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?

 

[CodeConnoisseur]

Nope, still not working. "Cannot find the file specified"

You are are in the \EFI\MICROSOFT\BOOT directory, right?

 

[Enjou]

You are are in the \EFI\MICROSOFT\BOOT directory, right?

Yeah, I made sure.

 

[CodeConnoisseur]

Perhaps a clean reinstall would be the best method of resolving the issue at this point. I've never heard of things becoming corrupted to the point that bcdboot and bootrec are unable to resolve it assuming everything was done correctly.

For fun, what happens if you re-enable VMD and try booting into Windows right now? Technically the EFI binaries are still there, I just imagine that the boot manager won't know what to do. You could theoretically also get a BCD online then just tweak the device and osdevice fields of the entries.

 

[Enjou]

Perhaps a clean reinstall would be the best method of resolving the issue at this point. I've never heard of things becoming corrupted to the point that bcdboot and bootrec are unable to resolve it assuming everything was done correctly.

For fun, what happens if you re-enable VMD and try booting into Windows right now? Technically the EFI binaries are still there, I just imagine that the boot manager won't know what to do. You could theoretically also get a BCD online then just tweak the device and osdevice fields of the entries.

Well, let me share this; Windows Boot manager is back, before the USB I've been using. I'm gonna see if I can boot into windows, then check what happens after I enable VMD again

 

[Enjou]

Perhaps a clean reinstall would be the best method of resolving the issue at this point. I've never heard of things becoming corrupted to the point that bcdboot and bootrec are unable to resolve it assuming everything was done correctly.

For fun, what happens if you re-enable VMD and try booting into Windows right now? Technically the EFI binaries are still there, I just imagine that the boot manager won't know what to do. You could theoretically also get a BCD online then just tweak the device and osdevice fields of the entries.

So yeah, like I thought, it says my PC need to be repaired, with error code 0x0000034.

Turning VMD back on does the same thing, which is... an improvement, oddly enough. Before all of this it was a generic black screen that said "NO BOOTABLE DISK" or something close.

 

[CodeConnoisseur]

So yeah, like I thought, it says my PC need to be repaired, with error code 0x0000034.

Turning VMD back on does the same thing, which is... an improvement, oddly enough. Before all of this it was a generic black screen that said "NO BOOTABLE DISK" or something close.

Hm, well that error is of course related to the BCD that we were trying to fix. I'm still not sure why bcdboot wouldn't have worked unless the template that it gets from System32 is bad. What happens if you do bcdedit /store C:\Windows\System32\Config\BCD-Template? You could actually import that to the E:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD store and then just configure the device and osdevice fields.

 

[Enjou]

Hm, well that error is of course related to the BCD that we were trying to fix. I'm still not sure why bcdboot wouldn't have worked unless the template that it gets from System32 is bad. What happens if you do bcdedit /store C:\Windows\System32\Config\BCD-Template? You could actually import that to the E:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD store and then just configure the device and osdevice fields.

God I wish i could just copy this easilly..

here's what I got;

Windows Boot Manager
---------------------
Identifier    {bootmgr}
Path          \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\Bootmgfw.efi
Description   Windows Boot Manager
Locale        en-US
Inherit       {globalsettings}
Default       {default}
Timeout       30

Windows Setup
-----------------------
Identifier               {default}
Locale                   en-US
Inherit                  {bootloadersettings}
Allowedinmemorysettings  0x15000075
Systemroot               \Windows
nx                       OptOut
BootMenuPolicy           Standard
Winpe                    Yes

 

[CodeConnoisseur]

God I wish i could just copy this easilly..

here's what I got;

Windows Boot Manager
---------------------
Identifier    {bootmgr}
Path          \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\Bootmgfw.efi
Description   Windows Boot Manager
Locale        en-US
Inherit       {globalsettings}
Default       {default}
Timeout       30

Windows Setup
-----------------------
Identifier               {default}
Locale                   en-US
Inherit                  {bootloadersettings}
Allowedinmemorysettings  0x15000075
Systemroot               \Windows
nx                       OptOut
BootMenuPolicy           Standard
Winpe                    Yes

What happens if you try this:

copy C:\Windows\System32\Config\BCD-Template E:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD
bcdedit /store E:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD /set {bootmgr} device partition=E:

Then try booting into Windows. It seems like the default is "Windows Setup" as you showed, but I don't think it'll actually work. I typically have a Proxmox cluster to mess with VMs in but that's down right now.

 

[Enjou]

What happens if you try this:

copy C:\Windows\System32\Config\BCD-Template E:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD
bcdedit /store E:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD /set {bootmgr} device partition=E:

File copied successfully (overwrote using the All flag) and bcdedit actually executed correctly

 

[CodeConnoisseur]

File copied successfully (overwrote using the All flag) and bcdedit actually executed correctly

Can you boot at all or anything?

