Question Double Windows Boot Manager

[nathanvelez]

Hi All,

Facts:

1. I recently changed the location of my SSD from Disk 3 to Disk 4 which turned out smooth for me.
2. Was eyeing the windows 11 update yesterday and found out that TPM and Secure Boot needed CSM which needed a GPT local disk to run
3. Changed Disk 4 (C: or Where my current Windows 10 is located) from MBR to GPT using AOMEI Partition Assistant [SUCCESSFUL]
4. Restarted and changed "Legacy+UEFI boot" in BIOS to "UEFI" only as instructed by every other forum including AOMEI [SUCCESSFUL]
5. PC did not post, no EZ Debug lights on, went ahead to reset BIOS through the battery
6. PC posts, though Windows 10 showed Recovery screen indicating: "\Windows\system32\winload.efi" and "Error Code: 0xc000000e"
7. Went ahead and launched Automatic Repair through Function1 key, new error code indicating "\BCD" and "Error Code 0xc00000098"
8. Decided to use command prompt through Windows Installation Media on a removable USB, tried everything from BCDEDITS, BOOTREC /whatevers, BOOTSECT /ns60 or something, and still no joy on entering back into Windows 10
9. Saw that the BIOS boot options had two "Windows Boot Manager" and went ahead to try both
10. First 'Windows Boot Manager' option in BIOS boot override was a fail, still resulted in Fact 6 through 8
11. Second 'Windows Boot Manager' option was a success, no bcdedits nor bootrecs, just entered into my original Windows 10 installation with no issues.
12. Finally tried to repair error codes displayed in Fact 6 and 8 through 'sfc /scannow' and AOMEI MBR repair
13. Restarted after trying repairs and command prompt entries, but still automatically chooses the (I assume) the broken Windows Boot Manager in fact 10
14. PC works fine when choosing to override boot option #2 indicated in fact 11.
15. Cannot find any other windows boot manager through MSConfig and 'Visual BCD'

I need help. I just want to delete the corrupted windows boot manager and automatically boot into this GPT Win10 drive in order for me to update to the Windows 11 OS.

Specs: Ryzen 5 3500x, 16gb ram, GTX 1060, Windows 10 Home

Thanks in advance for your help, Tomshardware has definitely helped me in the past and I hope this thread will help someone in the future too

See the Attachments below for reference:

 

[dwd999]

Hi All,

Facts:

1. I recently changed the location of my SSD from Disk 3 to Disk 4 which turned out smooth for me.
2. Was eyeing the windows 11 update yesterday and found out that TPM and Secure Boot needed CSM which needed a GPT local disk to run
3. Changed Disk 4 (C: or Where my current Windows 10 is located) from MBR to GPT using AOMEI Partition Assistant [SUCCESSFUL]
4. Restarted and changed "Legacy+UEFI boot" in BIOS to "UEFI" only as instructed by every other forum including AOMEI [SUCCESSFUL]
5. PC did not post, no EZ Debug lights on, went ahead to reset BIOS through the battery
6. PC posts, though Windows 10 showed Recovery screen indicating: "\Windows\system32\winload.efi" and "Error Code: 0xc000000e"
7. Went ahead and launched Automatic Repair through Function1 key, new error code indicating "\BCD" and "Error Code 0xc00000098"
8. Decided to use command prompt through Windows Installation Media on a removable USB, tried everything from BCDEDITS, BOOTREC /whatevers, BOOTSECT /ns60 or something, and still no joy on entering back into Windows 10
9. Saw that the BIOS boot options had two "Windows Boot Manager" and went ahead to try both
10. First 'Windows Boot Manager' option in BIOS boot override was a fail, still resulted in Fact 6 through 8
11. Second 'Windows Boot Manager' option was a success, no bcdedits nor bootrecs, just entered into my original Windows 10 installation with no issues.
12. Finally tried to repair error codes displayed in Fact 6 and 8 through 'sfc /scannow' and AOMEI MBR repair
13. Restarted after trying repairs and command prompt entries, but still automatically chooses the (I assume) the broken Windows Boot Manager in fact 10
14. PC works fine when choosing to override boot option #2 indicated in fact 11.
15. Cannot find any other windows boot manager through MSConfig and 'Visual BCD'

I need help. I just want to delete the corrupted windows boot manager and automatically boot into this GPT Win10 drive in order for me to update to the Windows 11 OS.

