PC having boot order issues after Windows update

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littleheaven

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#279546 22-Oct-2020 13:35

Hi all, this is a bit of a long-winded one, so please bear with me.

I have a PC with an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X processor and a Gigabyte X570 UD ATX motherboard running Windows 10. A couple of months ago, following an automatic Windows update, it failed to restart, giving me the error: Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key. I tried all the suggested fixes on Google with little success. Resetting the BIOS resulted in it booting into the Acronis True Image recovery environment instead (via the attached external drive). Changing boot option priorities didn't help - on reboot, they kept changing around so that the boot drive was no longer #1.

The only way I can get it to boot normally into Windows is to set Windows Boot Manager as option #1 in the bios easy mode, completely disable the boot option priorities in expert mode, and remove the external hard drive. If I set the boot drive as option #1 in expert mode boot option priorities, I get the original error. If I plug the external drive in before boot, it boots to Acronis True Image recovery environment. I can start the computer up fine with other external drives connected, just not the one with Acronis on it. The Acronis external drive did have an active EFI partition on it which I disabled - no change. I fully reformatted the Acronis drive and re-did the backup from scratch - still no change (although it no longer has an active partition).

If I look at the boot drive with a partition tool, it looks like this - is that correct?

So now I am stuck with having to manually insert and remove the external drive at every startup/shutdown and it's driving me nuts. Is there anything I'm missing here or does it require professional intervention?

Many thanks for any assistance rendered!

Geek girl. Freelance copywriter and editor at Unmistakable.co.nz.

Oblivian

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#2590224 22-Oct-2020 14:10

That's a standard GPT layout.

And needs specific setup with UEFI bios to work with the boot manager on a disk.

You can have the boot files on 1 drive, telling it to boot a different drive/partition. It doesn't see 'disk 1' or 'disk 2'. It needs a \BCD folder (On an EFI Partition with no drive letter) with the configuration setup that uses a GUID identifying the OS/drives and tells it to look for files on the x partition of it.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/bringup/boot-and-uefi

If it no longer does that, then you have possibly somehow done an auto repair with 2 OS's attached and it's likely the wrong one. (or swapped drives?) With the default picked being the store on the external drive ID

This is an example of a BCD nowadays. And the bits in the {}s are often specific generated

C:\Windows\system32>bcdedit

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume2
path \EFI\refind\refind_x64.efi
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
default {current}
resumeobject {9c34aeea-9152-11e5-9c76-00155d013517}
displayorder {current}
{2bd3fb00-6091-11e5-86c4-c3a22c898ce3}
{2bd3fafe-6091-11e5-86c4-c3a22c898ce3}
{2bd3faf0-6091-11e5-86c4-c3a22c898ce3}
{2bd3fb07-6091-11e5-86c4-c3a22c898ce3}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 3

in the past, I've recovered from similar issues with an encrypted machine that overwrote the BCD with its own to load that bootloader. And it's long winded. You need to be offline, use diskpart to assign the hidden EFI partition a letter. And then re-run the BCD detection with the folder\location of windows specified to update the bios accordingly

Someone else may have a better suggestion. But first would be put the BIOS how you expect it to be/defaults. And manually boot to a USB/Recovery mode and do the repairs so it only has 1 OS and boot record found to fix. And at least see if the recovery options are able to.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/bcd-system-store-settings-for-uefi

Normally that consists of bootrec /FixBoot from the now visible EFI. Followed by a BCD store backup and re-creation.

littleheaven

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#2590407 22-Oct-2020 20:12

Thanks for the detailed response. I will definitely try a boot into recovery mode and run the repair/refresh OS tools as my first course of action.

Geek girl. Freelance copywriter and editor at Unmistakable.co.nz.

fe31nz

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#2590497 23-Oct-2020 01:09

My go-to tool for Windows boot setup is EasyBCD - get the free option from here:

https://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/

It allows you to edit the boot menu on any drive. However, I have only used it for BIOS booting, not UEFI so far.

littleheaven

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#2592318 27-Oct-2020 10:25

Thanks for the suggestion. I've downloaded it and installed it in limited mode (due to UEFI boot system). I'm not sure how to use it so will do some study first!

Geek girl. Freelance copywriter and editor at Unmistakable.co.nz.

littleheaven

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#2592469 27-Oct-2020 15:58

Update - thank you so much @fe31nz! I ran EasyBCD, clicked on the Backup/Repair option, then chose Recreate/repair Boot Files, and clicked Perform Action. I wasn't sure if it had actually done anything so I left it at that. Later, I had to shut down so I could pop out for a bit and when I came home I tried booting with the external drive still connected and it worked! Clearly, whatever that app did has repaired the issue. I am so relieved and kind of stunned that it was that easy, lol. Many thanks for your suggestion. Lifesaver.

Geek girl. Freelance copywriter and editor at Unmistakable.co.nz.