Question "GPT Header corruption detected" - can only boot to windows 11 manually through bios. What to do?

[mr. fireworkguy]

A month ago i discovered i had accidentally installed windows to my Harddrive (Disk 0) instead of the SSD i bought specifically for the purpose (Disk 1). I went through the whole ordeal with reinstalling windows and wiping my SSD, so i could hopefully fix my slow boot times and arrange the windows installation to be how i wanted it.

That worked out fine, and i managed to install windows successfully to my SSD, but then i discovered my HDD (disk 0) was still showing up in bios as a boot option, because there were still windows partitions on it for some reason.

I went through another day of troubleshooting where i ended up successfully removing the remaining windows partitions from my HDD (disk 0) and creating a new partition on my SSD (Disk 1) - don't remember why now, but that was what the tech support people on here recommended.

Since then, i have finally been able to boot from my SSD (disk 1), and my HDD (disk 0) no longer shows up as a boot option - awesome! But.. For some reason, my windows install seems to still be messed up.

Every time i boot up, i get this screen (

https://imgur.com/a/9by3kry

View: https://imgur.com/a/9by3kry
) and have to enter bios, go to ez mode, and manually select my SSD to boot from (see this picture).

Here is what my disk management control panel looks like:

https://imgur.com/lnNBqHb

View: https://imgur.com/lnNBqHb
Hopefully this can provide some context to what i'm describing. If you need any other resources to identify the issue, please comment and i'll see if i can provide

My OS Build number is 22631.4169 (windows 11 pro)

I also can't update windows. It tries, but encounters an error every time, and then i have to go through & manually boot up the pc every time windows update restarts the computer, making this process take 20 minutes with no successful update. It is very annoying, and i'm hoping there are disk management & windows install wizards out there that can help me with my issues.

 

[Colif]

C: (SSD w. windows) = 464 gb total
D: (250gb nvme ssd) = 237gb total
M: (2tb Seagate HDD) = 1.81TB total

from your other thread: https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...-chrome-70-of-the-time.3835043/#post-23192476

what make/models are the drives? I see you had problems with them before.
Have you tried starting windows with just the C drive in it?

the windowsboot partition isn't even the boot partition. That is on C. Was this converted from another OS as you missing a few windows partitions there.

GPT refers to your drives.
GPT = GUID Partition Table

GUID = Global Unique ID = Every GPT drive on earth has a unique ID
GPT drives can have a max of 255 partitions on them
Max size of a GPT drive/partition is 18.8 million TB

 

[Lutfij]

What did you do to get a 2GB Fat 32 partition on what looks like your OS install drive? On a side note, you should have the OS on the M.2 while the 850 Evo would be used for your assets drive.

For all the work around you've performed, I feel like you're going to have to reinstall the OS. The only thing that does stand out to me out of your Disk management window is that you have unallocated drive spaces, which would be best to incorporate into the rest of the partition for D: and G:, respectively. Once that's done, you disconnect all drives apart from the drive you wish to install the OS onto, then delete all partitions(if you don't have mission critical data on it) and then reinstall the OS anew(after recreating your bootable USB installer for your OS).

 

[Colif]

What did you do to get a 2GB Fat 32 partition on what looks like your OS install drive? On a side note, you should have the OS on the M.2 while the 850 Evo would be used for your assets drive.

given entire drive is missing the normal windows partition layout, I guess he made it custom. Windows will install all in one partition if you insist. I had it like that on my last PC.
been a while, system drive is boot partition... Windowsboot doesn't really need 2gb though, my boot partition is only 600mb

Did op try the GPT recovery as suggested by BIOS?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Hopefully this can provide some context to what i'm describing.

All your drives are GPT, but there's no EFI System partition on any of them.
You should not be able to boot into windows.
I don't understand, how is that even working. Some weird Asus compatibility boot mode perhaps.

You have to create EFI system partition manually.
Execute from elevated command prompt. With regular command prompt you'll get error on last step.
If you get any errors, then stop immediately and show screenshot.

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk 1​

(select 465GB OS disk)​

list partition​

select partition x​

(select 2GB "Windowsboot" partition, x=2 or x=3. Replace x with appropriate number)​

shrink desired=500​

create partition efi​

format fs=fat32 quick​

assign letter=H​

exit​

bcdboot C:\windows /s H: /f UEFI​

​

Last message should be "Boot files created successfully".

Reboot your pc.
Description "System" should disappear from "Windowsboot" partition in Disk Management.
Then you can delete "Windowsboot"partition.

 

[mr. fireworkguy]

All your drives are GPT, but there's no EFI System partition on any of them.
You should not be able to boot into windows.
I don't understand, how is that even working. Some weird Asus compatibility boot mode perhaps.

