SSD booting issue

[seedubya]

This is a favour for my daughter, currently in training as a network tech, with a government department. If it was a client I'd tell them to recover the data and move on but however...

Her laptop, running Windows 10 Pro 1809 suffered a kernel power error and restarted. When it came back up she got a no bootable device found error. Being a budding tech herself she attempted to fix the problem. Found that the drive had lost all its partitions but managed to recover those but still no boot. Then she tried the usual bootrec commands to fix the booting situation but to no avail. After this her explanation gets a bit hazy. I think she may have tried deleting and re-creating the system reserved partition and/or the recovery partition. Here's a pic of what the partitions look like now.

I also think the drive was originally GPT but now it's MBR!! All of the data is intact on the main partition. She would REALLY like to get the OS booting again without having to resolve to N&P.

Possible, do you think?

 

[Porthos]

This is a favour for my daughter, currently in training as a network tech, with a government department. If it was a client I'd tell them to recover the data and move on but however...

Her laptop, running Windows 10 Pro 1809 suffered a kernel power error and restarted. When it came back up she got a no bootable device found error. Being a budding tech herself she attempted to fix the problem. Found that the drive had lost all its partitions but managed to recover those but still no boot. Then she tried the usual bootrec commands to fix the booting situation but to no avail. After this her explanation gets a bit hazy. I think she may have tried deleting and re-creating the system reserved partition and/or the recovery partition. Here's a pic of what the partitions look like now.

I also think the drive was originally GPT but now it's MBR!! All of the data is intact on the main partition. She would REALLY like to get the OS booting again without having to resolve to N&P.

Possible, do you think?

Use a Macrium boot disk and there is a button to fix boot problems it is on the left side.

 

[fincoder]

Found that the drive had lost all its partitions but managed to recover those but still no boot

The drive lost all partitions... forget trying to get it booting. Whether this is a client or a family member, doesn't make any difference.
Reinstall of Windows 10 is so easy, why spend hours trying to get unscramble a scrambled egg?

 

[Markverhyden]

The ability to rebuild will be based on what was used to recover the partitions. While the volume has been low I've never been able to reconstruct a drive that into a bootable system. Hopefully there's already a disk image hanging around from when this started.

As a Dad @seedubya you could use your worldly knowledge and experience to reinforce the importance of image backups. But I haven't had any luck doing that with my daughter. LOL!!!

 

[seedubya]

The drive lost all partitions... forget trying to get it booting. Whether this is a client or a family member, doesn't make any difference.
Reinstall of Windows 10 is so easy, why spend hours trying to get unscramble a scrambled egg?

With respect, I'm doing this since 1996. I know all this. Do you have anything to suggest regarding recovering this? The time spent is immaterial.

 

[seedubya]

The ability to rebuild will be based on what was used to recover the partitions. While the volume has been low I've never been able to reconstruct a drive that into a bootable system. Hopefully there's already a disk image hanging around from when this started.

As a Dad @seedubya you could use your worldly knowledge and experience to reinforce the importance of image backups. But I haven't had any luck doing that with my daughter. LOL!!!

I know Mark. It's a pain but whaddya do? She's a good kid and I'll do my best to get it working.

 

[seedubya]

Use a Macrium boot disk and there is a button to fix boot problems it is on the left side.

Will try this Porthos, thanks.

 

[Joep]

I loved those days when Windows not booting was a trivial thing to fix. I spoke fluent boot.ini, config.sys and autoexec.bat those days. MBR and boot sector code had no secrets for me. And now, they have ruined it all.

In this case for certain I'd trying set that smaller NTFS partition active and see how that goes.
How far does it get when you boot?

 

[mikeroq]

I've done stuff like this a few times.

Basically I back up the OS partition, usually by making a .wim image.
Then I would wipe the drive, set it up as GPT.

