System wont boot after 1 (of 2) hardrive died

Krawser

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Jul 30, 2015
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I have a 250gb SSD and a 1TB SSHD.

Windows is installed on the SSD (it's my C:\ drive).

SSHD died
(wont detect in BIOS, no noise, no idea how. Just came back one day and bam).
Anyway, removed the SSHD, but system still continues to boot into BIOS. It won't go into Windows...

If Windows is on my SSD, why is my PC always booting into the BIOS? Is there some kind of bootup key which could've been stored onto the SSHD (that died)? I've externally connected and tested the SSD to my laptop and it works fine - all the data is there and accessible.

Moving onto the current situation:
I've just bought a replacement drive (a 500GB Samsung 960 evo SSD). How should I go about keeping my current SSD as my C drive and having this 500GB drive as secondary one?
 
Solution
Steps are as following:
  • 1. Boot from windows installation media into command prompt;
    2. Use diskpart to shrink current windows partition (by 500mb);
    3. Create new bootloader partition in freed up space. For MBR disk - primary, active, NTFS partition. For GPT disk - EFI system, FAT32 partition.
    4. Use bcdboot command to create bootloader files on newly created partition.
    bcdboot c:\windows /s h: ( c: - windows partition, h: - bootloader partition, drive letters may be different)
    5. Change boot sequence in BIOS accordingly.
Reboot and profit.


Most likely bootloader was located on drive, that died. This is quite common situation, when you install windows with multiple drives connected.
You have to recreate bootloader partition on your SSD.
 

Paperdoc

Polypheme
Ambassador
OK, BEFORE you install the second SSD, fix your system this way.

Background: when you first installed Windows on your SSD while the SSHD was also attached, the Install process placed a set of backup copies of system files on the SSHD in a semi-hidden Partition. The idea is that, if ever the boot drive has a corrupted system file it can't use, it will get a good copy from the spares on the other drive, repair the boot drive, and complete the boot process. It fixes that problem by itself! Neat design. BUT what that also means is that EVERY time your system boots it checks for those spares and, if it does NOT find them (like, after your SSHD dies), it cannot boot at all!.

So, how to fix. You need a copy of the Windows Install software - a CD or a USB stick,whatever. It does not need to be the SAME one you did our initial Install from, but it DOES need to be for the same version. You should arrange your system so that ONLY the older SSD is still installed (plus maybe your optical drive), but NO other storage device. Set it so that you will boot from the device that has the Windows Install stuff on it (optical drive or USB stick). Boot into the Install software, but DO NOT run a normal Install! Search the menus for a Repair Install and run that. It will survey your system (the SSD) and find there are no backup files hidden away, and it will then install those for you. When that is done, shut down and remove that Install device. Boot into BIOS Setup and set to boot from your SSD, then SAVE and EXIT. It should boot cleanly into Windows from the SSD.

Once that works, you can shut down and install the new SSD in a SATA position just like you wold do for a second HDD. Use the tools provided with that new SSD to Create a New Simple Volume (or something similar). The only difference here from the common situation is that this second unit does NOT need to be a BOOTABLE device since it has no OS and you always boot from the older SSD.
 

Krawser

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Jul 30, 2015
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You said that Paperdoc's answer was not what would solve this particular problem. Could you explain how that is different to what you said here, and then how do I go about recreating the bootloader partition on my (old) SSD?
 
Steps are as following:
  • 1. Boot from windows installation media into command prompt;
    2. Use diskpart to shrink current windows partition (by 500mb);
    3. Create new bootloader partition in freed up space. For MBR disk - primary, active, NTFS partition. For GPT disk - EFI system, FAT32 partition.
    4. Use bcdboot command to create bootloader files on newly created partition.
    bcdboot c:\windows /s h: ( c: - windows partition, h: - bootloader partition, drive letters may be different)
    5. Change boot sequence in BIOS accordingly.
Reboot and profit.


 
Solution

Krawser

Reputable
Jul 30, 2015
6
0
4,510


Finally got around to doing it by acquiring a big enough USB. Actually, I didn't find one, so had to backup and use a 500GB portable drive lol. Took a lot of searching online to understand each step too, but otherwise, worked!!! :D