Windows cannot boot in legacy or UEFI

[max_rofl]

So I changed the boot mode in my BIOS from UEFI to Legacy for a completely unrelated project (a Linux distro on my USB). Now I want to go back to using Windows on my internal HDD however when booting in UEFI I get the error "No bootable media found" and when booting in legacy I only get recovery options in Windows. How can I fix this?

 

[max_rofl]

The EFI partition needs to be active for it to try to boot windows, and is likely to be where the windows recovery environment is located.

I have 3 partitions 2 primary ones with one being 15 gb and the other being my hdd size, and another partition being "OEM" which one should I set to be active? Is there anything specific I need to do with the volumes after activating it?

 

[Colif]

Its going to be hit and miss guessing which partition to mark as active as the normal size for an EFI partition is 350mb. Since you don't have one, I have to guess C drive is also the active partition, Or it could be the 15gb and I am wrong.

This was sort of why I asked you to show contents of volume above as one might be labelled system and this is the partition that should be labelled active
this is mine, even though no sizes are right (I messed up and only made windows create 1 partition when i installed), it shows the system drive and that is where EFI is

 

[max_rofl]

Its going to be hit and miss guessing which partition to mark as active as the normal size for an EFI partition is 350mb. Since you don't have one, I have to guess C drive is also the active partition, Or it could be the 15gb and I am wrong.

This was sort of why I asked you to show contents of volume above as one might be labelled system and this is the partition that should be labelled active
this is mine, even though no sizes are right (I messed up and only made windows create 1 partition when i installed), it shows the system drive and that is where EFI is

 

[Colif]

The OEM partition is right format as EFI parts are FAT but it seems very small. Guess the files aren't that big.I should have waited for the screenshots before guessing it was one of other two - I thought the OEM partition might have been for drivers.

see if PC starts?

 

[max_rofl]

The OEM partition is right format as EFI parts are FAT but it seems very small. Guess the files aren't that big.I should have waited for the screenshots before guessing it was one of other two - I thought the OEM partition might have been for drivers.

see if PC starts?

I set the OEM partition to active, now when booting in UEFI I get the same old error, but I'm just given a black screen with a blinking cursor when booting in legacy.

 

[Colif]

legacy can't read efi partitions so since you have no MBR it just sits there flashing.

are those screen shots from you booting off USB? I guess they have to be since windows doesn't boot.,..wonder why it says drive E under "identified windows installations" when E is clearly the recovery drive and too small to run windows off. Sometimes if you boot off USB is messes with order of drives but these look normal enough to me.

i might get a 2nd opinion on this as it shouldn't be this hard

 

[max_rofl]

legacy can't read efi partitions so since you have no MBR it just sits there flashing.

are those screen shots from you booting off USB? I guess they have to be since windows doesn't boot.,..wonder why it says drive E under "identified windows installations" when E is clearly the recovery drive and too small to run windows off. Sometimes if you boot off USB is messes with order of drives but these look normal enough to me.

i might get a 2nd opinion on this as it shouldn't be this hard

Yes I have been using the USB. I'm confused as to what the actual issue is now. A second opinion would be great and I really appreciate your effort.

 

[max_rofl]

legacy can't read efi partitions so since you have no MBR it just sits there flashing.

are those screen shots from you booting off USB? I guess they have to be since windows doesn't boot.,..wonder why it says drive E under "identified windows installations" when E is clearly the recovery drive and too small to run windows off. Sometimes if you boot off USB is messes with order of drives but these look normal enough to me.

i might get a 2nd opinion on this as it shouldn't be this hard

I can't even install windows because it says it can't be installed to an MBR partition. Is there an alternative program I could use to convert my drive that can be booted from a flash drive? Is there a place I could download mbr2gpt from so I could manually put it on my flash drive since it doesnt exist?

 

[Colif]

If you are now willing to fresh install since nothing else worked, when you get to screen where it gave the MBR error, delete all the partitions on the drive and click next. Windows should create the partitions it needs. If it still gives an error, close the installer, restart PC and try again as some PC need a restart before that works.

I hope that works, I honestly don't know why its taken this much effort just to get the thing to boot.

 

[max_rofl]

If you are now willing to fresh install since nothing else worked, when you get to screen where it gave the MBR error, delete all the partitions on the drive and click next. Windows should create the partitions it needs. If it still gives an error, close the installer, restart PC and try again as some PC need a restart before that works.

I hope that works, I honestly don't know why its taken this much effort just to get the thing to boot.

I got everything reinstalled properly and it turns out my backup saved way more than it needed to so I have a lot to go through after restoring it all lol. Everything is fine though and I'd like to thank you for your help.

 

[Colif]

Sorry it took so long, glad its over