Windows 10 won't boot after moving SATA cables around

[LeanMan82]

Hi All,

I seem to be perplexed by the predicament my hardware has gotten into because I barely made any modifications. In any case the following message appears whenever I try to boot up my machine:

“Windows boot Manager:

Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the problem:

Insert your windows installation disc and restart your computer.

Choose your language settings, and then click “Next.”

Click “Repair your computer.”

If you do not have this disc, contact your system administrator or computer manufacture for assistance.
Status: 0xc000000f

Info: The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible.”

Now, I’m trying to migrate my 120 GB Kingston SSD image to my 500 GB Samsung SSD including operating system and all. The Kingston SSD is the one that is running my operating system. I created a backup of my 120 GB Kingston SSD with AOMEI backupper and then did a disk restore to the 500 GB Samsung SSD. In any case, I switched the SATA cables to my Samsung SSD and the machine couldn’t boot with that SSD and so I decided to go back to my Kingston SSD and figure out where I went wrong. The Kingston SSD has been solid up to the point I decided to mess around with the SATA cables and I hadn’t modified any of its files (just backed them up). Now the Kingston SSD won’t boot and the above message appears. What gives?

Could I use a windows 7 startup repair utility to repair my windows 10 boot manager?

Specs:
Motherboard: ASUS P8-Z68-M
Harddrives: C:\ - Kingston (main OS), G:\ - Samsung (new SSD), F:\ - Western Digital Data Drive, 500 GB
OS: Windows 10 (upgraded from Windows 7) – has both GPT and MBR boot partitions
RAM: 16 GB
Processor: Intel i7 2600k, 3.40 GHz, LGA1155, 95W

A little history:
I recall that when I was building my PC way back when, I started to fear switching the SATA cables on my hard drives because this used to happen whenever I fiddled around back there. When I finally got a working setup I stopped because I was afraid I would again run into this unbootable state. Does anyone experience this type of sensitive nature to SATA interfaces? Am I missing a configuration? Or is this normal and I can’t swap around cables willy-nilly? They say SATA in AHCI mode is hot-swappable but this has gotten to me to a point where I’m afraid to fiddle with the hardware in my computer. This doesn’t seem to be normal.

 

[LeanMan82]

And now we introduce another variable...a possible faulty motherboard.

So...here's what you do.
The NEW SSD...connect only that drive.
Do a clean install on this.
This is just to verify that the system actually works or fails.

Ok done! The system still boots with the new SSD. I had to reformat the data that I had stored from the backup image I had done earlier though. But in any case, now what?

 

[USAFRet]

Ok done! The system still boots with the new SSD. I had to reformat the data that I had stored from the backup image I had done earlier though. But in any case, now what?

So it boots and runs properly with a fresh install on the 500GB SSD?
If so, I'd cut my losses and just proceed on with it like it is.

Reinstall your applications, drivers, etc.
Connect the old drive later, and move your personal data over.
Then wipe all the partitions on the 120GB SSD.

 

[LeanMan82]

So it boots and runs properly with a fresh install on the 500GB SSD?
If so, I'd cut my losses and just proceed on with it like it is.

Reinstall your applications, drivers, etc.
Connect the old drive later, and move your personal data over.
Then wipe all the partitions on the 120GB SSD.

But then what do I do about the windows Key? I mean the 120 GB harddrive is going to say what version of windows 10 I was running and also has the key on file.

Eventually, my current 500 GB windows 10 is going to get pissed some time down the road asking for a key to get the official version.

 

[USAFRet]

But then what do I do about the windows Key? I mean the 120 GB harddrive is going to say what version of windows 10 I was running and also has the key on file.

Eventually, my current 500 GB windows 10 is going to get pissed some time down the road asking for a key to get the official version.

Windows 10, correct?
If all you did was change the drive, no messing about with the license key is needed.
Your system specs and the digital entitlement have been registered at the mothership. A drive change does not trigger any activation issues.
It should activate it self automatically once it goes online.

Now...if you had changed the motherboard, thats a different story.

