everything. You saved me a lot of work.

 

Thanks again,

Sky

[problemsolver]

Just now, Skull_Zockt said:

Yessss... Managed to get it to work. My issue was that I have multiple drives in my system and therefore I had to change the following command a little.

 

1. bcdboot C:\Windows /s b:

Instead of C I had to choose E.

 

For some reason in the OS the drive with Windows is shown as C: but in diskpart it was E:

 

Well man, can't thank you enough. Would have been a pain to reinstall everything. You saved me a lot of work.

 

Thanks again,

Sky

Oh... I thought you pulled out all the other drivers first lol... I should've asked... it makes it much more difficult when other drives are in the system, sorry!

[Skull_Zockt]

6 minutes ago, problemsolver said:

Oh... I thought you pulled out all the other drivers first lol... I should've asked... it makes it much more difficult when other drives are in the system, sorry!

Why go the easy route when you can do it the hard way

 

 

Just a small question. Can I add my 2 not assigned partitions (1000 MB and 301 MB) back to my C: safely?

[problemsolver]

11 minutes ago, Skull_Zockt said:

Why go the easy route when you can do it the hard way

 

 

Just a small question. Can I add my 2 not assigned partitions (1000 MB and 301 MB) back to my C: safely?

1. Yes, the 1000MB partition can be re-added without issue.
   Now, I'm guessing you're German, and that that 301MB on the end might bug you since ya'll are known for being very organized etc. 
2. If it does bother you, you can get it all re-sorted, but it will take a bit of work and there's more risk in losing all your data.
   If you look at that image, you'll notice to re-combine the 1000MB and the 301MB you would need to move the 200MB partition to the end.
   The easiest way would probably be using a live Linux distro on a USB and using GParted

[Skull_Zockt]

1 hour ago, problemsolver said:

1. Yes, the 1000MB partition can be re-added without issue.
   Now, I'm guessing you're German, and that that 301MB on the end might bug you since ya'll are known for being very organized etc. 
2. If it does bother you, you can get it all re-sorted, but it will take a bit of work and there's more risk in losing all your data.
   If you look at that image, you'll notice to re-combine the 1000MB and the 301MB you would need to move the 200MB partition to the end.
   The easiest way would probably be using a live Linux distro on a USB and using GParted

Haha 

 

I am not going the Linux way, this is more of executing commands I don't know the functionality of.

Guess I'll just have to life with never opening up Disk Management again ^^

 

Thanks again for the help!

 

 

[problemsolver]

11 minutes ago, Skull_Zockt said:

Haha 

 

I am not going the Linux way, this is more of executing commands I don't know the functionality of.

Guess I'll just have to life with never opening up Disk Management again ^^

 

Thanks again for the help!

 

 

Haha, funny you mention that, I actually really did mean GParted in a live Linux USB is the easiest way... you actually have a GUI (no console commands required)