Windows 10 won't boot. Possible damage to bootloader. Help please

Windows 10 is on a Samsung 970 EVO Plus 250GB M.2. SSD
A second drive, used mainly for storage, is a 500GB regular sata spinner.

My plan was to create a multiboot system, so I mounted a second, empty, Samsung 970 EVO Plus 250GB M.2. SSD, with the intention of installing a second W10 system there.

Rebooted from a USB flash drive, correctly identified all three drives, then installed W10 on the second Samsung.
Everything seemed to be quite normal, nothing I haven't done many times before. But when I rebooted, nothing would load. The screen flickered and it seemed to trying to boot but wouldn't finish.

Booted to the (Asus) UEFI BIOS but couldn't see the original W10 Samsung M.2. However, when I removed the original drive and loaded it into another computer, everything on the drive seems to be intact.

I'm assuming its boot loader is damaged. How to repair this?

Assuming you have three drives installed. Boot from the Windows 10/11 USB flash drive. At the first install screen press Shift + F10 to get a command prompt. We need to see the results of:

Code:

diskpart
list disk
select disk 0
list part
select disk 1
list part
select disk 2
list part

I have only a two disk system, here is mine:

Code:

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.22631.2792]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\System32>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.22621.1

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: RAIDER

DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online          953 GB      0 B        *
  Disk 1    Online          465 GB  1024 KB        *

DISKPART> select disk 0

Disk 0 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> list part

  Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset
  -------------  ----------------  -------  -------
  Partition 1    Primary            945 GB  1024 KB
  Partition 2    Primary           8191 MB   945 GB

DISKPART> select disk 1

Disk 1 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> list part

  Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset
  -------------  ----------------  -------  -------
  Partition 1    System             100 MB  1024 KB
  Partition 2    Reserved            16 MB   101 MB
  Partition 3    Primary            401 GB   117 MB
  Partition 4    Primary             63 GB   401 GB
  Partition 5    Recovery           702 MB   465 GB

DISKPART>

Ooops - also going to need:

Code:

list vol

--------

Code:

DISKPART> list vol

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 0     D   Data         NTFS   Partition    945 GB  Healthy
  Volume 1     E   RECOVERY     FAT32  Partition   8191 MB  Healthy
  Volume 2     C                NTFS   Partition    401 GB  Healthy    Boot
  Volume 3     F                NTFS   Partition     63 GB  Healthy
  Volume 4                      FAT32  Partition    100 MB  Healthy    System
  Volume 5                      NTFS   Partition    702 MB  Healthy    Hidden

DISKPART>

Thanks. I'm just using another computer to clone the drive to a spare SSD. Once it's back in place I'll try your suggestion.
BTW, did you mean boot from W10 installer flash drive and click the repair function?

This link may be useful:

[Motherboard] Troubleshooting - Cannot find the hard disk drive or SSD(M.2) after motherboard powers on | Official Support | ASUS Global

teckneeculler said:

Thanks. I'm just using another computer to clone the drive to a spare SSD. Once it's back in place I'll try your suggestion.
BTW, did you mean boot from W10 installer flash drive and click the repair function?

No, I meant exactly what I posted, "Boot from the Windows 10/11 USB flash drive. At the first install screen press Shift + F10 to get a command prompt."

I'm having trouble outputting the DISKPART data to a text file I can post here. Any tips?

To copy click:
ctrl +a
ctrl +c

To paste click:
ctrl +v


Open administrative command prompt and copy and paste (all at one time):

Code:

bcdedit
reagentc /info
diskpart
lis dis
lis vol
sel dis 0
det dis
lis par
sel par 1
det par
sel par 2
det par
sel par 3
det par
sel par 4
det par
sel par 5
det par
sel par 6
det par
sel dis 1
det dis
lis par
sel par 1
det par
sel par 2
det par
sel par 3
det par
sel par 4
det par
sel par 5
det par
sel par 6
det par

use mark to copy to clipboard

rt click in cmd window and select mark. drag cursor over area to copy then rt cick again.

then can paste into notepad

You can also take photos of the screen with a cell phone or camera and upload the photos to here.