SeeDk
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Determine if Hard Disk was set up as UEFI or MBR from within BIOS?
This Windows workstation would not boot even into BIOS at first.
As part of the troubleshooting process I removed the CMOS battery to reset the BIOS with no luck.
Skip ahead several troubleshooting steps later, and I find myself able to boot into BIOS but not into Windows.
There are 3 hard drives and one SSD in the PC.
I believe at least two of the drives may have been configured as RAID but I'm not sure.
According to the owner, the SSD was the boot drive.
Since the BIOS settings were apparently reset, I cannot confirm this. 3 of the 4 drives are showing as Non-Raid. The other doesn't show at all even switching the cables on it leading me to believe it has failed.
It could be there was no RAID, or the RAID was broken by the CMOS reset.
When I set the SSD as the primary disk, it starts booting but then a BSOD flashes past and the PC reboots.
I had to take a video to make out what the BSOD said.
It is a Stop 0x0000007B error.
Because of the BIOS reset, I'm also not sure whether the Legacy BIOS boot was enabled or the UEFI.
Another similar computer has UEFI which leads to believe that may be the case here as well.
Is there anyway to confirm?
Could I run a command in Startup Repair which would show me whether it has an MBR or EFI record?
As part of the troubleshooting process I removed the CMOS battery to reset the BIOS with no luck.
Skip ahead several troubleshooting steps later, and I find myself able to boot into BIOS but not into Windows.
There are 3 hard drives and one SSD in the PC.
I believe at least two of the drives may have been configured as RAID but I'm not sure.
According to the owner, the SSD was the boot drive.
Since the BIOS settings were apparently reset, I cannot confirm this. 3 of the 4 drives are showing as Non-Raid. The other doesn't show at all even switching the cables on it leading me to believe it has failed.
It could be there was no RAID, or the RAID was broken by the CMOS reset.
When I set the SSD as the primary disk, it starts booting but then a BSOD flashes past and the PC reboots.
I had to take a video to make out what the BSOD said.
It is a Stop 0x0000007B error.
Because of the BIOS reset, I'm also not sure whether the Legacy BIOS boot was enabled or the UEFI.
Another similar computer has UEFI which leads to believe that may be the case here as well.
Is there anyway to confirm?
Could I run a command in Startup Repair which would show me whether it has an MBR or EFI record?
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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ASKER
@dlethe I suppose it's possible the SSD failed. I have been hoping that it is not since the owner of the PC would like to keep his Windows OS config intact.
The data is backed up elsewhere so it is fine to lose it, but the config (installed programs) will be a pain to recreate.
I will try running diagnostics again and check.
I know for sure one of the disks failed as it is not even being detected by the computer and was making strange noises prior to this issue.
@noxcho Thanks, I am downloading this software and follow your suggestion.
The data is backed up elsewhere so it is fine to lose it, but the config (installed programs) will be a pain to recreate.
I will try running diagnostics again and check.
I know for sure one of the disks failed as it is not even being detected by the computer and was making strange noises prior to this issue.
@noxcho Thanks, I am downloading this software and follow your suggestion.
ASKER
Update:
I ran on board diagnostics on the PC for all the drives. It detected the same 3 as before (out of 4) and said there were no errors.
So then I tried Paragon Backup & Recovery 15 but didn't see any P2P Adjust OS. I looked online and found a download for Paragon Adaptive Restore 2010 and tried this but it could not detect any hard drives.
The error message that appears said I may need to download drivers for the RAID controllers if there was any. But since this was not my system I don't know what drivers would have been.
Also, it said that it runs in a 32 bit environment and wouldn't be able to recover a 64bit OS (this was running Windows 7 64bit).
So now, I'm wondering if I actually should be downloading Paragon Hard Disk Manager 15 because Backup and Recovery 15 didn't have the P2P Adjust.
Would this version have a 64bit recovery environment?
I ran on board diagnostics on the PC for all the drives. It detected the same 3 as before (out of 4) and said there were no errors.
So then I tried Paragon Backup & Recovery 15 but didn't see any P2P Adjust OS. I looked online and found a download for Paragon Adaptive Restore 2010 and tried this but it could not detect any hard drives.
