Installed a new hard drive and lost bootmgr

[Laharan]

Windows 10 PC and I dont have a disk for it

I installed a hard drive that wouldn't let me let me right click in the diskmgr to create new simple drive. So I used the command bar to format it. Now when I boot I get BOOTMGR missing. How do I restore BOOTMGR to the main hard drive. The hard drive I had already installed is the one I am still trying to boot from.

 

[Colif]

On another PC, download the Windows 10 media creation tool and use it to make a win 10 installer on USB or DVD

did you remove a drive to put new one in? Was this old drive in PC when Windows was installed originally? Win 10 has a habit of putting its boot sector on another drive if given the chance, its main reason it helps to only have one drive in PC when you install it.

Anyway, we see if we can fix this
this might do it

change boot order so USB/DVD is first, hdd second
boot from installer
on screen after languages, choose repair this pc, not install.
choose troubleshoot
choose advanced
choose command prompt
We need to use the Bootrec.exe tool. Click on command prompt and type in the following commands, one after the other:
bootrec /RebuildBcd
bootrec /fixMbr
bootrec /fixboot
Exit
Now go ahead and reboot your system. In some cases you may need to run some additional commands.
bootsect /nt60 SYS or bootsect /nt60 ALL

 

[Laharan]

On another PC, download the Windows 10 media creation tool and use it to make a win 10 installer on USB or DVD

did you remove a drive to put new one in? Was this old drive in PC when Windows was installed originally? Win 10 has a habit of putting its boot sector on another drive if given the chance, its main reason it helps to only have one drive in PC when you install it.

Anyway, we see if we can fix this
this might do it

change boot order so USB/DVD is first, hdd second
boot from installer
on screen after languages, choose repair this pc, not install.
choose troubleshoot
choose advanced
choose command prompt
We need to use the Bootrec.exe tool. Click on command prompt and type in the following commands, one after the other:
bootrec /RebuildBcd
bootrec /fixMbr
bootrec /fixboot
Exit
Now go ahead and reboot your system. In some cases you may need to run some additional commands.
bootsect /nt60 SYS or bootsect /nt60 ALL

I kept my old drive in and installed a new drive. I bought a 64gb flash drive SanDisk Cruzer Slide and used the link to install the files and format the stick but I am not getting an option to boot from the USB for some reason.

 

[Colif]

You need to change boot order in bios before it will look for the USB, May need to turn off fast boot feature as well before it will even look. Can you tell me motherboard model and I will look in manual and see if any other settings that may stop it.

 

[Laharan]

You need to change boot order in bios before it will look for the USB, May need to turn off fast boot feature as well before it will even look. Can you tell me motherboard model and I will look in manual and see if any other settings that may stop it.

I cant find what motherboard it is. This is a family members pc and he cant remember what it is. Is there a way to upload pictures to the forum?

Found it EVGA P67 SLI

 

[Colif]

not exactly your motherboard but very close - https://forums.evga.com/P67-FTW-boot-from-USB-m2603672.aspx

 

[Laharan]

not exactly your motherboard but very close - https://forums.evga.com/P67-FTW-boot-from-USB-m2603672.aspx

I got it to boot from the USB but none of the auto repair options work and when I go into the command prompt it says

X:\Sources

Is this where I start running commands from?

 

[Colif]

X is likely to be the virtual disc windows uses to run the recovery options from, it runs it in ram.

type diskpart and press enter
type list vol and press enter

this will create a list something like

so you can then type exit to get out of diskpart and then
CD x: where X is where windows is, just change the X (it might be labelled C anyway)

and then do the commands I listed above

 

[Laharan]

X is likely to be the virtual disc windows uses to run the recovery options from, it runs it in ram.

type diskpart and press enter
type list vol and press enter

this will create a list something like

so you can then type exit to get out of diskpart and then
CD x: where X is where windows is, just change the X (it might be labelled C anyway)

and then do the commands I listed above

It is the C: drive. When I type CD C: it outputs

"C:\

X:\Sources"

Do I need to enter bootrec first or is this what I should be getting.

Thank you for your help so far.

 

[Colif]

just type C: and it should change to C
then enter the bootrec commands

cd = change directory (its been a long time since i used dos). Sorry about that... i should play in there a bit.

 

[Laharan]

just type C: and it should change to C
then enter the bootrec commands

cd = change directory (its been a long time since i used dos). Sorry about that... i should play in there a bit.

So I did everything and it boots up but correctly but only when I have the usb inserted. If the USB is not inserted it gives me "operating system not found remove any drives with no operating system."

 

[Laharan]

When I boot with the usb in and hit delete to get into the bios it jumps to a blue recovery screen and says

The application or operating system couldnt be loaded because a required file is missing or contains errors.

File:\Windows\system32\winload.exe
Error code:0xc000000e

when i press F8 as it says at the bottom to get to startup settings the screen just flickers and thats it.

Since I can get the PC running now is there a way to reinstall the OS without losing everything on the hard drive?

 

[Colif]

that is different, wonder how that works. So it gets to windows via the USB? I suspect you don't have an active partition which is what Windows boots off (should be labelled System or EFI partition).

can you show a screen shot of disk management? (upload it to imgur and share link here) as we need to be careful which to mark as active

http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/set-active-partition-vista-xp/

 

[Laharan]

http://imgur.com/a/xwDPa

 

[Colif]

C shouldn't be active... Windows reserved should be active You need to follow the link above to set Windows reserved as active. Then windows should boot.

I don't think it helps that Z is active as well, as that could be where PC looks first since its disc 0 (might help to swap sata cables for both drives) - you may want to do this to drive Z: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/af3a1e24-214f-4e0e-b917-9530a27534de/how-to-deactivate-an-active-partition?forum=itprovistasetup (it shouldn't matter once windload can find the right file in the windows reserved partition)

that winload.exe error is because its not looking in right place at boot. Since C is active, the PC is trying to boot off it when it should be looking at the Windows Reserved since it is the system partition. The boot manager looks for a specific file name on all drives attached to PC, and only in active partitions. Its currently not finding it.

 

[Laharan]

Switching the active partition to the system reserved section, switching the SATA cables, and reordering the BIOS fixed the problem. Thank you for all your help!

 

[Colif]

Switching the active partition to the system reserved section, switching the SATA cables, and reordering the BIOS fixed the problem. Thank you for all your help!

Yay