 

[LeanMan82]

Windows 10, correct?
If all you did was change the drive, no messing about with the license key is needed.
Your system specs and the digital entitlement have been registered at the mothership. A drive change does not trigger any activation issues.
It should activate it self automatically once it goes online.

Now...if you had changed the motherboard, thats a different story.

Mothership?

and why would changing the motherboard be a different story - as I'm currently considering that course of action?

 

[LeanMan82]

Windows 10, correct?
If all you did was change the drive, no messing about with the license key is needed.
Your system specs and the digital entitlement have been registered at the mothership. A drive change does not trigger any activation issues.
It should activate it self automatically once it goes online.

Now...if you had changed the motherboard, thats a different story.

Mothership?

and why would changing the motherboard be a different story - as I'm currently considering that course of action?

 

[USAFRet]

"Mothership" = Microsoft.

A Windows license is tied to one "PC". Microsoft considers the motherboard to be "the PC".
Change that, and the OS sees it as a new system. And needing new licensing. With Windows 10 after the Anniversary release last August, you can link your Win 10 license to your MS account. And then tell it to apply itself to your new 'system' (motherboard).
Previously, you often had to actually buy a new OS license for a major hardware change.

A lot of things you can change without triggering any license key issues.
GPU, drives, PSU...
But change the motherboard, and that is a new "system".

Read and do this before any hardware (motherboard) changes:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530/windows-10-reactivating-after-hardware-change
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3164428/windows-build-1607-activation.html

 

[LeanMan82]

"Mothership" = Microsoft.

A Windows license is tied to one "PC". Microsoft considers the motherboard to be "the PC".
Change that, and the OS sees it as a new system. And needing new licensing. With Windows 10 after the Anniversary release last August, you can link your Win 10 license to your MS account. And then tell it to apply itself to your new 'system' (motherboard).
Previously, you often had to actually buy a new OS license for a major hardware change.

A lot of things you can change without triggering any license key issues.
GPU, drives, PSU...
But change the motherboard, and that is a new "system".

Read and do this before any hardware (motherboard) changes:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530/windows-10-reactivating-after-hardware-change
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3164428/windows-build-1607-activation.html

Thank you USAFRet! Do you have any recommendations to see if my motherboard has some less than optimal behavior to figure out how I got myself into this mess in the first place (or should I create a new thread regarding troubleshooting my motherboard)?

 

[USAFRet]

Thank you USAFRet! Do you have any recommendations to see if my motherboard has some less than optimal behavior to figure out how I got myself into this mess in the first place (or should I create a new thread regarding troubleshooting my motherboard)?

Pretty much just play with all the functions.
USB ports, audio, etc, etc, etc.
If you see something odd, by all means crank up a new thread on it.

 

[LeanMan82]

Pretty much just play with all the functions.
USB ports, audio, etc, etc, etc.
If you see something odd, by all means crank up a new thread on it.

Well in an effort to reproduce the earlier behavior. I took the new Samsung 500 GB SSD and switched out the SATA cable from all available on the motherboard (except what was not there and what was connected to the disk drive). Each time I switched the SATA connection, the system POSTed and then shutoff immediately before a windows logo came on. At that time, I pressed the power button again - this time and each and every SATA connection (3gb/s and 6gb/s), I was able to boot into my windows 10 OS! Hoo rah!

But then, when I went back to my kingston SSD and reconnected the last SATA connection I was on and hooked it up to the Kingston SSD. I get the following screen:

Reboot and Select proper boot device or Innsert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a Key

Holy moly - issues again but only after I switched SATA from SSD to SSD.
So I go back to my Samsung SSD with the exact same SATA cable. Same issue "Reboot and select...yada yada"

What the hell is going on here? Its like the boot partition gets effed up or part of my motherboard owns part of the boot table and it gets all hay wired when I start moving connectors around. I believe this motherboard does Intel's Smart Response Technology (SRT) that uses the SSD as cache for faster speeds but I think this only works for RAID setups and I don't think it has anything to do with partitioning the MBR. So I don't know why switching SATA cables screws up my system.

 

[USAFRet]

Some motherboards are more sensitive to moving things around.
Yours seems to be one of them.

