Cannot boot windows after updating BIOS

[will.gutierrez12]

Hi guys,

A few weeks ago I upgraded my video card from an AMD R9 380 to a nvidia 1070 and added a second monitor to my set up. Ever since then my windows boot time went from <10ish seconds to ~3 minutes, this is on an 850 EVO 500gb SSD. I used DDU to clean the old amd drivers thinking this was my issue but it didn't help the boot time at all. After searching around for the issue it was recommended to update the BIOS which I hadn't done before so thought it might be overdue for an update. I downloaded the update and let it run and restart. A few seconds after a reboot I get the message that says "Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key." I've tried unplugging all the drives except the one that had my OS but I still get the same message. I've been running with this PC for years with no issues until this cropped up so I'm at a loss of what to do, any help is greatly appreciated.

Here are my specs if needed:

Mobo: EVGA z97 Classified
CPU: I7 4790K
GPU: Asus Nvidia 1070
RAM: 16gb
2 850 EVO 500gb SSD
Windows 10 64 bit

 

[DRagor]

In short: updating BIOS resets settings to default. And default setting may be incompatible with your current Windows install. For example, BIOS may be searching for MBR partitioned drive now, while it is GPT (or the other way around). You have to restore BIOS settings to how they were before the update. If you have the profile saved (on USB stick for example) that is easy to do, otherwise you have to change them manually. But if you don't know what the settings were ... you are in trouble.

 

[will.gutierrez12]

In short: updating BIOS resets settings to default. And default setting may be incompatible with your current Windows install. For example, BIOS may be searching for MBR partitioned drive now, while it is GPT (or the other way around). You have to restore BIOS settings to how they were before the update. If you have the profile saved (on USB stick for example) that is easy to do, otherwise you have to change them manually. But if you don't know what the settings were ... you are in trouble.

Thanks for the quick reply! I do not know what the settings were before as I haven't entered the BIOS since I changed the MOBO about a year ago... Is there another option at this point then? I have my important files backed up so reformatting is not a big issue to me.

 

[DRagor]

If you have files backed up, then probably fastest way to solve the problem is doing a new Windows install.

 

[Zerk2012]

Go into BIOS and select AHCI for the drive or IDE that is the only thing that could of changed for the drive not to be bootable nothing else.
The one you had it set at when you loaded windows is the only one that will work with the drive.

 

[mjslakeridge]

If you had additional drives attached to the computer when you initially installed Windows, and now you have them disconnected, that could be the reason you can't boot into Windows. Boot manager files may have been written to the other drive(s), and now Windows can't find them.

After trying what Zerk suggested, if you decide to do a clean install of Windows, make sure your SSD is the only drive connected until the installation is complete.

 

[will.gutierrez12]

If you had additional drives attached to the computer when you initially installed Windows, and now you have them disconnected, that could be the reason you can't boot into Windows. Boot manager files may have been written to the other drive(s), and now Windows can't find them.

After trying what Zerk suggested, if you decide to do a clean install of Windows, make sure your SSD is the only drive connected until the installation is complete.

I decided to do a clean install as I didn't see Zerk's message before hand however now another issue has cropped up. I'm using a Windows 8.1 pro CD (as I upgraded digitally to windows 10 previously) to reinstall and when given the option to "Reset this PC" and remove everything it fails to reset. I restart and automatic repair kicks in but fails to repair and I get this error log file: E:\Recovery\WindowsRE\Winre.wim\System32\LogFiles\Srt\SrtTrail.txt. Stuck in a loop now where I can reboot but the automatic repair error just occurs again.

 

[mjslakeridge]

Once you upgraded from Windows 8.1 to 10, your product key for 8.1 is no longer valid; instead you have a digital license for 10. Download the Media Creation Tool and the Windows 10 iso file from Microsoft and follow the instructions to create a bootable media. I think Microsoft recommends a blank USB flash drive of at least 8GB. As long as you previously logged into Windows 10 using your Microsoft account (user ID), your new installation of 10 should activate once you log in again.