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windows 2012 will not boot, missing reserved system partition

Hi -

I have a windows 2012 server and when it was installed there were 2 drives in the computer. A system reserved partition was created on the second drive. That drive is now out of the system, so the computer will not boot.

To get the boot system onto the windows partition I have followed these steps -

boot from installation disk to the repair computer command line

Using diskpart I've made the windows drive (c:) active
I then ran the following commands:
Bootrec.exe /fixmbr
bootrec.exe /fixboot
bootrec /rebuildbcd

/rebuildbcd says "total identified windows installations :1"
when I choose "y" i get the error
The requested system device cannot be found

I'm able to go into the C:\ drive and see the files. there is not C:\boot however the C:\windows\boot folder does exist.

Should I be copying the boot folder to C:\ and running /rebuildbcd again?
What else could I do?

Since the OS itself is intact, i'm trying to keep from a fresh install.

Thanks in Advance,
Dylan

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ASKER

thanks, performing actions now

ASKER

Ok -
Checked my C: drive with diskpart, it is active

I ran the command bcdboot C:\windows /s C: /f/ ALL
because my windows directory is c:\

I couldn't find a store option or a recoverysequence

I checked out bcdedit and these look like switches for using bcdedit. can you be abit more detailed on the commands in bcdedit i need to run now that I've run bcdboot, or am i missing something obvious?

Thanks.

ASKER

to check things, should I be running:

C:\Windows\System32\bcdedit /store C:\Boot\BCD /enum

ASKER

I ran the check, as far as I could tell, it looked good. I'm rebooting now. if the reboot doesn't work, I'll post the results of the bcdedit command from above.

ASKER

No Joy on the reboot, back into the recovery command line. I'm new to the boot loader here, now that I have a boot/bcd in place, what are my next steps? retry the bootrec steps?

BCDEDIT /ENUM ACTIVE /V
Note the UUID of the boot entry

BCDEDIT /ENUM ACTIVE

You should see something like

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume0
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
bootshutdowndisabled Yes
default {current}
resumeobject {....}
displayorder {current}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows Server 2012
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence {.........}
recoveryenabled Yes
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {...}
nx OptOut

ASKER

I'm Close,

under Windows Boot Loader entries do not exist
recoverysequence {.........}

Other differences:
recoveryenabled Yes
differences are in bold

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=C:\
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
bootshutdowndisabled Yes
default {default}
resumeobject {....}
displayorder {default}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {default}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows Server 2012
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence {.........}
recoveryenabled Yes
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {...}
nx OptOut
detecthal YES

ASKER

Sorry - did not follow your instruction verbatim

The about output was from
C:\Windows\System32\bcdedit /store C:\Boot\BCD /enum

I've run the two command above and will be returning results shortly

ASKER

OK, I've got the UUID (identifier) for:
Windows Boot Manager {....4795}
Windows Boot loader {....4ae8}

I have a couple other identifiers showing up as well. Below is what is in boot manager and loader

Under Boot Manager:
Identifier {....4795}
Inherit {....9F0e}
Default {....4ae8}
resumeobject {....4ae8}
display order {....4ae8}
toolsdisplayorder {....142d}

Under Windows Boot Loader
Indentifier {....4ae8}
inherit {....2bd7}
Resumeobject {....4ae8}

David Johnson, CD

you need to run 'bootrec /mbr /fixboot'

ASKER

@ve3ofa - Will that work now that @Mysidia has helped me use bcd boot to create the boot loader?

David Johnson, CD

you still need the master boot record.

ASKER

Ah, please let me know if I have this right -
so when I was running
bootrec /mbr /fixboot

before
C:\Windows\System32\bcdedit /store C:\Boot\BCD /enum

There was nothing to fix. Now that I have the BCD and loader, I can run
bootrec /mbr /fixboot

Successfully?

ASKER

@ve3ofa

I ran
bootrec /mbrfix
bootrec /fixboot

and no change. Am I missing something basic?

ASKER

OK UPDATE -
I'm confident of the following -
A system boot partition is no longer available
The partition with windows OS is now active
After running bcdboot C:\windows /s C: /f/ ALL I now have a good bcd. I've compared the BCD listed above to others, and as far as I can tell, it is A OK.

I've run bootrec /fixmbr and bootrec /fixboot

When I run bootrec/rebuildbcd says "total identified windows installations :1"
when I choose "y" i get the error
"The requested system device cannot be found" and The system will still not boot from the drive.

After much research, this is leading me to believe the missing system reserved partition is actually an EFI Partition.
In the morning I'm going to check out the bios and see if it is set to uefi.
if it is I'm going to try setting up a new EFI Partion as outlined in the 3rd answer, begins with "The other answers are helpful but this is what I had to do to fix mine."
http://superuser.com/questions/460762/how-can-i-repair-the-windows-8-efi-bootloader

Any Thoughts?

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ASKER

Unless windows 2012 standard or StarWind requires EFI, I'm good, that is all on the OS.

Right now when I boot, nothing happens. It's just a black screen, then it rolls to next boot item, the nic cards to try to do a network boot, which is not configured.

From the troubleshooting command line x:/resources/recovery/sysrep runs through diagnostics then spends 10 seconds at repair so I know that doesn't work.

This statement tipped me to the missing EFI System Partition:
/rebuildbcd says "total identified windows installations :1"
when I choose "y" i get the error
The requested system device cannot be found

In the instructions I listed, I got as far as "create partition efi" which failed because the disk with the os on it is not GPT.

I'm going to research my motherboard BIOS docs to see how to move it into BIOS Mode.
the MB is SUPERMICRO X9SRI-F ATX Server Motherboard LGA 2011 DDR3 1600
http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C600/X9SRi-F.cfm

I'm also going to check / confirm the OS partition is now set to boot and system.

Thanks,
I'll be back shortly, always appreciate any more ideas.

ASKER

OK, system is already on Legacy boot, so the EFI path I started is a dead end, so I'm back to Mysidia's checklist

Quick Question:
*** when running dispart partition 1 details, SYSTEM and BOOT do not appear under info.
will re-running /fixmbr /fixboot rectify this? I can't find much info other than using the "retain" switch

Between that item and bootrec saying
Windows installation found 1
The requested system device cannot be found

I don't have any other errors.
Stumped.

ASKER

Well, I gave myself 24 hours to resolve, time is up.

I'm going to re-install the operating system and reconfigure. This time I don't have any raw disks in the mix, so the system recovery option should load to the same physical disk as the OS.

Thanks for the great help, all I can think of is that I'm missing something in the details and haven't been able to uncover it.