Automatic Repair loop on W8.1 with an SSD

[Icycold]

Wait, what do I type? C: CD D: is not working I'm in C:\> now.

 

[XweAponX]

just type d:

If the prompt says d: then type DIR, if Windows is in there, then go back to X and type CHKDSK d: /x /r

It's a pain, but its a command prompt - We have to locate your partition, there are other commands but I can't remember which one shows you your active drives.

 

[Icycold]

I'm assuming I'm looking for a huge list of windows files when I type DIR, I don't see them. Neither on C (which says system reserved) nor on D or E. There's a 94 byte file in D and 468 byte file in E.

 

[XweAponX]

is it saying how large the partitions are?

Yah I was right, "system reserved": means THAT's where your Bootloader is, your D drive was probably your C drive within Windows.

Get your install disk out, if you have to re-install, you'll have to reformat the drive so it will create the right partitions.

Just make sure you are typing the CHKDSK from X:

CHKDSK d: /x /r

CHKDSK e: /x /r

 

[Icycold]

So from here on out, regardless I lose all data on the C: drive right? I don't mind, if there's no way to perform this operation without wiping I don't care.

I run chkdsk on both D and E?

 

[XweAponX]

If the DIR command is showing that all your drives are blank, then they are. You should have at least seen a directory structure with "Windows " and "Users"- You may have even mroe partitions, try F G and H. I've seen some computers off the shelves with about 5 partitions on them. Windows likes the OS partition to be one of the first two, there should be a 100mb partition, then your OS partition. Some companies make the 3rd or 4th partition the OS, put recovery in the 2nd. Which causes problems when Updating the OS.

Did you have anything stored on the E drive before this happened?

 

[Icycold]

This is so weird then. Why are my drives showing empty in the cmd?

My SSD (C) had windows and a few games.
My F drive was 1.5 TB mostly empty
My G drive was 500GB and entirely empty as well.

You still need me to run the chkdsk on E and D?

edit: I don't have E and D drives I just noticed. So where is the Windows in C hidden at?

 

[whs]

This is not going to yield anything. The SSD is fine. It is just screwed up. If you want to put the image on it, you have to reformat it.

1. These are the commands:

Diskpart
List disk
Select disk n (where n is the number that was given for your SSD in List disk)
Clean
Create partition primary align=1024
Format fs=ntfs quick
Active
Exit

2. Next step is to copy the bootmgr on the system you want to image to C. Then you need not muck around with the 100MB system partition. Here is how:

Bootmgr - Move to C:\ with EasyBCD - Windows 7 Help Forums

3. Now you make an image of the C partition of your running system. Disregard the 100MB partition.

4. Then restore that image into the aligned partition you have previously defined.

5. Change the bootorder in the BIOS and boot from the SSD.

 

[Icycold]

Thanks whs, I'm desperate to get the PC back to working condition (and thanks to Apon as well).

Where do I enter those commands? In Macrium or the CMD I'm in right now - the one in the Windows iso on my usb.

For step 4: this meeans I only check the non-100mb partition on Macrium right?

The program you linked runs off Windows if I read correctly, how do I run that before I even boot Windows?

 

[whs]

These are cmd commands. And stop doing chkdsk on the SSD. This is not a spinning disk with tracks and sectors. If the SSD has defunct cells, the internal SSD controller takes care of those automatically.

Btw: Before you make the image from your HDD system, make sure there is not more data on C than the capacity of the SSD (minus 10 to 15% if possible). It is never good to fill a SSD to the rim. Then the garbage collection has no space to breathe.

 

[Icycold]

Alright. Now how do I do step 2 before booting to Windows? I have the program downloaded to my laptop now.

 

[whs]

For step 2 look at my tutorial I linked.

 

[Icycold]

nvm

 

[Icycold]

Okay, got past step 1.

Whs, I must be blind but I can't seem to see in the tutorial how to get bootmgr running on the PC that needs help.

 

[whs]

Maybe I misunderstand. 2 questions:

1. The system on your HDD works ??
2. You want to image the HDD system to the SSD - right ??

Btw: Don't do step 2 yet. I have to double check whether that works already for Windows 8. I thought it did but I better check.

 

[Icycold]

1. I'm not sure what you mean by system but yes my HDD works perfectly fine. I have 2. One that is very big, and one that is only 500GB.

2. Since you said my SSD is simply screwed up and not dead, I want to just get everything running back to normal.

I've done step 1 of your instructions last page. I am going to bed and will resume this tomorrow, spent the entire afternoon :/.

 

[whs]

The question was: can you boot Windows 8 from one of the HDDs (running system).

Btw: I checked whether EasyBCD can deal with the Windows 8 bootmgr. The information is not crisp. I have done that many times in Windows 7, but never in Windows 8. So forget step 2. for the time being. We may want to do to do something else. We'll discuss that once I understand what your current situation is regarding running Windows 8.

 

[Icycold]

Both my hdds have space for windows but it's not on there. The only place I could boot windows from is my ssd but that's the whole point of this thread that's clearly not working.

 

[whs]

OK, then we have to go back to square 1. All the time I was under the impression that you still had a working Windows 8 system on one of the HDDs. But if that is not the case, then you have no Windows 8.

Your SSD is all scewed up. Even mouth to mouth resuscitation will not revive that. A reinstall is in order. I am sorry I gave you the wrong path because of my misunderstanding.

 

[XweAponX]

These are cmd commands. And stop doing chkdsk on the SSD. This is not a spinning disk with tracks and sectors. If the SSD has defunct cells, the internal SSD controller takes care of those automatically.

Thanks, I was not sure how to handle it with an SSD drive- So CHKDSK won't help at all then? I was thinking in terms of if his system got stuck in a repair loop, running CHKDSK manually might bust it out.