Question Why does my second (external) hard drive not have winload.efi?

[sacerdose]

Hello,

I haven't been able to boot from my second (external) SSD for a while after CHKDSK seemed to fix bad sectors. I get a \boot Error 98 message when I boot.

I tried bcdboot E:\Windows /s V: /f uefi command (where E: is my external hard drive with Windows 10 installed, and where V: is my assigned EFI partition, using 'diskpart') to rebuild my BCD/EFI files on the EFI volume of my external SSD, but I get an error saying there was a problem copying over files.

Upon further investigation, I see that I don't seem to have a winload.efi file in my E:\windows\system32\boot directory, which I think causes the problem that prevents me from copying the relevant files to my EFI partition when carrying out the bcdboot command mentioned above. I suspect the winload.efi file got deleted or corrupted (and then deleted) a while ago, again, I think via CHKDSK.

*winload.efi file missing; \en-US directory above is empty*

*Normal-looking \windows\system32\boot directory with winload.efi (on C: drive/internal hard drive)*

Now, I have no idea how to rebuild my BCD or get winload.efi installed on my external hard drive again. I can't seem to use bootrec /fixmbr - /fixboot - /scanos - /rebuildbcd commands because these seem to be applied only to the internal hard drive on whichever computer I'm using to try to fix my external SSD winload.efi or BCD (the same applies for bcdedit).

Anyone have any idea how to get winload.efi back in my external SSD windows\system32\boot directory without reinstalling Windows from scratch?

Thanks.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

For starters Windows is NOT designed to be booted from external media. Anything you do at this point will only make matters worse.

 

[sacerdose]

For starters Windows is NOT designed to be booted from external media. Anything you do at this point will only make matters worse.

Ok.

I mean, I salvaged the SATA III SSD that was in an old desktop and whose PSU burned out. I thought I'd use the SSD (with the old Windows 10 install and all the files) as a bootcamp drive to go with an old MacBook Pro that was given to me recently. Or, just to use it as an alternate boot drive with some laptops I have since I no longer have a working desktop (getting a replacement PSU would be worth as much as getting a new old desktop).

So no, then?

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Ok.

I mean, I salvaged the SATA III SSD that was in an old desktop and whose PSU burned out. I thought I'd use the SSD (with the old Windows 10 install and all the files) as a bootcamp drive to go with an old MacBook Pro that was given to me recently. Or, just to use it as an alternate boot drive with some laptops I have since I no longer have a working desktop (getting a replacement PSU would be worth as much as getting a new old desktop).

So no, then?

No matter how you intend to use that drive you will have to reinstall Windows and all software.

 

[lantis3]

You can use Rufus to install Win10-11 onto a fast external usb or ssd drive and boot from it.

I do have a bootable Windows 11 installation on a fast USB drive.

There are several tutorials on YT.

 

[USAFRet]

You can use Rufus to install Win10-11 onto a fast external usb or ssd drive and boot from it.

I do have a bootable Windows installation on a fast USB drive.

There are several tutorials on YT.

But again, thats a new install on this external drive.

Can't just pluck a drive out of a system, put it in an enclosure, and expect it to boot up via USB.

 

[sacerdose]

You can use Rufus to install Win10-11 onto a fast external usb or ssd drive and boot from it.

I do have a bootable Windows 11 installation on a fast USB drive.

There are several tutorials on YT.

Thanks, I might try that...!

 

[lantis3]

But again, thats a new install on this external drive.

Can't just pluck a drive out of a system, put it in an enclosure, and expect it to boot up via USB.

I know that, OP is not able to fix existing installation, he need a new install.

BTW, a fast USB flash drive or ssd is required. Or Windows will kill (literally) your slow usb drive!

I use Samsung Bar Plus / Sandisk Extreme Pro for Windows 10/11 mobile installation.

 

[sacerdose]

But again, thats a new install on this external drive.

Can't just pluck a drive out of a system, put it in an enclosure, and expect it to boot up via USB.

Yes, I was hoping to avoid reinstalling Windows on the SSD.

I wasn't really sure what the difference between a SATA III connection and a USB connection would be, and so I didn't see why it wouldn't work (at least in theory).

I'll likely just reinstall Windows on the SATA SSD, and perhaps try that out. Otherwise, I might (stubbornly) try to remove my internal SSD from my laptop and force the boot/BCD onto the external SSD via USB in order to run bootrec /fixboot etc. But I will likely also let that go soon enough, as I've gotten an indication that it's not meant to work the way I'm trying to make it work (with a salvaged drive)!

 

[sacerdose]

I know that, OP is not able to fix existing installation, he need a new install.

BTW, a fast USB flash drive or ssd is required. Or Windows will kill (literally) your slow usb drive!

I use Samsung Bar Plus / Sandisk Extreme Pro for Windows 10/11 mobile installation.

Cool, thanks!

What do you consider 'fast'? Anything USB 3.1 Gen 1 and up, or only USB 3.1 Gen 2 and up?

Or is the problem, in your opinion, that using a SATA to USB connection is inherently too slow, or not necessarily?

 

[lantis3]

Windows 10/11 constantly read / write a lot of small files, all the time.

Slow USB drive writing is under 3MB/s for 4k files. Windows 10 /11 will need over 20/30 MB/s. Even a mobile 2/5" hdd is faster then slow USB drive.

The first time I used a Kingston Data Traveler USB drive, it took almost 20 minutes to boot.

Samsung Bar Plus is good enough and not as expensive as Sandisk Extreme Pro. External usb SSD is definitely better though, faster and longer lifespan.

 

[sacerdose]

Windows 10/11 constantly read / write a lot of small files, all the time.

Slow USB drive writing is under 3MB/s for 4k files. Windows 10 /11 will need over 20/30 MB/s, even a mobile 2/5" hdd is faster then slow USB drive.

The first time I used a Kingston Data Traveler USB drive, it took almost 20 minutes to boot.

Ok, thanks!