'No Bootable Disk' issue.

Hi all,

I was given an ASUS laptop and an Acer laptop by somebody to get the Acer working for them. The ASUS has a screwed motherboard as the soldered-on power jack stopped working, so I can't boot it up to retrieve data...but bear with me.

The Acer works fine, but is older than the ASUS (The Acer is from 2011, the ASUS is from 2018 or so).

Both laptops have Windows 10 installed. As he wants the better SSD in the Acer he is going to be using to replace the ASUS, I should just be able to just swap the SSD into the Acer and it should boot fine into that Windows install with all his files, programs and settings intact and activate Windows 10 no problem as Win10 was installed on both machines before. I've done this a few times for folks, so I know that works.

The issue is that after installing the SSD into the Acer, the Acer just gives a 'no bootable disk' error. I KNOW the SSD works because if I boot the Acer from a Live Linux USB, I can see the SSD there no problem and can see all the Windows-related partitions on the SSD are intact. The BIOS on the Acer CAN see the hard drive, it just refuses to boot from it, even if I use the F12 Boot Selection Menu to specifically select that hard drive.

Any ideas why the Acer would be saying 'no bootable disk' ? The SSD / Windows install on it were working fine in the ASUS before the power jack gave up, so I know that Windows install and the drive are fine.

There are no options in the Acer BIOS to disable secure boot or enable a 'legacy' mode, as it's an older laptop, so it should just be defaulting to that...? I tried booting into a Macrium Reflect 8 rescue disk and doing the 'Fix Windows Boot problems' thing, but that didn't help either.

My guess is that this old Acer only supports booting from MBR and the disk is formatted as GPT? Is there a way to convert this without having to reinstall Windows or reformat the disk? I could swear I had done that before...

Thanks for any help or suggestions! :)

Convert GPT Disk to MBR Disk in Windows 10

Ghot said:

Convert GPT Disk to MBR Disk in Windows 10

Thanks, but I managed to sort it!

Booted into a Linux Live USB, converted the GPT to MBR using these instructions:
https://www.techwalla.com/articles/h...o-mbr-on-linux

Then booted into my Macrium LiveUSB and used the Fix Boot Problems command on the GPT-to-MBR-converted disk, then restarted and voila....Windows 10 :)

Now to get him to tell me his password so I can sign in and remove all the old ASUS stuff on this Acer and get the correct drivers installed / make sure Windows gets activated as it should do! :)

- - - Updated - - -

Well....I am partially right.

I managed to get Win10 booting, but his Win10 install is all kinda of messed up....

sfc /scannow just tells me it can't start the repair service and if I try running DISM /checkhealth it just INSTANTLY fails saying the component store can't be repaired? And DISM /restorehealth instantly fails with 'Error: 193 - %1 is not a valid Win32 application' ...?

I tried an in-place repair upgrade using my Win10 stick, but that fails as well once it gets to like 99%?

Darkstrike said:

Thanks, but I managed to sort it!

Booted into a Linux Live USB, converted the GPT to MBR using these instructions:
https://www.techwalla.com/articles/h...o-mbr-on-linux

Then booted into my Macrium LiveUSB and used the Fix Boot Problems command on the GPT-to-MBR-converted disk, then restarted and voila....Windows 10 :)

Now to get him to tell me his password so I can sign in and remove all the old ASUS stuff on this Acer and get the correct drivers installed / make sure Windows gets activated as it should do! :)

- - - Updated - - -

Well....I am partially right.

I managed to get Win10 booting, but his Win10 install is all kinda of messed up....

sfc /scannow just tells me it can't start the repair service and if I try running DISM /checkhealth it just INSTANTLY fails saying the component store can't be repaired? And DISM /restorehealth instantly fails with 'Error: 193 - %1 is not a valid Win32 application' ...?

I tried an in-place repair upgrade using my Win10 stick, but that fails as well once it gets to like 99%?

Might be 3rd party software causing the In-Place upgrade to fail...

Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade



Here is the short version of the In-place upgrade tutorial...

DISABLE non-Microsoft:
a) antivirus software
b) firewall software
c) drive encryption software

Make a full OS backup with a program like Macrium Reflect (free)
Macrium Software | Macrium Reflect Free

Go here and get the Media Creation Tool and save it to your desktop.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...load/windows10

RUN the Media Creation Tool and use it to: Create an ISO image... save IT to your desktop.
This will be the latest version of the ISO image.
The ISO must be created in the same language as you are using in Windows, to be able to keep your Programs and Files.



Right click the ISO image and choose: MOUNT
Open File Explorer and you will see a new drive letter. It will "look" like a DVD optical drive.
Double click the new drive letter to open it.
Find setup.exe and double click it to start the in-place upgrade.

Choose the Keep personal files and apps option.

After it's all done... to UNmount the ISO image, right click the new drive letter and choose: EJECT.


The ONLY thing you will lose is some of your personalizations. Your programs and data will be intact.

@Ghot I ended up having to back everything up and wipe and reinstall....everything I tried unfortunately failed to repair the original Windows install...

Thanks for the help though!

Darkstrike said:

@Ghot I ended up having to back everything up and wipe and reinstall....everything I tried unfortunately failed to repair the original Windows install...

Thanks for the help though!

Well, either way, you solved the problem.
Treat yourself to a night out.


/edit

You should probably make a fresh new backup of your clean install for any future problems you may have.