- Feb 25, 2015
- 8
- 0
- 10,510
I have a computer I use as a home server, (mostly running Minecraft servers, and storing everyone's music/pictures/documents/etc.) but lately, I can't get it to boot up.
It runs Windows 10 Pro off of a 500 GB SSD (C: ), and also has a 2 TB HDD (D: ).
I've run up and down google, trying to figure out what's wrong, and haven't really gotten any closer to fixing it.
Here's what I've tried, and what the computer tells me in response.
-Turn on computer
So I tried again with a Windows installation USB stick plugged in, and went to "repair my computer > troubleshoot"
-Startup Repair
Then I tried things in the Command Prompt that google results suggested.
-Bootrec /fixmbr
-Bootrec /fixboot
-Bootrec /rebuildBCD
Successfully scanned Windows installations.
Total identified Windows installations: 1
[1] C:Windows
Add installation to boot list? Yes(Y)/No(N)/All(A):Y
The requested system device cannot be found.
Here, I got lucky. Sometimes this shows 1 installation, sometimes it shows 0. I'm not sure what is changing between attempts.
-BCDboot C:\windows
-Remove CMOS battery for 5 minutes
-fixmbr/fixboot/rebuildBCD again
I found a trick online to access files in recovery mode. I went to command prompt and started notepad.exe, went to "open", and used its file explorer interface to poke around.
-notepad.exe > open > stripped-down file explorer
The first time I did this, I noticed that the two drives had swapped letters. "Local Disk" (SSD) should have been C:, but was listed as D:, and "HDD" which should have been D:, was listed as C:.
I opened the case, and swapped the SATA cable connections on them, and since then, they've shown up with the correct drive letters. Also, immediately after swapping cables was the first time rebuildBCD showed 1 installation instead of 0, though it still goes back and forth between 0 and 1 seemingly at random.
Next I tried saving a text file through notepad, as a test of the SSD's writability, and it saved successfully.
Then I went back to the command prompt, and tried more "things google recommended that I barely understood".
-BCDedit /export c:\bcdbackup
-attrib c:\boot\bcd -h -r -s
-diskpart > select disk 0 > list partition
At this point, supposedly I'm to select the partition with Windows on it, and "activate" it, or something, but I don't know how to tell which one has Windows. "System" sounded promising, but 99MB sounded really small for an operating system. "Reserved" would have been my next bet, but it's only 16. And since I don't really know exactly what I'm doing at this point, and didn't know if activating the wrong partition would result in something going wrong, so I stopped and decided to come ask people who know more about this stuff than me.
I considered re-installing Windows to see if that fixed it, but I could only "Upgrade while keeping files and settings" after booting up the current windows installation, which I can't get to happen right now, or install clean, and wipe everything, and I really wanna try to see if I can save the files on C: drive first, before doing something that drastic. (If it comes to that, though, I can just copy the files onto a flash drive via notepad's "open" menu, though it's gonna be a pain)
It runs Windows 10 Pro off of a 500 GB SSD (C: ), and also has a 2 TB HDD (D: ).
I've run up and down google, trying to figure out what's wrong, and haven't really gotten any closer to fixing it.
Here's what I've tried, and what the computer tells me in response.
-Turn on computer
So I tried again with a Windows installation USB stick plugged in, and went to "repair my computer > troubleshoot"
-Startup Repair
Then I tried things in the Command Prompt that google results suggested.
-Bootrec /fixmbr
-Bootrec /fixboot
-Bootrec /rebuildBCD
Please wait, since this may take a while...
Successfully scanned Windows installations.
Total identified Windows installations: 1
[1] C:Windows
Add installation to boot list? Yes(Y)/No(N)/All(A):Y
The requested system device cannot be found.
Here, I got lucky. Sometimes this shows 1 installation, sometimes it shows 0. I'm not sure what is changing between attempts.
-BCDboot C:\windows
-Remove CMOS battery for 5 minutes
-fixmbr/fixboot/rebuildBCD again
I found a trick online to access files in recovery mode. I went to command prompt and started notepad.exe, went to "open", and used its file explorer interface to poke around.
-notepad.exe > open > stripped-down file explorer
The first time I did this, I noticed that the two drives had swapped letters. "Local Disk" (SSD) should have been C:, but was listed as D:, and "HDD" which should have been D:, was listed as C:.
I opened the case, and swapped the SATA cable connections on them, and since then, they've shown up with the correct drive letters. Also, immediately after swapping cables was the first time rebuildBCD showed 1 installation instead of 0, though it still goes back and forth between 0 and 1 seemingly at random.
Next I tried saving a text file through notepad, as a test of the SSD's writability, and it saved successfully.
Then I went back to the command prompt, and tried more "things google recommended that I barely understood".
-BCDedit /export c:\bcdbackup
-attrib c:\boot\bcd -h -r -s
-diskpart > select disk 0 > list partition
At this point, supposedly I'm to select the partition with Windows on it, and "activate" it, or something, but I don't know how to tell which one has Windows. "System" sounded promising, but 99MB sounded really small for an operating system. "Reserved" would have been my next bet, but it's only 16. And since I don't really know exactly what I'm doing at this point, and didn't know if activating the wrong partition would result in something going wrong, so I stopped and decided to come ask people who know more about this stuff than me.
I considered re-installing Windows to see if that fixed it, but I could only "Upgrade while keeping files and settings" after booting up the current windows installation, which I can't get to happen right now, or install clean, and wipe everything, and I really wanna try to see if I can save the files on C: drive first, before doing something that drastic. (If it comes to that, though, I can just copy the files onto a flash drive via notepad's "open" menu, though it's gonna be a pain)
Last edited:
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