AOMEI Backupper failure, now W10 main drive will not boot

[glen1235]

Used AOMEI Backupper to clone drive 1 (source) and drive 2(destination), main system on drive 0. Problem during cloning (Restart mode), and now drive 0 no longer boots. Data is there, but cannot access it when booting from another drive. Got message that C:\WINDOWS\System32\winload.efi is missing or corrupt...
Please help!
GlenB
Moultrie, GA

 

[ArtPog]

You mention three drives - drive 1 (the source disk you were attempting to clone), drive 2, the destination drive, and drive 0, the one you refer to as the "main system". So are you indicating that the latter disk - disk 0 - is your boot drive and wasn't involved in the disk-cloning operation?

Is (was) the "source disk" a secondary drive for storage, backups, etc.? It contained an OS?

Could you briefly describe your reason(s) for cloning that disk to another (internally-connected?) drive?

 

[glen1235]

The drive 0 is(was) my drive for almost 2 years. My thought was that I should NOT get that drive messed up in the cloning attempt. Drive 1 and drive 2 were also on separate SATA III cables. Unknown to me when I made my drive 0 original disk, is that W10 made it an UEFI GPT drive. It had never given me any trouble in all this time.
Now, since, I had added another bootable drive that is MBR and NTFS, it shows my original drive 0 as three partitions:450MB NTFS labeled as D:Recovery, 100MB FAT32 E: with no label, and the remaining 237GB has NO drive letter. Windows 10 does not recognize the 237GB portion at all. Used AOMEI Partition software to add a drive letter to that 237GB section, and then windows recognizes it. It will not let me view the files or folders, telling me: 'I' is not accessable, access is denied. The drive letter addition does NOT survive a restart...
I used another 3rd party software, and WAS able to read the files and folders on that 237GB section.
If I try and boot off that original drive 0, I get what must be described as a BSOD, that tells me C:\WINDOWS\System32\winload.efi is missing or corrupted. I say it looks like a BSOD because I have seen such a thing before on W10.
I am presuming that AOMEI Backupper changed my drive 0 so that IT would take over on restart (which it did). I do not know how to undo the Backupper mod to my drive 0!!!
TIA
GlenB
Moultrie, GA

 

[ArtPog]

Let me get a few things clear...

1. At the time of this disk-cloning operation involving disk 1 and disk 2, you had booted to your disk 0 since that disk functioned as the boot drive in this system, right? That boot drive containing the Win 10 OS functioned just fine, right?

2. Now you had installed disk 1 and disk 2 and desired to clone the contents of disk 1 to disk 2. Could you explain the purpose of this disk-cloning operation? I note you've indicated you "had added another bootable drive" to the system, presumably disk 1. Is that right?

3. And your objective was to clone the contents of that disk 1 to a third drive - disk 2, yes?

Do I have all this right so far?

4. If so, what was the purpose of installing another "bootable drive" to the system (presumably disk 1)? Did that drive contain a different OS from your boot drive containing Win 10? You desired a multi-boot system?

5. And what was the purpose of cloning the contents of that disk 1 to a third drive - disk 3? Some sort of backup operation?

6. I assume the AOMEI Backupper version you used was the "freebie" version?

 

[glen1235]

Answer to quesiton 1 is CORRECT
2. Was making a SSD clone for wife's new laptop. Although the AOMEI software failed, I WAS able to successfully complete the clone on another computer using Acronis WD edition, and manual mode...
3. Yes, correct
4. My computer was essentially DEAD, I had to do something to get it back up. So, found another bootable W10 drive and installed it. Presumably, it is the TOOL I will use to fix the original drive 0
W10 system (with all my commercial software on it :-( )
5. same answer as 2
6. Yes the freebie version

 

[ArtPog]

You'll have to forgive me but I'm totally confused of the sequence of operations you outlined as well as their purpose. So let me see if can understand precisely what's involved here, OK?

