Operating system not found, but the win10 drive is accessible when I boot from usb

[lancewellspring]

My Windows 10 pc won't start up and is giving the error: An operating system wasn't found. try disconnecting any drives that don't contain operating system.

Relevant parts:
ASRock - Z77 Pro4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (6 years old)
Intel - Core i7-3770 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (6 years old)
Western Digital - RE4 250GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (6 years old)
Seagate 1TB Enterprise Capacity HDD SATA 6Gb/s 128MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive (ST1000NM0033) (3 months old)

I bought the new hdd after the old one just wasn't big enough anymore. After installing Win10 on the new hdd, the old hdd was accessible as a mounted drive.

A similar problem to what I'm having now happened about a month ago, but the same solutions aren't working this time. I powered down and unplugged the old hdd. I created a bootable USB with: https://sourceforge.net/p/boot-repair-cd. I followed the instructions to do the boot repair on the new hdd. None of this helped, so next I tried a CMOS reset by moving that pin thing from the first 2 pins to the second 2 pins, and removing the cmos battery for 10 minutes. Everything was fixed upon putting both of these parts back to how they should be.

Unfortunately this solution didn't work this time. Other things I've tried:
Moving the sata cable to a different port on the mb.
Switching which power cable I used for the hdd
Playing with the bios settings of the hdd: enabled S.M.A.R.T, and a couple other things.

At this point I'm beginning to wonder if the issue is the mb, since this is the 2nd time this has happened. Other than that, I'm at a loss. Can you please suggest other things to try?

 

[ameyer75]

Is your bios version current? Also, do you have any idea what started triggering this? Did you update windows? Another software? If you can get the old HDD to mount as a drive, I would suggest pulling all of the data you don't have backed up off of it, then formatting it.

 

[lancewellspring]

Is your bios version current? Also, do you have any idea what started triggering this? Did you update windows? Another software? If you can get the old HDD to mount as a drive, I would suggest pulling all of the data you don't have backed up off of it, then formatting it.

I'm going to assume the bios isn't current, as I have never updated it. Is that a hard thing to do? The pc doesn't have access to an ethernet cable, it uses a usb dongle for wireless internet. Not sure if that matters.

The first time this happened it was immediately after doing a Visual Studio 2017 Community update (which prompted me to restart to finish applying changes). This time I don't know the last thing that happened because I was at work. My wife and sometimes kids use the pc throughout the day.

I haven't tried booting the old hdd this time, but last time this happened, it wouldn't boot either. Or do you mean boot to the usb and copy files from the new hdd to the old hdd? I suppose thats an option, but I'd really rather not go through reinstalling *everything* again.

Regardless, thanks for your help!

 

[SkyNetRising]

Can you show screenshot from Disk Management?
I'd suspect, you installed windows, while both drives were connected. Right?

 

[ameyer75]

Is your bios version current? Also, do you have any idea what started triggering this? Did you update windows? Another software? If you can get the old HDD to mount as a drive, I would suggest pulling all of the data you don't have backed up off of it, then formatting it.

I'm going to assume the bios isn't current, as I have never updated it. Is that a hard thing to do? The pc doesn't have access to an ethernet cable, it uses a usb dongle for wireless internet. Not sure if that matters.

The first time this happened it was immediately after doing a Visual Studio 2017 Community update (which prompted me to restart to finish applying changes). This time I don't know the last thing that happened because I was at work. My wife and sometimes kids use the pc throughout the day.

I haven't tried booting the old hdd this time, but last time this happened, it wouldn't boot either. Or do you mean boot to the usb and copy files from the new hdd to the old hdd? I suppose thats an option, but I'd really rather not go through reinstalling *everything* again.

Regardless, thanks for your help!

I think I'm misunderstanding what you meant. You purchased the Seagate, installed Windows on it, but are no longer able to boot to that drive? Are you able to get to the BIOS at all? If you can, double check that the computer recognizes the hard drives. If they do, then you're more than likely having hard drive issues. If not, then you're looking at either hard drive issues or motherboard issues.

My suggestion was to boot to the Seagate, then pull all the data off the WD. If you can't boot to either, the idea is moot.

Bios updates aren't hard, but you need a computer to install the bios updates onto a flash drive, then you run the update through the bios (This all depends on the motherboard manufacturer. I've never updated an ASRock Motherboard, so I'm not entirely sure of how its done. Some manufacturers have utilities that will do it through windows, then require an update to finish it, others don't.).

