Question BIOS may be corrupted (Closed, Unsolved?)

[Enjou]

So, Yesterday, I decided to try my hand at dual-booting Linux on my machine. I'd been running AtlusOS 11, a fork of Windows, which really doesn't function any different - just gets rid of bloatware.

Anyway, I couldn't boot to Linux from a USB because I used the wrong installer, so I formatted the drive and downloaded the Live version. I restarted my laptop for some reason, I forget why, and it gave me a BSOD that said I couldn't boot to windows. I changed my boot order in BIOS to use Windows Boot Manager first, instead of the USB. This didn't work, and I got the BS two more times. I found a fix to restore the EFI partition on my system Drive. Part of this fix had me associate a drive letter to this partition (K: in this case). However, it was around 2:00 am and I was tired, and had forgotten to anneal the drive letter from the partition - as it had been originally. Now, my device doesn't detect any bootable media, and using an installation disk doesn't show my system Drive, only an External SSD I use for Steam. Using DiskPart in the WRE only reveals the boot usb and the external drive, not the system Drive. BIOS sees the drive, though - Samsung NVME, 512 GB, all that. My question is, is there a way to remove the drive letter from the partition so I can at least get my bootloader back? Or am I just screwed?

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Make and model of your motherboard...?
I restarted my laptop for some reason
If you're on a laptop, what is the make, model and SKU of your laptop? HP laptops ted to have a BIOS recovery mode but you'll need a donor/spare PC/laptop to fabricate your recovery BIOS key.

 

[Enjou]

The Laptop itself is a Predator Triton 300 SE, I believe the motherboard is a TGM Clubman_TLM

 

[CodeConnoisseur]

You definitely did not do anything that would have corrupted your BIOS. The EFI System Partition (ESP) is what makes your drive bootable and you mention trying to fix an issue with it, so the problem likely lies there. Simply assigning a volume letter to the ESP will not cause any issues, however, so there must have been something more that was done.

Please boot into WinRE, open a command window, and post the output of the command bcdedit. Then, run diskpart, select your boot/Windows drive, and post here the output of the following commands:

list partition
list volume

 

[Enjou]

You definitely did not do anything that would have corrupted your BIOS. The EFI System Partition (ESP) is what makes your drive bootable and you mention trying to fix an issue with it, so the problem likely lies there. Simply assigning a volume letter to the ESP will not cause any issues, however, so there must have been something more that was done.

Please boot into WinRE, open a command window, select your boot/Windows drive diskpart, and post here the output of the following commands:

list partition
list volume

Ah, but therein lies the problem; see, when I do that, I have to use a recovery USB to boot into WinRe; it's the only way I'm able to even get past BIOS. Using Diskpart only lists three volumes; C:, which is the USB, D:, which is only 1 mb, and F:, which is empty - all of which are on the USB. The actual internal storage is nowhere to be found, even though it's listed in BIOS under Storage. It's really strange.

 

[CodeConnoisseur]

Ah, but therein lies the problem; see, when I do that, I have to use a recovery USB to boot into WinRe; it's the only way I'm able to even get past BIOS. Using Diskpart only lists three volumes; C:, which is the USB, D:, which is only 1 mb, and F:, which is empty - all of which are on the USB. The actual internal storage is nowhere to be found, even though it's listed in BIOS under Storage. It's really strange.

If you have a Linux live USB handy you can try booting into that and running fdisk -l. Strange that it wouldn't be appearing in WinRE if the BIOS can see it.

 

[Enjou]

If you have a Linux live USB handy you can try booting into that and running fdisk -l. Strange that it wouldn't be appearing in WinRE if the BIOS can see it.

Unfortunately I don't, since I only have the one USB

 

[CodeConnoisseur]

Unfortunately I don't, since I only have the one USB

I'm guessing WinRE is missing drivers for your SSD, potentially because you are using something like Intel VMD. You might need to download the drivers online somehow and inject them into the WinRE image.

