Windows 10 not booting anymore

[Willy Mehrweg]

I searched the platform - no results found, strange.
OK, my win-10-pro worked kind-of- fine (hiccups = normal).
I cloned the 250GB system HDD to a 1T SSD; with help of macrium etc = working fine
I also keep a windows 7 - updated and all (just in case).
Recently win-7 demanded chkdsk before booting - I let it run all the way, several drives; came back with blue-screen.
I tried to repair bootrec via Macrium "bootable Rescue Media, vers. 7/2018 for win-10"; repaired as per instructions (except that from day 1 bootre.exe /fixboot showed always 'access denied' .
However - it did the trick before - but now neither win 7 nor win 10 will boot.
WORSE: I pulled out the clone system SSD and disconnected the win-7 HDD and inserted the original 250GB SDD -- same thin: it denies booting, after using Rescue Media -- no improvement.

Driving me NUTS - pls, a suggestion.
PS: with brand-new resinstall win-10 DVD and/or USB (downloaded directly from MS) = asks for PRDUCT KEY buit does not accept my old one...
HELP - best regards from Spain right now
Willy

 

[Garyw]

Your current install of W10 should have created a digital licence. When you reinstall windows, use the same exact type of windows previously installed (home v pro, 32 bit v 64 bit). When the installer asks for a product key, hit skip or continue. I haven't done a clean install for a few weeks, so I don't recall the exact command, but bypassing the product key entry is now common in W10 installation.

 

[Willy Mehrweg]

Thanks Gary,
A minor inconvenience is - I am US, live in Spain for now and got the machine + OS and all in German...

1- On this machine (Intel i7 3.4 GHz) I started years ago with a 64 bit win-7 (home premium?!) - bought the upgrade to win-8 thru MS, then win-8.1, got the free "win-8 to win-10pro" upgrade
Have been working with 64 bit 10pro for some years with the usual hiccups - but ultimately 95% reliable.
ONE THING THOUGH: every automatic UPDATE has had its quirks -- why does MS do that to us?!

2- Technically my win-10 should still have guarded my old win-8 Product key 'somewhere'; these days it's so easy to get the innermost data of a machine down to the processor - so why not keep that (hidden somewhere or in my (e-mail address removed) account) that very Product key forever? To me: ProdKey+PC = married forever...

3- I see two (2) "Recovery" partitions - believe me, I didn't make them; so 1st: why 2 (455 MB / 874 MB), and 2nd how come that win-10pro cannot automatically repair itself from THERE?!

As to "current install of W10 should have created a digital licence" - - where would that be?; or rather- if reinstalled, the 'new' win-10 ought to find it by itself.

4- USB-based 64-bit win-10pro Installer
a) does not recognize my legit Prod Key
b) lets me skip - BUT
c) cannot reinstall 'cos the partition contains an MBR record' and 'on EFI-systems win-10 can only be installed on GPT disks'.

5- with an old opSys (XP!) HDD in some SATA port, I got blue screen: Recovery error code 0xc000000f
File: \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD is missing or contains errors

6- Through XP ~ Paragon Boot Manager I got the DVD Macrium Reflect 7 to do its thing for Nth time (failed formerly) - and saw for the 1st time that it went much farther through reconstruction/recovery options (guessed 10 times from what I saw before)

7- Macrium asked to RESTART; - boot now offered that legacy XP and (!) my old SSD - win10pro came back to life miraculously.

Last not least:
8- What do you suggest to “do” to have that 100% safety to get my PC back when any update or a win-7 hP makes an urgently suggested” CHKDSK run?? Btw- the win-7 had beautifully performed till Friday, updated 100%; won’t even try it right now.

PS: Sorry for the many details - but I felt, for anybody to get the gist I "had to";

Best regards from Costa Blanca
Willy

 

[Garyw]

Update quirks: In my experience, if the current system is completely healthy, the update is much more apt to be problem free. As soon as you experience ANY problem in W10, find the cause and fix it. Otherwise the update inherits the problem.

The product key is / was replaced by a digital license as soon as you upgraded to W10 from a legal earlier version and signed in with a Microsoft user account. If you never used a Microsoft account, I don't know if your digital license was created, because that information is maintained on Microsoft servers.

Now that W10 is working, I strongly suggest that you clone or at least backup your system disk. I clone all of my system drives onto separate drives monthly. That way, if I have any problems, I just swap drives and I'm up and running again. I've never had much luck with system restore or normal backups.

 

[Willy Mehrweg]

Thanks, appreciating your hints.
- As to "healthy system" - CCleaner says all is all OK; are there any on-board tools to make the system 100%?
- As to creating a Recovery Disk - came back wit error "cannot create" - no explanations given; and System Restore --> has never worked for me...
- As to cloning - that's where it all started: I cloned the 250GB system SSD to a larger EVO 860, 1st with paid version Acronis 2019 = clone would NOT boot. Even tried to fix it with Rescue Media DVD - to no avail.
Then used the free Macrium Select7 - eventually made the clone work with the bootrec.exe sequence.