 

[lancewellspring]

Can you show screenshot from Disk Management?
I'd suspect, you installed windows, while both drives were connected. Right?

Disk Management? The pc won't boot into Windows. When I get home I could take a pic with my phone to show gparted when booting to the Linux usb boot repair that I'm using.

Yes, both drives were connected.

 

[lancewellspring]

Is your bios version current? Also, do you have any idea what started triggering this? Did you update windows? Another software? If you can get the old HDD to mount as a drive, I would suggest pulling all of the data you don't have backed up off of it, then formatting it.

I'm going to assume the bios isn't current, as I have never updated it. Is that a hard thing to do? The pc doesn't have access to an ethernet cable, it uses a usb dongle for wireless internet. Not sure if that matters.

The first time this happened it was immediately after doing a Visual Studio 2017 Community update (which prompted me to restart to finish applying changes). This time I don't know the last thing that happened because I was at work. My wife and sometimes kids use the pc throughout the day.

I haven't tried booting the old hdd this time, but last time this happened, it wouldn't boot either. Or do you mean boot to the usb and copy files from the new hdd to the old hdd? I suppose thats an option, but I'd really rather not go through reinstalling *everything* again.

Regardless, thanks for your help!

I think I'm misunderstanding what you meant. You purchased the Seagate, installed Windows on it, but are no longer able to boot to that drive? Are you able to get to the BIOS at all? If you can, double check that the computer recognizes the hard drives. If they do, then you're more than likely having hard drive issues. If not, then you're looking at either hard drive issues or motherboard issues.

My suggestion was to boot to the Seagate, then pull all the data off the WD. If you can't boot to either, the idea is moot.

Bios updates aren't hard, but you need a computer to install the bios updates onto a flash drive, then you run the update through the bios (This all depends on the motherboard manufacturer. I've never updated an ASRock Motherboard, so I'm not entirely sure of how its done. Some manufacturers have utilities that will do it through windows, then require an update to finish it, others don't.).

Right, I can't boot to either drive. I can get to the bios and it recognizes both hdd's. Why does this indicate to you that its an hdd problem? Do you still recommend updating the bios?

 

[ameyer75]

Is your bios version current? Also, do you have any idea what started triggering this? Did you update windows? Another software? If you can get the old HDD to mount as a drive, I would suggest pulling all of the data you don't have backed up off of it, then formatting it.

I'm going to assume the bios isn't current, as I have never updated it. Is that a hard thing to do? The pc doesn't have access to an ethernet cable, it uses a usb dongle for wireless internet. Not sure if that matters.

The first time this happened it was immediately after doing a Visual Studio 2017 Community update (which prompted me to restart to finish applying changes). This time I don't know the last thing that happened because I was at work. My wife and sometimes kids use the pc throughout the day.

I haven't tried booting the old hdd this time, but last time this happened, it wouldn't boot either. Or do you mean boot to the usb and copy files from the new hdd to the old hdd? I suppose thats an option, but I'd really rather not go through reinstalling *everything* again.

Regardless, thanks for your help!

I think I'm misunderstanding what you meant. You purchased the Seagate, installed Windows on it, but are no longer able to boot to that drive? Are you able to get to the BIOS at all? If you can, double check that the computer recognizes the hard drives. If they do, then you're more than likely having hard drive issues. If not, then you're looking at either hard drive issues or motherboard issues.

My suggestion was to boot to the Seagate, then pull all the data off the WD. If you can't boot to either, the idea is moot.

Bios updates aren't hard, but you need a computer to install the bios updates onto a flash drive, then you run the update through the bios (This all depends on the motherboard manufacturer. I've never updated an ASRock Motherboard, so I'm not entirely sure of how its done. Some manufacturers have utilities that will do it through windows, then require an update to finish it, others don't.).

Right, I can't boot to either drive. I can get to the bios and it recognizes both hdd's. Why does this indicate to you that its an hdd problem? Do you still recommend updating the bios?

Even though your BIOS sees your HDDs, you *COULD* still be having hard drive issues. I kind of doubt that's the case here, though, since the BIOS sees both of them. When you reset CMOS, did you pull the battery out of the board before using the jumper or after? Do you have extra SATA cables laying around to test different ports? Also, do you have a bootable copy of windows on a disk or flash drive? You might have corrupted copies of windows. You could try to boot from the disk/flash drive and repair the images?

EDIT: Don't update the BIOS. The BIOS is seeing everything correctly, so updating the software more than likely won't fix the issue.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Yes, both drives were connected.

