PC won't boot to Windows, help needed (Linux tools experts welcome!)

[Gianky]

Hey there!

So, for some days, now, my PC won't boot Windows. I have a 500 GB Samsung 970 EVO as OS disk, and only Windows is installed.

Every time I try to boot, the PC either don't find any disk or say that there's a read error on the disk.

I used a live USB with Linux Mint to examine the disk (I'm no Linux expert at all, just the average noob) and Gsmartcontrol, if I'm reading the log correctly, says that the my SSD is healty. As a matter of fact, I can mount it on Linux and access every file and Gparted says that the file system is ok.

At that point I used another tool that comes with Mint, that is Boot Repair to analyze the boot system: unfortunately, I'm not tech savvy enough to understand if there is a problem or not. It looks like the partition with Windows (nvme1n1p1) is healty and has no boot problems, but later in the log the program list trouble with the drive sda2 and an inconcistency in sdb2.

So, is there someone in here that can help me understand if my OS disk is still working and what I have to do to boot again to Windows? I'm attaching the two logs below.

Thank you all for all the help that you'll be able to give me.

P.S. Just to be on the safe side, I changed the CMOS battery, but, aside resetting the BIOS, nothing changed.

 

 

_S466NX0K405924M_2024-12-10_1516.txt Boot-Info_20241210_1518.txt

[AngleOff66]

Not an expert, but if you have access to another running system(a friends perhaps) could you perhaps repair the windows install with the windows ISO on a usb.  Windows 10 or 11?

Win11

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/how-to-perform-a-repair-upgrade-using-the-windows/35160fbe-9352-4e70-9887-f40096ec3085

 

Win10

Good Luck.

 

 

 

[BitMaster]

Gianky,

the details you don't provide have the info we need to tell you what's actually happeneing. Right now, too many things could trigger it.

Version A:  Your NVMe "only" holds the "C" drive but your initial start partition is on another disk that may have an issue, logical or hardware wise.

Version B:  as above, just .. your other disk is going nuts and kills the Bus, just had that yesterday on a client machine, it happens !

Version C. Your Bios is totally messed up. Make sure your Boot settings are valid for your setup ( CSM, Secure Boot, selected drive order..etc..drive )

 

Boot Mint, open GParted, select your NVMe, make a screenshot of the partitions it holds and report back.

 

Meanwhile, WHILE  YOU   STILL  CAN,  make  abackup of your personal files through Mint.

 

* Mint, is a good choice !

 

Bit

 

Edited December 13, 2024 by BitMaster

[Gianky]

Hey guys!

First of all, thank you both for your help!

@AngleOff66 I'm not sure my Windows installation has problems, it seems to be a deeper issue, at boot level; I have the Windows USB stick for installation and tried to boot from there, but the only option that gave me was to reinstall the system. Since I wasn't sure if I'd loose my data and I still can access them, I didn't try, I'll save that as a last resort. The links you provided seems to assume that the user can still access Windows, which I can't do right now; I'm not sure I can use those procedures directly from the USB at boot. As I said, I'll leave that as a last resort option, after I backed up all my data and everything else fails.

3 hours ago, BitMaster said:

Version A:  Your NVMe "only" holds the "C" drive but your initial start partition is on another disk that may have an issue, logical or hardware wise.

Version B:  as above, just .. your other disk is going nuts and kills the Bus, just had that yesterday on a client machine, it happens !

Version C. Your Bios is totally messed up. Make sure your Boot settings are valid for your setup ( CSM, Secure Boot, selected drive order..etc..drive )

 

Boot Mint, open GParted, select your NVMe, make a screenshot of the partitions it holds and report back.

 

Meanwhile, WHILE  YOU   STILL  CAN,  make  abackup of your personal files through Mint.

 

* Mint, is a good choice !

 

Bit

 

I'm not at my home PC right now, so I'll confirm what I'm saying later; anyway:

A: the 970 Evo should have the C drive and the start partition; IIRC, Gparted show 3 partition, the main one with the OS, a 500ish MB reserved partition (it should be the boot partition) and a 2 MB empty partition (not formatted)

B: when I built the system I used the SSD for OS and VR games (DCS was originally installed there), a 1 TB fast HDD for other games and a 3 TB slow HDD for data storage; I then added a 2 TB NVMe 980 pro exclusively for DCS. So the only drive that has anything to do with the system should be the 970 drive (C: or, in Boot repair log nvme1n1). I don't understand why the Boot repair log says that Windows is installed in the MBR of all my disks.

C: I  reset the BIOS, so it's back to the default settings, I haven't modified them back again, yet, even because it's been a long time since I first set them and I really don't remember how I modified the settings at the time, I have to reread everything and apply the needed changes. If you have any suggestions, feel free to tell me!

I'll back up my data ASAP, heck, I'll clone the entire disk!

Thank you again for your help!

 

 

Edited December 13, 2024 by Gianky

[jackd]

500GB should be enough for one windows installation, but not when you install other (large) programs there. as well.

Your DDR memory size may have a large influence too, and the pagefile size location and size (DDR memory size is important for that).

BTW I always keep my windows on a separate Boot-C partition, and install programs (if possible) on a separate drive or partition called PRG. This so i can use Acronis to back up my working windows for a reinstall when windows update screws my windows up once again.

 

[BitMaster]

Maybe a quick fix, if the Boot order got messed up and you may not know which device to choose.

In Bios, you should have an option in "Boot Settings" to override the boor order with a device of your choice.. which will not change any settings but will try one time to boot from that device / bootmanager.

You should see 1 entry called "Windows Boot Manager" on your OS-Drive "C", try that. Windows can boot directly off the C-drive, you dont need any kickstart partition or such anymore.

If that works, select that as your future ( was it in your past very likely as well ) boot device.

 

If you have Dual Boot with Mint, you have MULTIPLE entries and options to boot Windows. You can go the Microsoft way and use the obove mentioned "Windows Boot Manager" on C drive or use the GRUB Bootloader and choose in Mint's Boot Menue where you wanna go, Mint or Win11. I have it that way but my Bios is Windows Boot Manager and if I need to boot Mint I use F12 and select Mint. Other way round will always end it Linux if I reboot Windows, it's a pain to change Boot order in Grub these days.

 

There are also many Help pages on how to fix boot issues with the MS console....BUT you need to get to console first to do that  fixmbr thing.

[Aapje]

I see that your disk is using the legacy MBR setup to store the boot data. This doesn't work with UEFI boot mode, so I would make sure that your BIOS boot mode is set to legacy.

Secondly, you may have enabled soft raid in the BIOS in the past and perhaps turned it off by accident. If so, the system is only going to boot if soft-raid is enabled again (also in the BIOS).