 

[Enjou]

I'm guessing WinRE is missing drivers for your SSD, potentially because you are using something like Intel VMD. You might need to download the drivers online somehow and inject them into the WinRE image.

I am actually, but I can toggle it on and off from within BIOS. I'll see about downloading the drivers; do you know how I could inject it into WinRe though? I've never tried something like that.

 

[CodeConnoisseur]

I am actually, but I can toggle it on and off from within BIOS. I'll see about downloading the drivers; do you know how I could inject it into WinRe though? I've never tried something like that.

I know that changing the VMD status can cause issues with an existing Windows installation, but it should be safe as long as it is re-enabled before you try to boot back into Windows. Either way it shouldn't damage the installation, I think it's just because Windows doesn't know to switch the drivers automatically so you need to go into safe mode first. Even if, you should just be able to change it back.

So yeah, should be good to just disable that, go into WinRE, and try the commands I listed previously.

 

[Enjou]

I know that changing the VMD status can cause issues with an existing Windows installation, but it should be safe as long as it is re-enabled before you try to boot back into Windows. Either way it shouldn't damage the installation, I think it's just because Windows doesn't know to switch the drivers automatically so you need to go into safe mode first. Even if, you should just be able to change it back.

So yeah, should be good to just disable that, go into WinRE, and try the commands I listed previously.

Actually, quick correction, I can toggle Intel VTX/VTD on and off. From what I understand, this is virtualization support? That being said, I'd assume I'd still have to inject the drivers into WinRE

 

[CodeConnoisseur]

Actually, quick correction, I can toggle Intel VTX/VTD on and off. From what I understand, this is virtualization support? That being said, I'd assume I'd still have to inject the drivers into WinRE

Ah, right, you have a Predator laptop. You should need to do Ctrl + S in the main BIOS tab and it will give you additional options including the "Intel VMD Controller" that we want to disable. I've done that exact thing on a client's computer before. You will not need to do the WinRE image driver injection this way, as this is just allowing WinRE's built-in NVMe drivers to work and avoid having to use the proprietary Intel ones that are compatible with VMD.

 

[Enjou]

Ah, right, you have a Predator laptop. You should need to do Ctrl + S in the main BIOS tab and it will give you additional options including the "Intel VMD Controller" that we want to disable. I've done that exact thing on a client's computer before.

Ctrl + S doesn't do anything. I can go into Advanced Settings with F1, but even so there's not an option to toggle VMD. The only other option is TBT Detection Gain, and I have NO idea what that does, so I've never touched it

 

[CodeConnoisseur]

Ctrl + S doesn't do anything. I can go into Advanced Settings with F1, but even so there's not an option to toggle VMD. The only other option is TBT Detection Gain, and I have NO idea what that does, so I've never touched it

This is probably a better step-by-step.

 

[Enjou]

This is probably a better step-by-step.

Ope, yep, got it that time. I'll try those comd
mands from before.

Bcdedit returns...
X:\Sources>bcdedit
The boot configuration data store could not be opened
The system cannot find the file specified

After that, I used DISKPART...

DISKPART> List Volume
Volume 0 - C - Acer - NTFS - Simple - 475 GB - Healthy
Volume 1 - (NONE) - (NONE) - FAT32 - Partition - 200 MB - Healthy - Hidden
Volume 2 - (NONE) - Recovery - NTFS - Partition - 1024 MB - Healthy - Hidden

Volumes 3, 4, and 5 (D, E, and F) belong to the boot USB

DISKPART> Select Volume 0
DISKPART> List Part

Partition 1 - System - 200 MB
Partition 2 - Dyn. Res. - 1024 KB
Partition 3 - Reserved - 15 MB
Partition 4 - Dyn. Data - 415 GB
Partition 5 - Dyn. Data - 1024 KB
Partition 6 - Recovery - 1025 MB
(Obviously there's some space left - it's unassigned, and where I was gonna put my Linux Distro.)