1. When you say your computer is essentially "dead", what PC are you talking about? The one under discussion?

2. You first responded to my question about disk 0 (the boot drive) confirming that this boot drive functioned just fine. If that is so, how could your computer be "essentially dead"? Are different PCs involved here?

3. As you explained, disk 2 & disk 3 were involved in a disk-cloning operation involving your wife's laptop. Why
wasn't that operation handled at her laptop? I assume disk 2 was her boot drive (possibly a HDD) and you were cloning the contents of that drive to a new SSD that would be installed as the boot drive in her laptop? So why wasn't this done at her laptop via a USB external device?

Anyway...has your problem been resolved now?

 

[glen1235]

Thanks for your patience.

The PC was DEAD when my drive 0 was toast because of the AOMEI cloning operation, it was just fine for almost 2 years before that.

I tried cloning my wife's laptop using the EZ GIG USB cloning cable on her laptop, that failed to produce a bootable drive. My cloning issues are finished, I WAS able to get a clone for her on another computer.

The DEAD PC is now back up bc I put in another hard drive. The main problem still exists:drive 0 will not boot anymore because of the AOMEI cloning operation. All files seem to be fine on the drive 0, just will not boot.

When I try to boot on the original drive 0, I get a BSOD telling me a device is broken, hitting F8 at that time then tells me \WINDOWS\System32\winload.efi is missing or corrupted. I have deleted that file and replaced it with a winload.efi from another drive that is working...so, presumably that file was not the cause of the problem.

I added a drive letter using AOMEI Partition Assistant, then I ran a chkdsk. It found one problem, and corrected it.

The W10 media, I made the original drive from, is unable to correct the fault.
Take care
GlenB

 

[ArtPog]

So if I correctly understand where things stand at present...

1. You have your former boot drive - a HDD - that's dysfunctional and you're unable to access its data, right?

2. You have the former destination drive during the disk-cloning operation that's similarly dysfunctional.

3. Obviously you have a working PC because you "put in another hard drive". I assume by that you installed the Win 10 OS (I guess that's the OS you're working with) on that HDD. If that's the case, can't you install the dysfunctional former boot HDD in the system as a secondary drive and at least access the data on that drive and copy/move same to this new HDD?

 

[glen1235]

1. I can access the data with Q-dir or in cmd prompt in Admin mode for the drive 0 that has a problem.
2. No, no other drive has a problem.
3. Ran W10 media command prompt, and probably improved my situation a little.
Now I get a message that says the BCD (Boot Configuration Data) file is missing or corrupted.
What I did what to do a bootrec /FixBoot then did a bcdboot with the /f UEFI option. Thus, the BCD error message.
That is a little farther than I got before. Apparently, under a UEFI GPT system, is goes to the FAT32 partition first.
Odd thing is that when I run diskpart in cmd prompt in repair mode, the 237GB partition has NO drive letter and shows an
attribute of 'hidden'. That seems strange to me. What I am just about to do, is to use Q-dir to look for the BCD file to see if it
there. However, not knowing such, the BCD might be custom for each PC...
Obviously, the old drive 0 is now drive 1 on the PC until I get it fixed...
TIA
GlenB

 

[glen1235]

MERGED QUESTION
Question from glen1235 : "SSD boot failure on source after cloning W10"

Unable to restore the boot on my W10 system, 250GB SSD which had been running for almost 2 years. Drive 0 would not boot after AOMEI Backuuper cloning process was finished (error) in Restart Mode.
Not sure what Backupper did to my drive 0, but it no longer boots.
A diskpart list of the volumes in Troubleshooting mode shows 3 partitions:
D:Recovery NTFS 450MB, E: <no label> 100MB FAT32, and a 237GB partition with no label NTFS with 'hidden' attribute.
Files seem to be OK on 237GB partition AFAICT.
Tried bootrec FixBoot
and bcdboot with /f UEFI option
My MB apparently uses UEFI and GPT...
BSOD says BCD file is missing or corrupt upon boot attempt.
BCD file is in fact there
???
TIA
GlenB
Moultrie, GA