Q: How did you clone and get the clone to work when swapped?!
My PC has slide-in racks, so swapping is literally "out-old and in-new"

Thanks so much - feels great to have someone feeling for and helping the not-so-fortunate
Kind regards - Willy

 

[Garyw]

Have been working with 64 bit 10pro for some years with the usual hiccups - but ultimately 95% reliable.
ONE THING THOUGH: every automatic UPDATE has had its quirks --

Any time I come across something that doesn't work quite right, I try to fix it. If I don't know the answer offhand, Google is my best friend. One check you can do is run System File Checker. Right click on start, left click on Command Prompt (admin), and enter "sfc /scannow". Sfc will run for a while and then indicate no problems or fixed something or found something it couldn't fix.

When I clone, I clone the entire drive, which will then include the boot instructions.

 

[Garyw]

As to cloning - that's where it all started: I cloned the 250GB system SSD to a larger EVO 860, 1st with paid version Acronis 2019 = clone would NOT boot. Even tried to fix it with Rescue Media DVD - to no avail.

When you check or use the copy you need to remove the original drive from the system. Since one is a clone of the other, they will both have the same identifier and the clone won't boot.

 

[Willy Mehrweg]

I had answered this - but I do not SEE anything from me...
I shall look again - and re-publish.

Basically I wondered why win10 cannot get its act together regarding a clean-cut BOOT-MANAGER that auto-updates itself -- no matter how many (theoretically) bootable discs are hooked up.

My clone is working now but with totally mixed HDD sequence // numbers; and after re-naming and regrouping:
1) I had to go into BIOS and see where the new win10 was cloned to (drive names & numbers vary from other programs and even within windows) to start the BOOT sequence with the CLONE;
2) the cloned win10 refuses to hybernate and even with the power button briefly pressed - comes back immediately to sign-in screen. I have to press-and-hold PWR until PC is force-booted down.
3) My normal number-keyboard entry is now invalid, too; and does not let me access the feature to re-configure.
4) The built-in Saftey copy "could not be performed" - see error code . - . - . and look it up on Internet,

And etc...
Rgds Willy

PS: As I asked before: Q: How (with what program) did you clone and get the clone to work when swapped?!

 

[Garyw]

Willy - Sorry to take so long to respond. I've been out of town for a while. I use any of several partition managers to clone a drive, including Aoimi, Easeus, MiniTool Partition Wizard and Macrium Reflect. Lately I've been using Aoimi Backup, which has a cloning option. I have a supply of extra hard drives that I recycle for backups (clones). I use 3 extra drives for each system, using the oldest for the next clone. The screen copies below are what I do to make a clone (disk copy)

 

[Willy Mehrweg]

wow, maybe 'late' but very useful. THANKS!!
1- I used all kinds of programs, including the paid-for ACRONIS - but all failed to basically give me the immediate Bootability.
I have SATA racks, so sliding out the old (original) and in (the cloned system drive) after power-down and re-booting - is very easy. However I have hat all kinds of "excuses" why win10 could not accept the cloned SSD. Disconnecting all other (just DATA) HDDs - it somehow found it 'could try to boot'.
Ultimately, and trying for hours with AOMEI (good program), Macrium 7, EASEUS - I basically got the same: no boot.
I finally went into my BIOS (press DEL during power-up) and forced win10 to start with the clone - and I guess, it sort-of works now. I wished win10 recognized the various versions and gave the true reflection of bootable HDDs; like a selection of bootable drives (self-updating boot manager) - period.

And anyway:
Many of my standard tweaks were lost - as if the new 1TB SSD were NOT a true clone - remember I 100% cloned from a 250G SSD to a blank 1T SSD - so NO excuse for whatever.

2- Also, - I had always a fully updated win-7 in an HDD, totally separated from all and working just fine - and now I don't even dare to reactivate/use it anymore.

3- I shall calm down and use the cloned system drive with defects (f.i. it does not hibernate!!, annoy with its "link word addition" whenever you create a link - etc -- all of which was working before) and re-read your suggestions - maybe I missed out on one minor (but decisive) detail.

Again, thanks for taking the time.
Have a great weekend
Willy

 

[Garyw]

Willy - Just had a thought! Can you post an image of your disk manager? Something I want to check. Disk manager - Right click on start. Be sure to include everything in your screen clip. Save your screen clip to a .jpg file and then use Upload a File bottom right of the reply box.