 

[Enjou]

Can you boot at all or anything?

Mmmnope, now it says it need repaired with error code 0xc0000001

 

[CodeConnoisseur]

Mmmnope, now it says it need repaired with error code 0xc0000001

I'm still confused why we seem to be unable to just create a new BCD normally. The commands I gave before (below) were working just fine on my machine. Again, maybe it would just be best at this point to do a clean reinstall even though it should be fixable.

Let's start over.

cd /D E:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot
del BCD
bcdedit /createstore BCD
bcdedit /store BCD /create {bootmgr}
bcdedit /store BCD /set {bootmgr} device partition=E:
bcdedit /store BCD /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\MICROSOFT\BOOT\BOOTMGFW.EFI
bcdedit /store BCD /create /application osloader
bcdedit /store BCD /default <identifier>
bcdedit /store BCD /set {default} device partition=C:
bcdedit /store BCD /set {default} path \Windows\system32\winload.efi
bcdedit /store BCD /set {default} osdevice partition=C:
bcdedit /store BCD /set {default} systemroot \Windows

Where you set identifier as described previously.

 

[Enjou]

I'm still confused why we seem to be unable to just create a new BCD normally. The commands I gave before (below) were working just fine on my machine. Again, maybe it would just be best at this point to do a clean reinstall even though it should be fixable.

I'm willing at this point. IF i'm lucky, turning VMD off will make it so the installer can see my internal storage unlike before. I'm honestly just praying at this point

 

[CodeConnoisseur]

I'm willing at this point. IF i'm lucky, turning VMD off will make it so the installer can see my internal storage unlike before. I'm honestly just praying at this point

Yes, the installer should be able to see the SSD after disabling VMD. Otherwise you would have needed Intel RST drivers. One last thing you can try is importing this BCD store I just created using the commands above on my own system.

 

[Enjou]

I'm still confused why we seem to be unable to just create a new BCD normally. The commands I gave before (below) were working just fine on my machine. Again, maybe it would just be best at this point to do a clean reinstall even though it should be fixable.

Yes, the installer should be able to see the SSD after disabling VMD. Otherwise you would have needed Intel RST drivers. One last thing you can try is importing this BCD store I just created using the commands above on my own system.

I'll go for that first. The installer wont let me format or delete anything so i dont even know where to begin now

 

[Enjou]

Yes, the installer should be able to see the SSD after disabling VMD. Otherwise you would have needed Intel RST drivers. One last thing you can try is importing this BCD store I just created using the commands above on my own system.

Ok i copied the new BCD successfully, but trying to boot still gives me 0xc0000001. Tried reinstalling but i can't delete or format anything, and trying to format C: returns 0x80004005, which... microsoft is not helpful for.

 

[CodeConnoisseur]

Ok i copied the new BCD successfully, but trying to boot still gives me 0xc0000001. Tried reinstalling but i can't delete or format anything, and trying to format C: returns 0x80004005, which... microsoft is not helpful for.

Probably because they were created with my partitions. Try this one last thing:

bcdedit /store E:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot /set {bootmgr} device partition=E:
bcdedit /store E:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot /set {default} device partition=C:
bcdedit /store E:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot /set {default} osdevice partition=C:

And reboot.

 

[Enjou]

Probably because they were created with my partitions. Try this one last thing:

bcdedit /store E:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot /set {bootmgr} device partition=E:
bcdedit /store E:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot /set {default} device partition=C:
bcdedit /store E:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot /set {default} osdevice partition=C:

And reboot.

All of those commands said they couldn't find the file specified..

 

[CodeConnoisseur]

All of those commands said they couldn't find the file specified..

Okay, try my bcdedit binary. There has to be something wrong with yours, I can't think of anything else.

 

[Enjou]

Okay, try my bcdedit binary. There has to be something wrong with yours, I can't think of anything else.

Well, if it gives any indication, using bcdedit by itself says...

The volume for the file has been externally altered so that the opened file is no longer valid

What cause it i have NO idea because i havent done anything except put your binary on my usb, so i have no idea what it's talking about

 

[CodeConnoisseur]

Well, if it gives any indication, using bcdedit by itself says...

The volume for the file has been externally altered so that the opened file is no longer valid

What cause it i have NO idea because i havent done anything except put your binary on my usb, so i have no idea what it's talking about

Just do clean on your disk in diskpart (assuming you don't need any data off of it first of course) and go for the reinstall via USB. Sorry I wasn't able to figure out a better solution.

 

[Enjou]

Just do clean on your disk in diskpart (assuming you don't need any data off of it first of course) and go for the reinstall via USB. Sorry I wasn't able to figure out a better solution.

No no, you've been a godsend and i'm extremely grateful for everything you've done. All the stuff i really wanted to keep is on an external hard drive anyway, and I can copy my user directory to it and just cobble together what I can.