Upgrade to gpt will not boot, nor will reverted mbr

[Paulv]

Windows 10 64 bit Pro 1511, tried to use MBR2GPT on WIN PE and would not validate so used MiniPartition Wizard Pro and when reboot got a 0XC0000225 error. *can't find winload.efi'.....Tried most online remedies of bootrec /xxx, etc and still nothing. Booting in acronis rescue and mini disk Partition Wizard on PE and the original windows install disk and trying automatic and manual changes.

I have since reverted the GPT upgrade back to MBR and I need to reduce the number of test permutations. Can someone:

1) tell me if I can get phone support from MS on this?

2) tell me if the system reserve partition and Boot partition, which gets active, which gets system and which gets boot assigned?
(because this is a multi disk system) and I have EFI trees on several disks) (two SSDs for C (OS) and D (programs) and F/G on a spinning drive for Data and archive)

3) a procedure for selecting the correct to update (/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/BCD)

4) Should I remove the other two drives while we do this
(because the drive letters while booted off the PE DVD are different than the when the system is online)

5) Disk 0 is the large spinning data drive, Disk 1 is the OD drive(SSD1) and Disk 2 is the Program drive(SSD2), which is exactly the way the machine has always been configured since it was orginally built as windows 10 1511 (could that be the issue?)

6) before I start blowing this up, is the solution to Bootsec this? Is there a safe way to restore the acronis backup? (right now all files in all filesystems are exactly as I left them). I believe the only issue is that each conversion to GPT and back to MBR has created new partition IDs and as such whatever the boottrack is redirecting to is the old Partition ID any or system reserved is loading and can't find the eventual C drive....

Would be great if there was someone who could talk to. Been down for 25 hours so far.
All and Any Help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you

 

[Trouble]

Should I remove the other two drives while we do this

My recommendation would be to remove all other drives except the system drive until you are able to resolve your issue.

It's possible to reconstruct the problem EFI partition although it's no walk in the park.
http://www.hasper.info/repair-a-destroyed-windows-7-uefi-boot-sector/

is the solution to Bootsec this?

Assuming you meant "bootrec" rather than "bootsec"
That is also an option although again..... no walk in the park
http://itechs-systems.com/fix_corrupt_UEFI_partition.aspx

Finally....

Is there a safe way to restore the acronis backup?

Not sure what you mean exactly by "safe way"?
I can only advise that I've used acronis rescue media for years to boot a problem system and access and recover my disk images.
Assuming your disk image(s) contain all the "partitions" that existed on the disk and not just the OS or data partitions but also the EFI, SYSTEM, RECOVERY, etc., etc.

It's not only "safe" but the method I use typically, when I want to replace my hard disk with and upgraded, faster, larger or just newer hard drive.

 

[Clintlgm]

It pretty easy to convert a OS drive/SSD from UEFI GPT to BIOS MBR, however not so from BIOS to MBR on an OS drive/ssd. Its possible but not a simple thing to do. Usually easier to just clean install to UEFI GPT.
As stated earlier Disk Images are a real time savers. You should be able to recover data if you don't have it backed up. The just follow the tutorials all over the internet to clean Install UEFI.
You have probably already wasted more time trying to recover this OS than a clean install and software configuration would have taken

 

[Saltgrass]

I agree with Trouble that all other drives should be removed, just in case part of the install was placed on a different drive. This assumes you had a working system with the System and Boot partitions on the same drive.

Do you know what Diskpart is so that you could run it from a command prompt and check your drive for partitions and configuration? I think I did the MBR2GPT process once and it placed the EFI partition after the OS partition. But keep in mind, Legacy Windows will not boot from a GPT configured drive and UEFI will not boot from MBR, so make sure you are booting install/repair media in the correct manner.

If you could get a listing of the partitions and their descriptions it might help. A camera for a picture which could be attached here. If you are not familiar with Diskpart, we can supply the commands.

If you want to stay with GPT you might be able to use the bcdboot command from the command prompt to reset the BCD store. You do have to know for sure which partition letter was being used for the OS partition, which you can find out with Diskpart.

It might even be the system won't boot the Legacy version because the System partition is no longer showing as Active. So we need to work on one version only.. perhaps Diskpart will help you decide.

Trying to follow your description of the original configuration is not easy. If you have an install covering multiple drives, Clintlgm's suggestion may be best.

 

[Paulv]

First thanks for the good advise. I managed to get back to MBR, so I ended up being down for a day for no benefit. Still looking for a method that works to do the conversion.

FOR THOSE who get stuck like I did, this will save you lots of time getting back on line:

1) If you try the conversion, yes only have the one drive in there before you do anything (drive letter mappings confuses YOU and the install/convert/repair programs)

2) before you convert anything switch the BIOS over to FULL UEFI (away from the combo legacy/UEFI mode) and pull out the other drives.

3) I have an MSI MB, go under windows/OS switch to windows 8.1/10 hardware mode (so you at least get safe boot controls)

4) this is major: if you reverse a conversion to GPT back to MBR, everything will remain broken until AFTER you delete the EFI partition that the GPT conversion created. This will continue to give you 0xc0000225 errors even after you convert back to MBR.

5) when you use the GPT procedure or the MBR procedure to fix the boot records, check to see if the correct partition gets updated ( I am certain that I was update the EFI/Microsoft/Boot/BCD file on the wrong partition).

Very Helpful Comments not withstanding, there really has to be either a way to update to 1607 and 1703 as MBR or a straightforward Microsoft or third party tool way to do the conversion. How can anyone mandate a conversion and not provide a means to do it?That is absurd. Last thing we should have to do is troubleshoot a backup restore error (partition restore) when all be need is a method to make the Boot track find the loader and the loader find the OS.

 

[Paulv]

Reply to Saltgrass: I wish the MBR2GPT utility worked on my system. It just fails the /validate with an error about find no partitions. Yes, Diskpart was very useful and I tried BcdBoot. Partof the confusion was which partition was being updated.

In my system, the active and system and boot partition was the C drive partition, the first partition on the second drive (disk 1) in the list (when all my drives were installed. I know this caused issues.

 

[Paulv]

After I reverted to MBR my machine has been working fine. Got advice from the conversion company that was my second attempt to get onto a newer version of windows 10 with GPT conversion. Advise was useless. Until MS can create upgrades that do not break my expensive workstation for a day at a time, I guess I will just stay downrev, it is much safer.

 

[Clintlgm]

Yes you can use Macrium Reflect and Diskpart to make the transition from MBR to UEFI, Reflect to image your c:\ partition, Disk part to clean All, create the correct partitions for UEFI, then restore partition C:\ . then use MR boot repair tool to get the booting corrected

 

[Paulv]

I tried conversion tools and it left me with an unbootable machine. Even the reversion process was trial and error. Can't be down 30 plus hours to do an upgrade that the procedure fails repeatedly

 

[Comp Cmndo]

The problem is the EFI partition & dual booting, Most of the 3rd party tools don't work. Reflect can restore the Windows partitions, but that is not enough. Reflect "Fix Boot" might work; they didn't have it when I converted from MBR to GPT. Visual BCD was the tool that worked for me.