Solved Windows wont boot " File: \Boot\BCD" error

[Brale]

Hi guys, a new member here. I hope you can help me with my problem.
I have 2 HDD. both of them have Windows 8.1 installed. When they are both connected, everything is working just fine. I can boot to any of them. The problem starts when I try to disconnect 1 of them. Lets call them "A" and "B".
Picture 1 is showing when only HDD "A" is connected. Enter and Press F8 options do not work.
When i use Press F9 it gives me an option to choose which OS i want to boot in (Picture 2), even there is only 1 OS.
When I choose the one on the bottom, it's working and I can boot to Windows.
When only HDD "B" is connected I cant boot to windows at all. It gives me an error (Picutre 3) : The boot Configuration Data for your PC is missing....". I've tried to repair it with my Windows installation USB (Picture 4) but that didnt work either. I even tried to use Command prompt commands (bootrec /rebuildbcd, /fixboot. nt60) but no luck.
When I connect both HDD, everything is working just fine (Picture 5).
My problem is that I want to have only Hdd "B" connected because all my stuff are on that drive. The other one is just to have it ready if something goes wrong. I thought I will be able to boot if I just rebuild BootSector on drive "B" but I guess I was wrong.
Can someone help me with this problem please?
Thank you


Pic 1: Pic 2: Pic 3: Pic 4: Pic 5:

 

[whs]

Impossible to read the pics.

 

[Brale]

Pictures are fixed now

 

[adamf]

I dont know why they are up side down. They look normal on my screen

An advantage of a small laptop is you can turn it upside down

Anyway can you plug them both in and log in and then and post a print of the disk management screen and the full results of bcdedit. Probably you have your boot loader files (for both) on drive A.

 

[Brale]

Thank you for reply.
Here are the pics. Disk 0 is the one i want to be able to boot while Disk 1 is disconnected.

 

[KYHI]

If you notice your Boot manager is on D.. Disk 1

 

[Slartybart]

Brale,

What is your objective? To have two HDD with a bootable Win8.1?

If KYHI's procedure doesn't resolve the issue, try this:

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2843-automatic-repair-run-windows-8-a.html
NOTE: Sometimes it may take to run Automatic Repair 3 times to fix the startup issue.

This will make drive 0 the 'master boot', as KYHI said, the boot manager is currently on drive 1 (D.​

I'm not sure why you have two HDDs with Win8.1 on them - you won't be able to use the 2nd HDD in another machine. If it's for backup purposes, there are better options.

 

[Brale]

KYHI, thank you for the instructions. That solved my problem.


Slartybart, yes, the 2nd drive is a fresh copy of Win 8.1. Mostly for backup purposes, if something goes wrong with this one. I would like to hear about better options how to backup the OS.
Thank you.

 

[Slartybart]

See these tutorials on System images, File History, and Recovery Drive.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/8956-system-image-create-windows-8-a.html
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/3610-refresh-windows-8-create-use-custom-recovery-image.html
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/5132-recovery-drive-create-usb-flash-drive-windows-8-a.html

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2484-file-history-how-use-windows-8-a.html

I periodically create a System image - it takes less that 30 minutes to restore my system as it was when the snapshot image was made. All my applications and data are ready.

I make more frequent copies of my data that serve as my incremental backups.

How often you image or copy depends on how much disk space you have and how often you make changes to your files (how catastrophic would it be to lose a week or a month of updates? Critical for banks and lawyers, not so much for us home users.)

Bill
.

 

[Brale]

Thanks bud, that was really helpful. I guess I 'll go with System Image option

 

[Slartybart]

There are more choices:

Imaging with free Macrium - Windows 7 Help Forums
and
Acronis WD edition

both are free. I couldn't find a tutorial on Acronis, but lots of members use it so if you search the forums for Acronis, you'll find lots of information. Also be sure to look at the Related tutorials on any I send your way, there's always more stuff.

I don't mean to send you off on a investigative task - I use the native System image and it works fine. Other members prefer the 3rd party imaging applications (there are some additional options offered in those).

 

[Brale]

Thank you very much. I've already tried to do it with the native system image. Like you said, it's working great, so I guess I'll keep using that.