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PC wont boot hard drive

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  • esuhl wrote: »
    Ah... That sounds like the device is not recognised. Possibly the BCD or BIOS/UEFI settings are corrupt.


    If you haven't changed any BIOS settings you could try rebuilding the BCD (as mentioned above). Otherwise, perhaps the CR2032 battery (that saves BIOS settings) has become flat and needs replacing...?
    If that was the case then wouldn't it also cause problems with what is the C drive?


    I don't know how long these batteries last but my PC was built in 2010 IIRC. No battery change since then. With that said the PC before that which was used more has lasted 15 years with no battery change.
  • that wrote: »
    Lastly I would do a read only chkdsk of the drives.
    Tried that.

    Access Denied as you do not have sufficient privileges.
    You have to invoke this utility running in elevated mode.


    There's a password on the drive but from within My Computer i can access it perfectly fine.
  • Johnmcl7
    Johnmcl7 Posts: 2,838 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Tried that.

    There's a password on the drive but from within My Computer i can access it perfectly fine.

    Make sure you're running command prompt as admin by right clicking the executable and choosing run as admin.

    John
  • that
    that Posts: 1,532 Forumite
    There's a password on the drive but from within My Computer i can access it perfectly fine.
    Unsure how the disk is passworded, can you tell us? Can the password be removed? is it a password or is it encryption? Which is the encrypted drive?

    #####
    Stole these chkdsk instructions below from a site:
    1. Open an elevated Command Prompt (Press the Windows + X button at the same time, then choose Command Prompt (Admin))

    2. Type the following command, and replace the X with the drive letter you wish to scan: “CHKDSK X:”, we suggest you use “CHKDSK E: /F /R”, only then it can correct errors.

    3. Hit the enter key, Command Prompt will now start CHKDSK.

    have you run a SMART disk checker? While it is probably just corruption, but in my eyes worth the check that the disks are not on their way out.

    '####
    esuhl is showing his age :D that coin battery - for well over a decade no longer effects ALL the bios parameters. Its only function is keeping the clock and date running.

    Probably BCD as others said above, on the E.

    #####
    A virtual machine does not work for every one, as it does run about 10% slower than dual boot, and may not recognise some usb devices like screens or fitbit or graphic tablets. Also if you have an expensive graphics card, it will not use some of the the features. Not the best or gaming

    Why you should do it:
    Utilise your disk storage more effective, and you could give each pc 2TB, but if you only used 20GB then it will only on disk use about 20GB.
    Could copy the file and take it to a friends house and run it on completely different hardware with out problems - portable.
    Take snapshot of current disk status and roll it back. set up a snapshot, then install or delete software and you can always roll back to the original settings. Great or testing.
    Besides running windows you could also run another version of windows and Linux both at the same time.
    You could have windows 7,8,10 plus versions of linux all on one disk.
    Removal of a PC is similar to deleting a file.

    How does it work? it is is like word. You start word and open one or more documents. So start the Virtual machine and open one or more virtual machines. All the computers are just files. The big names are virtualBox (free), Hyper-V (can be free but depends on windows license), vmware workstation (costs)

    #####
    Mmmm disk with a password ?????

    I would copy the current BCD, not exactly sure exactly why as it is not working, just do not want to make it worse. :wall:
    https://www.thewindowsclub.com/backup-restore-bcd-windows

    Me, beside checking hardware, I would copy the stuff I wanted to usb drive. Then try the bcd fixes as others suggest as it is quicker and less work. if that fails, do the acronis restore and copy the usb stuff back

    #####
    Possibly nothing to do with your problem, but I would suggest that since you have so many other drives too, that you get a SMART monitor software running like hddguardian which will hopefully detect slow and often age related failures.
  • I insert the Windows 7 DVD yet i see no option to repair the drive like i see when watching YouTube videos on it. All i get instead is a list of all the partitions of all the drives on there.



    Any helps on that?




    Though i did manage to run the chkdsk cmd...

    The type of the file system is NTFS.

    WARNING! F parameter not specified.
    Running CHKDSK in read-only mode.

    CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...
    208384 file records processed.
    File verification completed.
    804 large file records processed.
    0 bad file records processed.
    2 EA records processed.
    47 reparse records processed.
    CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...
    266386 index entries processed.
    Index verification completed.
    0 unindexed files scanned.
    0 unindexed files recovered.
    CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)...
    208384 file SDs/SIDs processed.
    Security descriptor verification completed.
    29002 data files processed.
    CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
    36510176 USN bytes processed.
    Usn Journal verification completed.
    Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.

    976793599 KB total disk space.
    74877480 KB in 149200 files.
    97644 KB in 29003 indexes.
    0 KB in bad sectors.
    454815 KB in use by the system.
    65536 KB occupied by the log file.
    901363660 KB available








    EDIT: It seems that this message board doesn't like you quoting the full report. I had to take out where it mentioned Microsoft as well as drive paths etc to be able to post the above quote.
  • esuhl
    esuhl Posts: 9,409 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    If that was the case then wouldn't it also cause problems with what is the C drive?

    A flat BIOS battery would reset the BIOS settings to their defaults, which might work with a HDD but not an SSD.
    that wrote: »
    esuhl is showing his age :D that coin battery - for well over a decade no longer effects ALL the bios parameters. Its only function is keeping the clock and date running.

    Ah... my main PC is over 10 years old and still running really quickly. I guess I'll upgrade to a UEFI system in a few more years! :p

    The OP's PC is from 2010... Was UEFI ubiquitous by then?
    EDIT: It seems that this message board doesn't like you quoting the full report. I had to take out where it mentioned Microsoft as well as drive paths etc to be able to post the above quote.

    Try using [ CODE ] tags instead of [ QUOTE ].
  • esuhl wrote: »


    Try using [ CODE ] tags instead of [ QUOTE ].
    More info is required from that scan?


    I'm currently running the chkdsk /f /r thing and it's taking forever. Over an hour already. I'm not getting my hopes up.


    Would love to know why i can't access this repair thing through the Windows DVD though. I'm sure i've seen it before.
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMwfWP2ahyw


    Take that video for example. I know it's for Vista but i'll use it for this example..


    Go to 1:41 ... i can get that screen
    But when he clicks next he gets the repair option
    When i click next i get a list of drives and partitions, no repair option.
  • Now that that's finished and since code tags wont let me post it either...


    C0OBz11.jpg
  • that
    that Posts: 1,532 Forumite
    that video was set up for mbr partitons. Since that video (vista) things have moved on a bit.... a new partition preference has come unto existence (GPT), ssd have been invented, and Bioses are EUFI.

    That video is probably not your setup.

    this is more your setup but it only shows one disk and is on win10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dDOqQOn37A

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVhVAc3OAM0

    EasyBCD may cure, just not sure how standard it is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntTRdkkGqQQ
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