Windows 10 on SSD, then replaced DVD with HDD - boot problems

[wiceqq]

Hello, I'm using Lenovo Z50-70 with SSD Samsung Evo 840 128GB from the day one of my laptop. The hdd was given to me as external hdd, and i ussed it for backups via USB3.0. I have always had win10 installed on my SSD, and everything was perfectly fine, untlin now. My warranty has gone, so i decided to 'fix' my hdd with a caddy into the laptop, so i can use it without any cables and stuff.

Replaced the DVD with the hdd caddy. I wanted to boot my laptop, but unfortunately, i only saw the LENOVO logo. I found out 'novo button' that lets me quickly get into bios or boot menu. In the bios I have my SSD marked as the 1st drive, and it's true.

Boot menu let's me boot the windows 10 from SSD, but sometimes it stucks on either lenovo logo, or 'windows circle', or provides me inaccessible_boot_device blue screen. Also not always am I able to get into boot menu, sometimes whole thing frozes, or my novo button doesn't pop up desired menus.. It makes it pretty long and annoying to get into my windows 10.

Putting pc into sleep mode, or restarting it works, and i'm quickly back into the OS without trouble. I'm unable to turn the laprop off completely, since it needs to start the whole process of 'getting' into OS again.

I've read on forums, that clean install with the hdd pulled out would do, but I guess I'm in the same situation, since there was no hdd plugged in while the 1st install of wind10 on SSD..

I'm confused, can someone give a solution and explanation? Thanks in advance, cheers.

 

[Ralston18]

My sense is that things have gotten somewhat confused.

Basically your set up may be being seen as a "dual boot" system. Normally, at boot time, you should be provided with a choice to select the desired boot device.

Best bet, I think, is to simplify things and start over.

Fall back on just the SSD. Clean out any references to the HDD and see if some normal boot can be achieved.

 

[wiceqq]

My sense is that things have gotten somewhat confused.

Basically your set up may be being seen as a "dual boot" system. Normally, at boot time, you should be provided with a choice to select the desired boot device.

Best bet, I think, is to simplify things and start over.

Fall back on just the SSD. Clean out any references to the HDD and see if some normal boot can be achieved.

How do i clean those references?

 

[wiceqq]

I did factory reset with unplugged hdd and then plugged in, still nothing

 

[Ralston18]

No physical connection to the laptop. Only one drive.

On the laptop remove any references to the HDD via BIOS, Disk Manager: i.e., no other boot drives (SSD, HDD, DVD or USB), shares, reserved drive letters.

For more information and possible options:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/21934-operating-system-run-startup-choose-default-windows-10-a.html

Be very careful about bcdedit - very easy to mess that up.

However, it may already be messed up so just taking a look to determine the current situation may help identify some specific issue.

And you still have Event Viewer: If you can get the laptop to boot up (one way or another) open Event Viewer and look at the logs.

There may be some warnings or errors codes related to the initial failure(s) to boot.

 

[wiceqq]

With the hdd plugged in, bcdedit says the following:

Windows Boot Manager
------------------------------
Identifier {bootmgr}
Device partition=C:
Description Windows boot managet
Locale pl-PL
Inherit {globalsettings}
Default {default}
Resumeobject ..................
Displayorder {default}
Bootsequence ................
Tooldisplayorder {memdiag}
Timeout 30

Windows Boot Loader
-----------------------------
Identifier {default}
Device partition =E:
Path \WINDOWS \system32\winload.exe
Description Windows 10
Locale pl-PL
Inherit {bootloadersettings}
Recoverysequence {current}
Reciveryenabled yes
Allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
Osdevice partition=E:
Systemroot \WINDOWS
resumeobject ............
Nx OptIn
Bootmenupolicy standard


E: Is i dont know what, the HDD is D:, Windows 10 is on SSD=C:. E was the label of this drive, when i had optical drive on D:
What is happening there? Should this bootloader located on the wrong partition stink?

 

[Ralston18]

Making progress...

Here is what my bcdedit presents:

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> bcdedit

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume1
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
default {current}
resumeobject {a6b3c968-6014-11e6-b039-f688de5a8c2b}
displayorder {current}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \WINDOWS\system32\winload.exe
description Windows 10
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence {f72fdba1-6014-11e6-b039-f688de5a8c2b}
recoveryenabled Yes
testsigning No
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \WINDOWS
resumeobject {a6b3c968-6014-11e6-b039-f688de5a8c2b}
nx OptIn
bootmenupolicy Standard
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>

Yes that "E:" is the source of the matter as I understand it.

First read these two links:

https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-winload-exe-2626051

https://www.lifewire.com/windows-boot-manager-bootmgr-2625813

Note the reference to winload.exe and its required location (C:\Windows\System32

If you plug everything in again and run Disk Management do you see any duplicate drive letters with respect to drives or partitions?

Key is to sort it all out so that the Windows 10 boot drive (SSD) is C:

And that all other drives and partitions are using a drive designation not C: and with no duplication of other letters.

First objective is to achieve a proper boot via the SSD drive as C: and, for now, no other drives involved.

Then you can reassign other drive letters to the other drives/partitions so there are no duplicates.