Well - that's wrong thing to do.
This way you don't get a new bootloader, when installing windows onto second drive. And system is unable to be booted without old drive present.
What you have to do is:

• disconnect the old drive;
  boot from windows installation media;
  use diskpart to shrink windows partition and create new bootloader partition;
  use bcdboot command to place bootloader files onto bootloader partition.

 

[lancewellspring]

Is your bios version current? Also, do you have any idea what started triggering this? Did you update windows? Another software? If you can get the old HDD to mount as a drive, I would suggest pulling all of the data you don't have backed up off of it, then formatting it.

I'm going to assume the bios isn't current, as I have never updated it. Is that a hard thing to do? The pc doesn't have access to an ethernet cable, it uses a usb dongle for wireless internet. Not sure if that matters.

The first time this happened it was immediately after doing a Visual Studio 2017 Community update (which prompted me to restart to finish applying changes). This time I don't know the last thing that happened because I was at work. My wife and sometimes kids use the pc throughout the day.

I haven't tried booting the old hdd this time, but last time this happened, it wouldn't boot either. Or do you mean boot to the usb and copy files from the new hdd to the old hdd? I suppose thats an option, but I'd really rather not go through reinstalling *everything* again.

Regardless, thanks for your help!

I think I'm misunderstanding what you meant. You purchased the Seagate, installed Windows on it, but are no longer able to boot to that drive? Are you able to get to the BIOS at all? If you can, double check that the computer recognizes the hard drives. If they do, then you're more than likely having hard drive issues. If not, then you're looking at either hard drive issues or motherboard issues.

My suggestion was to boot to the Seagate, then pull all the data off the WD. If you can't boot to either, the idea is moot.

Bios updates aren't hard, but you need a computer to install the bios updates onto a flash drive, then you run the update through the bios (This all depends on the motherboard manufacturer. I've never updated an ASRock Motherboard, so I'm not entirely sure of how its done. Some manufacturers have utilities that will do it through windows, then require an update to finish it, others don't.).

Right, I can't boot to either drive. I can get to the bios and it recognizes both hdd's. Why does this indicate to you that its an hdd problem? Do you still recommend updating the bios?

Even though your BIOS sees your HDDs, you *COULD* still be having hard drive issues. I kind of doubt that's the case here, though, since the BIOS sees both of them. When you reset CMOS, did you pull the battery out of the board before using the jumper or after? Do you have extra SATA cables laying around to test different ports? Also, do you have a bootable copy of windows on a disk or flash drive? You might have corrupted copies of windows. You could try to boot from the disk/flash drive and repair the images?

EDIT: Don't update the BIOS. The BIOS is seeing everything correctly, so updating the software more than likely won't fix the issue.

I moved the jumper and then pulled out the battery. Then put the battery back in first and moved the jumper back. I didn't realize the order mattered.

I do have an extra sata cable, and have tried them all. I'm almost positive the problem isn't cable related.

I think I'm going to try to boot from a win10 flash drive to try to do the repair. I'll update after. Thanks again for your help.

 

[ameyer75]

Is your bios version current? Also, do you have any idea what started triggering this? Did you update windows? Another software? If you can get the old HDD to mount as a drive, I would suggest pulling all of the data you don't have backed up off of it, then formatting it.

I'm going to assume the bios isn't current, as I have never updated it. Is that a hard thing to do? The pc doesn't have access to an ethernet cable, it uses a usb dongle for wireless internet. Not sure if that matters.

The first time this happened it was immediately after doing a Visual Studio 2017 Community update (which prompted me to restart to finish applying changes). This time I don't know the last thing that happened because I was at work. My wife and sometimes kids use the pc throughout the day.

I haven't tried booting the old hdd this time, but last time this happened, it wouldn't boot either. Or do you mean boot to the usb and copy files from the new hdd to the old hdd? I suppose thats an option, but I'd really rather not go through reinstalling *everything* again.

Regardless, thanks for your help!

I think I'm misunderstanding what you meant. You purchased the Seagate, installed Windows on it, but are no longer able to boot to that drive? Are you able to get to the BIOS at all? If you can, double check that the computer recognizes the hard drives. If they do, then you're more than likely having hard drive issues. If not, then you're looking at either hard drive issues or motherboard issues.

My suggestion was to boot to the Seagate, then pull all the data off the WD. If you can't boot to either, the idea is moot.