 

[Willy Mehrweg]

Hi,
-Not sure how to get to that "Disk manager - Right click on start" -- is that out of the win10 tiles view ?!
In search it says 'nothing found'; OK -- late here in Europe, will try again Monday.
I also have to find out WHY THE HECK win10 would prevent me from hibernating or power-save mode - stays ALWAYS ON till I use brute force :-(
Thanks & regds.

 

[Garyw]

More things to explore!

 

[Willy Mehrweg]

Damn German - they call it

-- me a bit stupid = knowing both languages I should have guessed.
I send you my 'Disk Management' screenshot

 

[Garyw]

My clone is working now but with totally mixed HDD sequence // numbers; and after re-naming and regrouping:
1) I had to go into BIOS and see where the new win10 was cloned to (drive names & numbers vary from other programs and even within windows) to start the BOOT sequence with the CLONE;

Every bios I've ever worked with works this way. Seems drives are ordered ramdomly. Don't know why. Have always wished I could assign my own labels to the drives in the bios listing.

2) the cloned win10 refuses to hybernate and even with the power button briefly pressed - comes back immediately to sign-in screen. I have to press-and-hold PWR until PC is force-booted down.

Make sure it's set in control panel:



Something to consider. You have enough problems with your current W10 setup that it might be less work to do a fresh install. That is, if you have all the source files and license keys to reinstall your non windows programs.

I asked for your drive manager info to see what drive is designated as your boot drive. Eeverything looks ok.

 

[Willy Mehrweg]

Thanks again, you are very patient.
It bugs me that MS has never truly bothered to make things intuitively - sure, as of lately .. at least trying.
I saw your suggestion as to standby (Energiesparen) // hibernate (Ruhezustand): it did work before on the master, why not on the clone?! Beats me. But I'll try again - till now, neither standby nor hibernation had worked.
As to start from scratch: I did - or at least I do have a 'virgin' win10pro and YES, I even found all the product keys etc; later (of course) I was helped by Magical Jelly Bean, which reads all programs' keys BUT - how much work to re-do 'all' (I would skip a few).
Just for the sake of it - I enclose my Energy Options window.
If we keep this up, at the end you'll be fluent in German -- would love to have it ALL in English but afraid of messing up somewhere.
Best regards - Willy

 

[Garyw]

Hibernation after setting 25 minutes
Enable timer for activation Setting: Enable
Thank you Google Translate!

My only suggestion left is to clean install on a clean disk. Download a new install file using the media creation tool. Unhook all of your other drives. May have to recreate boot files for W7 drive after.

 

[Willy Mehrweg]

DAMN - and I thought it was me who was out of track. Win10 (update or other hidden processes) should never make changes in any personal settings and less so impede a normal standby and/or hibernation process - gimme a break!
But - I hear you loud and clearly . . .
THANKS for all you tried to help - 'twas an experience and the time spent with you was never 'lost'.
Best regards

PS: Btw - https://www.deepl.com is as good a translator, or better

 

[Willy Mehrweg]

just FYI:
I stripped that win10pro of all I thought could meddle like the Russians with elections - to no avail.
I left it on a sadly unused terabyte-SSD just to get back to that challenge 'one day' - if ever.
Despite win10 boot (non) features, I did find a way to get back into my virgin win10+ - and slowly realize how MUCH of the usual daily stuff went without ever wondering - now I wonder and .. re-install, one by one.
It sill strikes me that some programmers have not come up with a H-bomb-proof core part of win10 that, comes push to shove, can make it behave 100% as should; or (!) eradicate whatever conflicts or (!!) at least recognize all ms-OS on board (for now, I lost my fully updated win-7 - it's somewhere but claimed to totally be out of whack - blue-screen)
Beats me :-|
Yeah - I hear them loud and clear - depends on too many variables etc. . . :-(
I still wonder: Android and iOS do come back to life -- no matter what, right ?!
Thanks again; best regards - still from Spain

 

[Garyw]

Food for thought. The computer industry overall tries to give the impression that using a computer is as easy as using a toaster. IT'S NOT. That's why I spend quite a bit of time helping those who believe the hype. In my opinion you will probably have very few problems if you never connect to the internet and only play solitaire. Otherwise you learn by doing, asking and researching errors, just as you have been doing. Most of the people using computers don't have the background and experience that the people answering questions on the various forums have.

It sill strikes me that some programmers have not come up with a H-bomb-proof core part of win10 that, comes push to shove, can make it behave 100% as should;

The more code involved, the more likely the bugs will breed and multiply. With the amount of code involved in Windows 10, I'm truly amazed that it runs anywhere near as well as it does. I guess that it's hard for non coders to understand how well it does work, most of the time. Not that I'm making excuses for MS, it can always be better. I personally think it's going to get worse, not better. MS keeps adding new features which multiply the probabilities of more bugs and most of the features will probably be used by a small percentage of the user group.

Sorry for the rant. I get carried away sometimes.