 

[LeanMan82]

Some motherboards are more sensitive to moving things around.
Yours seems to be one of them.

Any recommendations on motherboards to use. I'm over this one.

 

[USAFRet]

Some motherboards are more sensitive to moving things around.
Yours seems to be one of them.

Any recommendations on motherboards to use. I'm over this one.

Currently you have this: ASUS P8-Z68-M and an i7-2600k?

Well...It really needs a full rebuild with all new parts. Wouldn't be worth spending money on another motherboard of the same generation.
Time has passed that old one by.

 

[LeanMan82]

Currently you have this: ASUS P8-Z68-M and an i7-2600k?

Well...It really needs a full rebuild with all new parts. Wouldn't be worth spending money on another motherboard of the same generation.
Time has passed that old one by.

Alright I'll consider it but just an update. I was able to resurrect the 500GB Samsung SSD because in BIOS an extra boot drive showed up called "Windows Boot Manager." I think my BIOS keeps losing that boot drive every time I switch SATA cables and I run into problems with booting up my windows installations. If this is true, I think I should be able to get the Kingston back (but maybe not either). My BIOS seems to suck...hmm.

 

[Neur0nauT]

Keep the SSD's on the 6gb SATA controller. HDDs on 3gb.
Make sure to buy decent SATA cables too. Not just the cheap and cheerful ones on ebay.
It is worth noting that some SATA chipsets on mobos are lower quality. Or have less support. I'm not naming any names but be aware of the fact.

 

[LeanMan82]

SOLVED:

Alright before I get into the nitty gritty of the solution - I have to say this was a mother of a problem for such a simple action. After a day of research etc (and thank you for all the support from this forum), if anyone can explain to me why the following solution works I will be very happy and you will earn awesome nerd points for knowing your windows commands. In any case, here is what I did to get my Kingston 120 GB SSD back to being my primary SSD.

First off, the following forum is the golden nugget that provided me the solution with the following command:
https://superuser.com/questions/302603/problem-recreating-bcd-on-windows-7-64bit-the-requested-system-device-cannot-b

bcdboot.exe X:\Windows /s C:

If anyone wants to decipher the command here is TechNet page from Microsoft:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd744347(v=ws.10).aspx

In any case what I did:

1). Put my Windows 10 recovery bootable USB drive into a 2.0 USB port (apparently very important!)
2). Booted into the USB
3). Selected Repair my PC (lower left of the window)
4). Went straight to the command line (all other options sucked major...erhmm balls)
5). Ran "fsutil fsinfo drives"
6). Cycled through all drives until I found my primary boot partition (typically this is what my C drive would be)
7). Replaced "X" from the command above with the letter that is my primary boot partition is mapped to.
8). Run the command
EX: If my primary boot partition is mapped to "E" (in which case it was) I ran the following command:
"bcdboot.exe E:\Windows /s C:"
9). Type "exit" and shutdown PC
10). Boot into the SSD
11). Finito

Now, bcdboot.exe appears to copy boot files from your X:\Windows folder to destination folder. What I don't understand is how "X:\" drive is typically the drive I run in (i.e., its C:\ drive with my Windows folder and my User folder). So I'm not sure what drive the "\s C:" command copied my boot files to, since supposedly the SSD was unbootable. And also, windows creates a system partition of 100MB to 350 MB which supposedly contains these boot files, but apparently it was not in that partition as it was in my main partition. So I'm confused why this worked so if someone can illuminate why, please do (and thank you if you decide to). In any case, I'm going to run chkdsk to make sure everything went smoothly. Other than that I'm pissed how long this took, hopefully it won't for you if you made it through this thread. Thank you however to everyone for their help!

Other useful resources:
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/repair-master-boot-record-mbr-windows
http://www.digitalcitizen.life/command-prompt-fix-issues-your-boot-records

 

[LeanMan82]

So I don't understand anymore. I just tried to reproduce the boot up issue I had with my Kingston SSD and I can't seem to force it anymore. I did the backup restore I did last time on my Samsung SSD and plugged my Kingston SSD connection to it, booted it (no workie as before) and then plugged the same SATA back into my Kingston SSD. But this time my Kingston SSD booted into my the OS without any problems. I don't understand windows boot manager or what is causing these inconsistent behaviors...Anyone can explain?