So THANKFULLY it looks like the drive letter was removed without me, but now I'm just wondering why VMD was keeping it hidden?

 

[CodeConnoisseur]

From the WinRE shell, run the following commands and post the output of the last two:

diskpart
select volume 1
assign letter=e
exit
e:
bcdedit
dir EFI\Microsoft\Boot

I think all that you're going to need to end up doing is rebuilding your BCD, which should be as simple as bootrec /rebuildbcd.

 

[Enjou]

From the WinRE shell, run the following commands and post the output of the last two:

diskpart
select volume 1
assign letter=e
exit
e:
bcdedit
dir EFI\Microsoft\Boot

I think all that you're going to need to end up doing is rebuilding your BCD, which should be as simple as bootrec /rebuildbcd.

"The boot configuration data store could not be opened. The system cannot find the file specified"

Using dir in G (since E was in use) shows...

"Volume in drive G has no label."
"Volume SN is 88D7-9284"
"File not found"

"File not found

 

[CodeConnoisseur]

Try bcdboot C:\Windows /s E: where C: is the mountpoint of your primary Windows install partition and E: is the ESP. I'm not sure what you mean by "Using dir in G (since E was in use)".

 

[Enjou]

Try bcdboot C:\Windows /s E: where C: is the mountpoint of your primary Windows install partition and E: is the ESP. I'm not sure what you mean by "Using dir in G (since E was in use)".

E was the UEFI directory on the Boot USB, so I left it as is and used G on the EFI partition on the system, since every other letter was in use before it. Sorry, I realize that sounds confusing

 

[Enjou]

X:\Sources>bcdboot C:\Windows /s G:
BFSVC Error: Failed to set element application device. Status = [c00000bb]
BFSVC Error: Failed to populate BCD store. Status = [c00000bb]

 

[Enjou]

X:\Sources>bcdboot C:\Windows /s G:
BFSVC Error: Failed to set element application device. Status = [c00000bb]
BFSVC Error: Failed to populate BCD store. Status = [c00000bb]

I remember getting these errors yesterday, but I have no idea how to resolve them

 

[CodeConnoisseur]

Add the verbose flag by appending /v to the end. Within diskpart please also run detail partition after selecting your ESP.

 

[Enjou]

BFSVC: ServiceBootFiles MuiOnly:n Res:y Fonts:y BootMgrOvw:n BootStatOvw:n DbgTrn:n SuspendBDE:n
Using source OS Version a00000585d0001
Copying boot files CopyBootManager(Yes) C:\Windows\boot\EFI -> \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HardDiskVolume1\EFI\Microsoft\boot

Updating\\?\\GLOBALROOT\Device\HardDiskVolume1\EFI\Microsoft\boot\bootx64.efi
Creating Recovery Directory
Logging boot file servicing event to bootstat \\?\GLOBALROOT\...\boot\BOOTSTAT.dat
Failed to log event. Status: 0x80000005

Copying font files
Copying resource files
Servicing debugger files
List of debugger files is empty
System partition is not in space
BfsInitializeBcdStore flags(0x0000001c) RetainElementData:n DelExistingObject:n
VolumePathName for C:\Windows is C:\
Systemroot is \Windows
Opening template from \Windows\System32\Config\BCD-Template
Opening store from \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD
Creating General Objects
Creating Resume object
BCD Error: Failed to convert data for element 11000001. Status: c00000bb
Failed to set element application device
Failed to populate BCD store

 

[CodeConnoisseur]

Try bootrec /rebuildbcd then bcdboot C:\Windows /s E: /v again.

 

[Enjou]

Try bootrec /rebuildbcd then bcdboot C:\Windows /s E: /v again. It seems that your backup BCD copy in your Windows installation is also corrupted.

X:\Sources>bootrec /rebuildbcd
Scanning for Windows Installations...
Total identified Windows installations: 0
The operation completed successfully

The second command returned the same errors as last time, but I think that much was expected...