This is my diskpart script for GPT partitioning (but that was for Windows 7). Found this one online from Microsoft:

rem == CreatePartitions-UEFI.txt == 
rem == These commands are used with DiskPart to 
rem    create four partitions 
rem    for a UEFI/GPT-based PC. 
rem    Adjust the partition sizes to fill the drive 
rem    as necessary. == 
select disk 0 clean convert gpt 
rem == 1. System partition ========================= 
create partition efi size=100 
rem  ** NOTE: For Advanced Format 4Kn drives, 
rem  change this value to size = 260 ** 
format quick fs=fat32 label="System" 
assign letter="S" 
rem == 2. Microsoft Reserved (MSR) partition ======= 
create partition msr size=16 
rem == 3. Windows partition ========================
rem ==    a. Create the Windows partition ========== 
create partition primary 
rem ==    b. Create space for the recovery tools === 
rem       ** Update this size to match the size of 
rem          the recovery tools (winre.wim) 
rem          plus some free space. 
shrink minimum=500 
rem ==    c. Prepare the Windows partition =========
format quick fs=ntfs label="Windows" 
assign letter="W" 
rem === 4. Recovery tools partition ================ 
create partition primary 
format quick fs=ntfs label="Recovery tools" 
assign letter="R" 
set id="de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac" 
gpt attributes=0x8000000000000001 
list volume 
exit

Which you would put in a text file and run with"

diskpart /s file.txt

Then restore the image of the OS partition to the W: drive.
Then run:

bcdboot w:\windows /s s: /f UEFI

If the OS partition is all intact it should boot up.

Alternative method:
1. Make image of drive, or use another drive.
2. Install Windows 10.
3. Image over the old OS partition over the new one

 

[Markverhyden]

Easeus also claims to be able to fix things like that.

https://www.easeus.com/partition-manager/

 

[fincoder]

The time spent is immaterial.

Fair enough. I suppose if it's difficult or impossible to recreate the software & settings environment, that would be a reason to persist.

 

[Romaniac]

mike said it but yes...


If you're running out of options, try imaging the drive - verify image.

Re-install Windows. The 100MB OS/system reserved partition will be recreated.

Replace the OS partition with the image you made.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

question, how many times have you guys seen unexpected power down cause an SSD to lose all partitions?

 

[HFultzjr]

Check the BIOS to see how it is set to boot.
Secure Boot, Legacy, etc.

 

[Porthos]

Check the BIOS to see how it is set to boot.
Secure Boot, Legacy, etc.

From the screenshot it is and has always been MBR. Bet the computer has a Win 7 COA on it.

 

[seedubya]

question, how many times have you guys seen unexpected power down cause an SSD to lose all partitions?

I've seen it before on HDDs but never on an SSD

From the screenshot it is and has always been MBR. Bet the computer has a Win 7 COA on it.

Nope, Windows 10 Pro. I think she may have changed the type while messing about with minitool partition wizard, which she got to help her recover the partitions.

 

[Porthos]

That first partition 549 mb is what you get when you load 10 on an MBR computer.

while messing about with minitool partition wizard

There would have been other partitions. The first one would not have become 549.

 

[GreyWolf]

+1 @Porthos Yup from 529-549 is definitely a MBR and something is off with the recovery info.

Personally it's a case of backing up the registry (by boot disk and export) backup the drive re-install to get back a active boot and replace the files to regain the original data.as for corruption nothing beats a power surge. Try and find what build of 10 was on the machine to install the correct version.

Best of luck

 

[AlaDes]

I have messed with some tricky stuff in my life but Windows 10 is a PITA when it comes to data recovery and keeping the system intact if having to replace a motherboard, processor, or HDD. I've performed many things on systems that most people wouldn't even attempt and wish I could have shared a lot of them with you guys over the years. As a matter of fact, I just recovered a system with Windows XP and an IDE drive today, using some basic tools that I paid very little for over 8 years ago. The most experienced tech in our department said I'd never do it, but I did.
Please feel free to PM me if you like, because I love when kids are trying to learn rather that just do a nuke & pave, which is the easy way out. I have two daughters of my own and wouldn't even mind spending a little time helping your daughter out at no charge, provided she do the same for someone else in the future. I love a good challenge!