Bios updates aren't hard, but you need a computer to install the bios updates onto a flash drive, then you run the update through the bios (This all depends on the motherboard manufacturer. I've never updated an ASRock Motherboard, so I'm not entirely sure of how its done. Some manufacturers have utilities that will do it through windows, then require an update to finish it, others don't.).

Right, I can't boot to either drive. I can get to the bios and it recognizes both hdd's. Why does this indicate to you that its an hdd problem? Do you still recommend updating the bios?

Even though your BIOS sees your HDDs, you *COULD* still be having hard drive issues. I kind of doubt that's the case here, though, since the BIOS sees both of them. When you reset CMOS, did you pull the battery out of the board before using the jumper or after? Do you have extra SATA cables laying around to test different ports? Also, do you have a bootable copy of windows on a disk or flash drive? You might have corrupted copies of windows. You could try to boot from the disk/flash drive and repair the images?

EDIT: Don't update the BIOS. The BIOS is seeing everything correctly, so updating the software more than likely won't fix the issue.

I moved the jumper and then pulled out the battery. Then put the battery back in first and moved the jumper back. I didn't realize the order mattered.

I do have an extra sata cable, and have tried them all. I'm almost positive the problem isn't cable related.

I think I'm going to try to boot from a win10 flash drive to try to do the repair. I'll update after. Thanks again for your help.

No problem. Just keep us updated. If repairing the image fixes the issue, please mark this as solved. If not, we'll be here!

 

[SkyNetRising]

Guys - please stop multi-quoting (quote inside of quote of another quote inside of another quote ...).
It makes the topic unnecessary uncomfortable to read.

 

[lancewellspring]

Is your bios version current? Also, do you have any idea what started triggering this? Did you update windows? Another software? If you can get the old HDD to mount as a drive, I would suggest pulling all of the data you don't have backed up off of it, then formatting it.

I'm going to assume the bios isn't current, as I have never updated it. Is that a hard thing to do? The pc doesn't have access to an ethernet cable, it uses a usb dongle for wireless internet. Not sure if that matters.

The first time this happened it was immediately after doing a Visual Studio 2017 Community update (which prompted me to restart to finish applying changes). This time I don't know the last thing that happened because I was at work. My wife and sometimes kids use the pc throughout the day.

I haven't tried booting the old hdd this time, but last time this happened, it wouldn't boot either. Or do you mean boot to the usb and copy files from the new hdd to the old hdd? I suppose thats an option, but I'd really rather not go through reinstalling *everything* again.

Regardless, thanks for your help!

I think I'm misunderstanding what you meant. You purchased the Seagate, installed Windows on it, but are no longer able to boot to that drive? Are you able to get to the BIOS at all? If you can, double check that the computer recognizes the hard drives. If they do, then you're more than likely having hard drive issues. If not, then you're looking at either hard drive issues or motherboard issues.

My suggestion was to boot to the Seagate, then pull all the data off the WD. If you can't boot to either, the idea is moot.

Bios updates aren't hard, but you need a computer to install the bios updates onto a flash drive, then you run the update through the bios (This all depends on the motherboard manufacturer. I've never updated an ASRock Motherboard, so I'm not entirely sure of how its done. Some manufacturers have utilities that will do it through windows, then require an update to finish it, others don't.).

Right, I can't boot to either drive. I can get to the bios and it recognizes both hdd's. Why does this indicate to you that its an hdd problem? Do you still recommend updating the bios?

Even though your BIOS sees your HDDs, you *COULD* still be having hard drive issues. I kind of doubt that's the case here, though, since the BIOS sees both of them. When you reset CMOS, did you pull the battery out of the board before using the jumper or after? Do you have extra SATA cables laying around to test different ports? Also, do you have a bootable copy of windows on a disk or flash drive? You might have corrupted copies of windows. You could try to boot from the disk/flash drive and repair the images?

EDIT: Don't update the BIOS. The BIOS is seeing everything correctly, so updating the software more than likely won't fix the issue.

I moved the jumper and then pulled out the battery. Then put the battery back in first and moved the jumper back. I didn't realize the order mattered.

I do have an extra sata cable, and have tried them all. I'm almost positive the problem isn't cable related.

I think I'm going to try to boot from a win10 flash drive to try to do the repair. I'll update after. Thanks again for your help.

No problem. Just keep us updated. If repairing the image fixes the issue, please mark this as solved. If not, we'll be here!

That did the trick! Specifically, I followed the instructions on this website: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3103656/an-operating-system-wasn-t-found-error-when-booting-windows. Thanks!

 

[ameyer75]

Glad I could be of service!