 

[USAFRet]

I'm guessing something went wrong with the initial "backup and restore"
Either the software failed, or you made different selections the second time around.

 

[LeanMan82]

I'm guessing something went wrong with the initial "backup and restore"
Either the software failed, or you made different selections the second time around.

I think you are right. After I had done the "backup restore" to my Samsung SSD, it put my Kingston partitions on it. Meaning my Kingston SSD was broken as such (from Windows Disk Management):
|100 MB NTFS (System, ACTIVE, Primary Partition)|118.70 GB NTFS (Boot, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)|450 MB (Recovery Partition)|

My Samsung SSD currently looks like this:
|99 MB NTFS (EFI System Partition)|118.70 GB NTFS (Primary Partition)|450 MB (Primary Partition)|346.52 GB Unallocated|

I want to extend the 118.70 GB partition to the 346.52 GB unallocated partition but when I do, it says that it will make it into a dynamic disk and no OS can boot on the disk except the main boot partition. Which would explain my boot problems earlier. How do I make use of all the space of my 500 GB SSD with the image of my 120 GB SSD?

 

[USAFRet]

My Samsung SSD currently looks like this:
|99 MB NTFS (EFI System Partition)|118.70 GB NTFS (Primary Partition)|450 MB (Primary Partition)|346.52 GB Unallocated|

This is problematic.
A different tool would have not created a partition of only 118GB (same size as the original Kingston 120)
Macrium Reflect would have just used the whole drive.

However...in this instance, we can't just merge the two partitions. The 118GB and the unallocated 346.52GB.
There are other things in between.
They would need to be right next to each other, and the unallocated to the right (in Disk Management).

This will require a 3rd party partition management tool to attempt to move and/or merge them.
And another "however"...anytime you start messing with partitions...you really need a good backup of the drive as it is now.
It usually works. Usually.
When it goes bad, tears and gnashing of the teeth result.

 

[LeanMan82]

My Samsung SSD currently looks like this:
|99 MB NTFS (EFI System Partition)|118.70 GB NTFS (Primary Partition)|450 MB (Primary Partition)|346.52 GB Unallocated|

This is problematic.
A different tool would have not created a partition of only 118GB (same size as the original Kingston 120)
Macrium Reflect would have just used the whole drive.

However...in this instance, we can't just merge the two partitions. The 118GB and the unallocated 346.52GB.
There are other things in between.
They would need to be right next to each other, and the unallocated to the right (in Disk Management).

This will require a 3rd party partition management tool to attempt to move and/or merge them.
And another "however"...anytime you start messing with partitions...you really need a good backup of the drive as it is now.
It usually works. Usually.
When it goes bad, tears and gnashing of the teeth result.

Hey USAFRet, I can't seem to pick my post as the solution. I was wondering if you would repost my answer so that I can post it as the solution (as it was addressed my initial post). Please let me know if this would be kosher. Thanks.

The post I'm referring to is the one with "SOLVED" in the post.

 

[USAFRet]

Hey USAFRet, I can't seem to pick my post as the solution. I was wondering if you would repost my answer so that I can post it as the solution (as it was addressed my initial post). Please let me know if this would be kosher. Thanks.

The post I'm referring to is the one with "SOLVED" in the post.

Done.
And for very good reasons, you cannot select your own answer as the "Solution".

 

[wayneboyd1979]

How funny I've already saw this in another forum post just a few moments ago - however my predicament is not this. My old drive no longer boots as my OP states. Why did this happen with swapping SATA cables? All of this is not making sense to me.

Even returning all the cables and drives to their original position...it still fails to boot up?

Same problem here, I ended up reloading the os, all I did was move the drive to a different sata and now unbootable

 

[USAFRet]

Same problem here, I ended up reloading the os, all I did was move the drive to a different sata and now unbootable

This thread is 2 years old.
If you're having an issue like this, please start a new thread on your particular problem.