You have to create EFI system partition manually.
Execute from elevated command prompt. With regular command prompt you'll get error on last step.
If you get any errors, then stop immediately and show screenshot.

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk 1​

(select 465GB OS disk)​

list partition​

select partition x​

(select 2GB "Windowsboot" partition, x=2 or x=3. Replace x with appropriate number)​

shrink desired=500​

create partition efi​

format fs=fat32 quick​

assign letter=H​

exit​

bcdboot C:\windows /s H: /f UEFI​

​

Last message should be "Boot files created successfully".

Reboot your pc.
Description "System" should disappear from "Windowsboot" partition in Disk Management.
Then you can delete "Windowsboot"partition.

Thank you so much for your detailed and precise instructions!!

I ran into an issue at "Shrink desired=500" Picture for reference: (

https://imgur.com/a/bDmIe39

View: https://imgur.com/a/bDmIe39
)
After successfully completing the steps above it & typing this into the elevated cmd, i get this message:

"Virtual Disk Service error: The volume cannot be shrunk because the file system does not support it."

I did a quick google search and found this may have something to do with whether the partition is ntfs or fat32? Either way, i did a quick "List Volumes" in diskpart, which might provide some additional context. See this picture for reference: (

https://imgur.com/a/3z2PtRD

View: https://imgur.com/a/3z2PtRD
)
Thank you in advance.

 

[mr. fireworkguy]

given entire drive is missing the normal windows partition layout, I guess he made it custom. Windows will install all in one partition if you insist. I had it like that on my last PC.
been a while, system drive is boot partition... Windowsboot doesn't really need 2gb though, my boot partition is only 600mb

Did op try the GPT recovery as suggested by BIOS?

I tried the gpt recovery instructions suggested by bios. Went in and changed the MBR/GPT recovery policy from "Local user control" to "Auto recovery". This has successfully removed the annoying screen on boot that i had to do a workaround for every time i turned on the pc (no longer getting first picture in original post on boot). However - i still can't update windows, and my seemingly cursed windows installation hasn't changed.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Went in and changed the MBR/GPT recovery policy from "Local user control" to "Auto recovery".
This has successfully removed the annoying screen on boot that i had to do a workaround for every time i turned on the pc

Can you show latest screenshot from Disk Management?
(to see what changes this Asus Auto recovery process has done)

If it changed partition type for "Windowsboot" partition from Basic Data to EFI System, then it's all good.

 

[mr. fireworkguy]

Can you show latest screenshot from Disk Management?
(to see what changes this Asus Auto recovery process has done)

If it changed partition type for "Windowsboot" partition from Basic Data to EFI System, then it's all good.

Hmm it doesn't seem as if it did.
current disk management overview:

https://imgur.com/a/oecVIpu

View: https://imgur.com/a/oecVIpu

 

[SkyNetRising]

You can change partition type to EFI System - this way.
Before doing this, have windows installation media prepared.
If something goes wrong, then you'll need it.

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk 1​

(select 465GB OS disk)​

list partition​

select partition 3​

(select 2047MB windowsboot partition)​

set id=c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b override​

exit​

 

[mr. fireworkguy]

You can change partition type to EFI System - this way.
Before doing this, have windows installation media prepared.
If something goes wrong, then you'll need it.

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk 1​

(select 465GB OS disk)​

list partition​

select partition 3​

(select 2047MB windowsboot partition)​

set id=c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b override​

exit​

Thanks! It worked - magic! Here is an image of Disk Management now:
(

https://imgur.com/a/VjxAhtf

View: https://imgur.com/a/VjxAhtf
)

I assumed i should continue the steps you provided earlier, so i tried again, but got a new error message this time... "You may not shrink OEM, ESP, or recovery partitions, or, offline volumes. The volume you have selected may not be shrunk. Please select another volume and try again."

Here is an image of cmd:

https://imgur.com/a/Q3fhCd6

View: https://imgur.com/a/Q3fhCd6

 

[SkyNetRising]

I assumed i should continue the steps you provided earlier, so i tried again, but got a new error message this time...
"You may not shrink OEM, ESP, or recovery partitions

No. It's all good.
You don't need to do anything more.

Partition "Windowsboot" is now a proper EFI System bootloader partition.

 

[mr. fireworkguy]

No. It's all good.
You don't need to do anything more.

Partition "Windowsboot" is now a proper EFI System bootloader partition.

Thank you a ton for all your help! My pc is back working again and i am very happy! No stupid gpt corruption boot screen & boot workaround anymore, and i can finally update windows again. Cheers!