Question Windows 10 won't boot after boot from USB

[GrumpyMonkey2001]

I booted a friends HDD via usb after her laptop died so she recover files. It did something to HHD in my laptop now windows won't boot.

My drive is fully functional but the bios can't find my OS. The PXE exits with E61. There is nothing wrong with the hardware all diagnostics pass.

Does anybody know how I can get it boot again?

 

[johnbl]

y

Tried all that. It all passes except /scanos which returns 0. Everything seems to be in place, so I have no idea what is wrong.

try diskpart.exe
select vol x (where x has the bad c letter)
attrib vol
(see if the volume is marked as hidden)

on my system the command returns a error for either of the special volumes.
maybe you can set the hidden attribute for the volume so it does not get a drive letter on the next boot.

something like:
LIST VOLUME
SELECT VOLUME x
ATTRIBUTES VOLUME SET HIDDEN
(or NODEFAULTDRIVELETTER where the word hidden would be)

=============
help file info:

DISKPART> help attributes

Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.19041.964

VOLUME - Manipulate volume attributes.
DISK - Manipulate disk attributes.

DISKPART> help attributes volume

Displays, sets, or clears volume attributes for the selected volume.

Syntax: ATTRIBUTES VOLUME [SET | CLEAR]
[HIDDEN | READONLY | NODEFAULTDRIVELETTER | SHADOWCOPY] [NOERR]

SET Sets the specified attribute (HIDDEN, READONLY, and
NODEFAULTDRIVELETTER or SHADOWCOPY) for the selected volume.

CLEAR Clears the specified attribute (HIDDEN, READONLY,
NODEFAULTDRIVELETTER or SHADOWCOPY) from the selected volume.

HIDDEN Specifies that the volume is hidden.

READONLY Specifies that the volume is read-only.

NODEFAULTDRIVELETTER

Specifies that the volume does not receive a drive letter by
default.

SHADOWCOPY Specifies that the volume is a shadow copy volume.

NOERR For scripting only. When an error is encountered, DiskPart
continues to process commands as if the error did not occur.
Without the NOERR parameter, an error causes DiskPart to exit
with an error code.

On basic master boot record (MBR) disks, the HIDDEN, READONLY, and
NODEFAULTDRIVELETTER attributes apply to all volumes on the disk.

On basic GUID partition table (GPT) disks, and on dynamic MBR and GPT
disks, the HIDDEN, READONLY, and NODEFAULTDRIVELETTER attributes apply
only to the selected volume.

Example:

To display the attributes on the selected volume, type:
ATTRIBUTES VOLUME

To set the attribute on the selected volume as read-only, type:
ATTRIBUTES VOLUME SET READONLY

To clear the read-only attribute from the selected volume, type:
ATTRIBUTES VOLUME CLEAR READONLY

DISKPART>

i have only used this command one time where a machine crashed during a upgrade and the entire disk was marked readonly

 

[johnbl]

Tried all that. It all passes except /scanos which returns 0. Everything seems to be in place, so I have no idea what is wrong.

i used this powershell command to see my partitions to figure why I could not mess them up on purpose.
Get-Partition | Format-List *
looks like the small partitions are not given a drive letter because the hidden bit is set. IsHidden : True
the NoDefaultDriveLetter :
was not set or clear

so if you can set the isHidden bit to true maybe on reboot it will not get a drive letter

one of the partitions is not hidden but has the NoDefaultDriveLetter bit set

so I have 4 partitions, 2 that are hidden, one with NoDefaultDriveletter and one that gets assigned drive c

 

[johnbl]

looks like diskpart commands are different for gpt partitions:

diskpart.exe
select partition x
detail partition
you can then set the hidden bit with
GPT ATTRIBUTES=0x8000000000000000

docs:
0x8000000000000000=
GPT_BASIC_DATA_ATTRIBUTE_NO_DRIVE_LETTER
Prevents the partition from having a drive
letter automatically assigned. By default, each partition is
assigned a new drive letter and a volume GUID pathname. Both
the drive letter and the volume GUID pathname can be used to
open the volume using Win32 APIs. Setting this attribute ensures
that when a disk is moved to a new computer, a new drive letter
will not be automatically generated. Instead, the user can
manually assign drive letters.