Question Windows updated and reassigned letters to my drives and now can't get to desktop?

[Umeed]

Hello,

It appears windows 10 pro I had some kind of windows update and it just screwed everything up.


C - is now WD Blue (secondary drive)
D - System Rese
I - (blank no label)
E - hdd3
F - hdd4
G - ssd2
H - external hdd
J - (blank no label)

I manage to get access to command prompt via Advanced Troubleshooting

edit : was able to use command prompt in advanced troubleshooting to find out that disk i: contains my program files now.

For some reason command prompt starts in X: \windows\system32. I have never seen a drive x before.

System restore won't work. I tried doing sfc /scannnow and I get "Windows Resource Protection Could Not Perform the requested operation"

Auto Repair doesn't work either it just boot loops into it and asks me what to do next which brings be back to square one.

I have no idea what to do now. All help is greatly appreciated.

 

[popatim]

Do you have a bootable flash drive or optical disc in?

 

[Umeed]

Do you have a bootable flash drive or optical disc in?

Hi there thanks for reply. I don't have any bootable usb or disc inserted.

I tried a few more things:

Reset this PC - could not perform task
Changing the letters to my drives back to what they were - didn't get anywhere, and after restart they went back to their incorrect letters.

At one point I made it to windows logo then bsod and the error code I got was:
0xc000021a

So I tried to follow some fixes online for that, when I tried to boot again I got a different error code: CRITICAL PROCESS DIED

So I tried some solutions for that and not getting anywhere. The thing is all the examples I see everyone's command prompt starts in C:\windows\system32, mine starts in X:\windows\system32 but my program files are in drive I: (which used to be assigned the letter C: )

Really feels like my PC is dead.

 

[USAFRet]

You can't just randomly change drive letters like that, especially the C drive (or whatever the OS thinks it is running from)

You can't just change X to C.

 

[Umeed]

You can't just randomly change drive letters like that, especially the C drive (or whatever the OS thinks it is running from)

You can't just change X to C.

Hi,

I changed i: to c:, i honestly don't know what X even is because it's not listed under the volumes I have. It reverted back anyway and still get the same
0xc000021a error code

 

[USAFRet]

Hi,

I changed i: to c:, i honestly don't know what X even is because it's not listed under the volumes I have. It reverted back anyway and still get the same
0xc000021a error code

Right...
You 'changed it', but it did not stick.

 

[Umeed]

Right...
You 'changed it', but it did not stick.

I don't understand your reply. You don't believe I did it or you're just enforcing that it didn't stick because it doesn't work that way?

I assume I did? in command prompt:

1. diskpart
2. list disk
3. select disk 0
4. detail disk (to see if I have the right vol)
5. select vol 0
6. assign letter=k (this is to change my secondary drive to something else than c
7. "DiskPart sucessfully assigned the drive letter or mount point."
8. select disk 1
9. detail disk
10. select vol 2
11. assign letter=c (this is to change i: to c
12. "DiskPart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point."
13. list vol

and it shows me all the volumes with and the letters I assigned are there. The issue is I couldn't proceed from there the restore points etc. couldn't be found anymore so I guess I broke whatever path it had originally established, I reset the PC and it all reverted back to what it was before I changed it.

I just don't understand how my computer ended up this way. It was fine last friday, I turned it off, then turned it on yesterday and it was basically dead.

 

[USAFRet]

I don't know how it came to be this way either.

But however it did, you can't switch the OS drive letter on the fly.
In this case, from X to C.

 

[Umeed]

ah i see, thank you for letting me know. Do you think it's a lost cause? I should just do a fresh install? I'm hoping the back ups windows was doing didn't get corrupted too.

 

[USAFRet]

ah i see, thank you for letting me know. Do you think it's a lost cause? I should just do a fresh install? I'm hoping the back ups windows was doing didn't get corrupted too.

In this situation, I have NO idea how windows backups might work, if at all.

 

[Umeed]

In this situation, I have NO idea how windows backups might work, if at all.

haha I think this the first time I ever seen you not know what might happen when you've helped me with everything else. I guess I'll give'er a go and see what happens.

Thanks for your time!

 

[USAFRet]

haha I think this the first time I ever seen you not know what might happen when you've helped me with everything else. I guess I'll give'er a go and see what happens.

Thanks for your time!

It is because I do not use the built in Windows backup thing.
I can only comment on what I know.

 

[popatim]

Can you run disk management and link us to a screenshot of it?

 

[Umeed]

Can you run disk management and link us to a screenshot of it?

Hi, unfortunately I was unable to get to desktop at all it would bsod at the windows logo.

I decided to just do a fresh install, thankfully my manually backed up files survived on my secondary drive whereas Windows Image Recovery/backup didn't restore any of my files at all lol. So I only lost some recent files that I didn't manually make copies of.

Now I'm looking at software like Macrium/Acronis/EaseUS to take care of that for me. Thank you for your time Popatim, really appreciate it.

 

[popatim]

Macrium is 50% off right now.

 

[Umeed]

Macrium is 50% off right now.

I checked out Macrium and EaseUS, I ended up going with EaseUS because of the simple interface. Macrium was great and pretty fast too. I got a lifetime license from EaseUS on sale so I figured it was a good deal. I didn't like Acronis it was pretty slow and my boot into windows also slowed down a bit which was weird.

Windows back up failed completely it backed up zero files but thankfully my 2nd, 3rd, and 4th drives had all my manual backups so I'm not at a total loss lol.