The error message that appears said I may need to download drivers for the RAID controllers if there was any. But since this was not my system I don't know what drivers would have been.
Also, it said that it runs in a 32 bit environment and wouldn't be able to recover a 64bit OS (this was running Windows 7 64bit).
So now, I'm wondering if I actually should be downloading Paragon Hard Disk Manager 15 because Backup and Recovery 15 didn't have the P2P Adjust.
Would this version have a 64bit recovery environment?
If you downloaded Backup & Recovery 15 Home then you can use its inbuilt Recovery Media Builder. If the program is installed on 64bit machine then it will create you 64bit Recovery Media based on WinPE.
There you should perform the P2P Adjust OS.
The drivers, it is most possible online RAID controller and you can find its drivers by simply googleing the motherboard model name and number.
There you should perform the P2P Adjust OS.
The drivers, it is most possible online RAID controller and you can find its drivers by simply googleing the motherboard model name and number.
ASKER
I tried following your instructions but I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.
I used the Recovery Media Builder and burned it on a CD (should it be USB?).
When I boot from the CD, all I see is he menu for "Paragon Hard Disk Manager 15 - Backup and Recovery - Compact".
It just looks like the same menu as in the original install on my working PC except I can't launch the full scale launcher.
Nowhere do I see a P2P Adjust Option.
Also of note, when I run the "List of Volumes" option, I'm seeing 4 listed (C,D,E,F) but all have size listed as 0B.
Also, when I launch the option called "Boot Corrector" I get an error saying "the wizard failed to find any partition in the system".
"Transfer files" option gives me the error "Disk is not found".
These disks are viewable in the BIOS but not through here.
Is this because of missing drivers or something else?
I used the Recovery Media Builder and burned it on a CD (should it be USB?).
When I boot from the CD, all I see is he menu for "Paragon Hard Disk Manager 15 - Backup and Recovery - Compact".
It just looks like the same menu as in the original install on my working PC except I can't launch the full scale launcher.
Nowhere do I see a P2P Adjust Option.
Also of note, when I run the "List of Volumes" option, I'm seeing 4 listed (C,D,E,F) but all have size listed as 0B.
Also, when I launch the option called "Boot Corrector" I get an error saying "the wizard failed to find any partition in the system".
"Transfer files" option gives me the error "Disk is not found".
These disks are viewable in the BIOS but not through here.
Is this because of missing drivers or something else?
Your results are only as good as your on-board diagnostics. No motherboard on the planet has decent HDD diagnostics.
ASKER
Ok, problem solved I think.
I tested the SSD (boot drive) on another PC and saw that it booted fine.
The problems must've been in the BIOS of the original PC after all.
So I changed those settings from RAID to AHCI. It booted.
I shut down and reconnected each disk one by one to check if any of them caused the boot to fail.
They did not, but the undetected disk remains undetected which means it probably is failed.
The other 3 are fine though, which confirms if there was a RAID at one point, it wasn't set up when these problems started.
The RAID setting I saw must have been a factory default from when the CMOS was reset.
Boot mode turned out to be Legacy and not UEFI.
Thanks everyone for your help!
I tested the SSD (boot drive) on another PC and saw that it booted fine.
The problems must've been in the BIOS of the original PC after all.
So I changed those settings from RAID to AHCI. It booted.
I shut down and reconnected each disk one by one to check if any of them caused the boot to fail.
They did not, but the undetected disk remains undetected which means it probably is failed.
The other 3 are fine though, which confirms if there was a RAID at one point, it wasn't set up when these problems started.
The RAID setting I saw must have been a factory default from when the CMOS was reset.
Boot mode turned out to be Legacy and not UEFI.
Thanks everyone for your help!
Good work. With Backup & Recovery your mistake was that you have downloaded a free version or limited one. Only Home version has this WinPE builder which contains P2P Adjust OS. And yes, it would adjust the system to boot from RAID.
Take care
Nox
Take care
Nox
The only thing that explains that are bad power, cabling, or disk. (Not that the drive 100% failed, but you have unreadable blocks that are vital for system to boot. Heck block #0 where the partitioning is could be unreadable).