Specs: Ryzen 5 3500x, 16gb ram, GTX 1060, Windows 10 Home

Thanks in advance for your help, Tomshardware has definitely helped me in the past and I hope this thread will help someone in the future too

See the Attachments below for reference:

You probably show 2 boot managers since the System Reserved partition shown on Disk 0 is supposed to be at the beginning of Disk 4. If you're OK with continuing to use Windows 10 the way it is for a while longer, that would be easier. If you really want to use Windows 11 (which I wouldn't recommend until they release ISOs of the latest update 22H2 in another month or so) it would probably be best to do a complete reinstallation of Windows. Note that the Windows installer works best when only 1 drive is connected at installation time and additional drives are connected after installation is complete. You should also verify that the drive is already marked as GPT before starting installation. It also helps if all of the space on the drive is unallocated with no partitions as the Windows installer will create all of the partitions it needs in the correct order.

 

[SkyNetRising]

I need help. I just want to delete the corrupted windows boot manager and automatically boot into this GPT Win10 drive in order for me to update to the Windows 11 OS.

Old bootloader is on Disk 0 (549MB partition).
Delete the partition and Disk 0 becomes unbootable.

But you'll still have to fix boot priority settings.
The photo from BIOS you're showing there is not boot priority.

 

[nathanvelez]

Thank you @dwd999 and @SkyNetRising! Would any of you know which Windows Boot Manager is corrupted or not? Is it possible that a Boot manager from Disk 0 runs the OS on Disk 4? I just don't want to delete the wrong Boot Manager.

Thanks again.

 

[nathanvelez]

Updates:
Wanted to try removing drives first to identify which one really is causing the problems. Only left (formerly) Disk 4 connected and it still gives me two boot windows boot managers. Tried to reset BIOS because it might just not have updated but still returns two entries of boot managers on the boot override section. See attached:

 

[dwd999]

Thank you @dwd999 and @SkyNetRising! Would any of you know which Windows Boot Manager is corrupted or not? Is it possible that a Boot manager from Disk 0 runs the OS on Disk 4? I just don't want to delete the wrong Boot Manager.

Thanks again.

Your computer is messed up enough. As long as you are able to boot into Windows 10 and have full use of your computer then it would be safest to just leave everything alone until you are ready to do a complete reinstall using Windows 11. It won't be much longer until the Windows 11 update is finalized and you've waited this long so you can wait another month or so. Messing with partitions may not end well so just leave them alone until you're ready for a complete reinstall. Meanwhile you can take stock of everything you currently have and use so that you'll be all prepared for a complete reinstall.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Only left (formerly) Disk 4 connected and it still gives me two boot windows boot managers.

Should be able to fix bootloader by executing following from elevated command prompt:

bcdboot c:\windows​

If that still doesn't fix it, then show current bcd store configuration
(execute from elevated command prompt and show full command output)

bcdedit ​

​

How to Open the Command Prompt as Administrator in Windows 10

Much of the time, opening the Command Prompt as a regular user is all you need. Sometimes, though, you’ll need to open the Command Prompt as an administrator so that you can run commands that require administrative privileges.

www.howtogeek.com

 

[TerryLaze]

Updates:
Wanted to try removing drives first to identify which one really is causing the problems. Only left (formerly) Disk 4 connected and it still gives me two boot windows boot managers. Tried to reset BIOS because it might just not have updated but still returns two entries of boot managers on the boot override section. See attached:

The bios just gives you the option to start with uefi or legacy, it's the same boot loader the bios just shows it twice.

 

[SkyNetRising]

I think - BCD store has two entries of windows boot manager.
That's why I asked for bcdedit command output.

 

[nathanvelez]

Should be able to fix bootloader by executing following from elevated command prompt:

bcdboot c:\windows​

If that still doesn't fix it, then show current bcd store configuration
(execute from elevated command prompt and show full command output)

bcdedit ​

​

How to Open the Command Prompt as Administrator in Windows 10

Much of the time, opening the Command Prompt as a regular user is all you need. Sometimes, though, you’ll need to open the Command Prompt as an administrator so that you can run commands that require administrative privileges.

www.howtogeek.com

Returned successful on 'bcdboot c:\windows'.
Restarted and did not change anything in BIOS and boot sequence
Still have the same error of missing \Windows\system32\winload.efi

Here is the bcdedit command output:

 

[TerryLaze]

Your BCD is fine, it only shows one entry.
Bios has nothing to do with bcd other than it loads the partition that contains it.
When you select the uefi version in bios it loads without issue,
when you choose the legacy version in bios it errors out due to not being able to load efi.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Screenshot looks good.

Can you show boot priority settings and
HDD BBS settings from BIOS?

 

[nathanvelez]

HDD BBS Settings fixed it, Changed from first windows boot manager to second and it worked like a charm. Thank you @SkyNetRising !

See attached as requested:

 

[SkyNetRising]

In Hard Drive BBS priorities - leave only one Boot option.
Disable the other.

 

[nathanvelez]

In Hard Drive BBS priorities - leave only one Boot option.
Disable the other.

Solved! Thank you so much