Power loss while doing a macrium restore. Bricked?

zbook · 21 Jul 2019

BCDedit commands failed displaying: The BCD store could not be opened.

bootrec /rebuildbcd displayed 1 identified installation.
And rebuildbcd displayed: The requested system device cannot be found.

On the displayed images lis dis displayed GPT.
Lis par displayed a MSR on partition 1 with a size of 16 MB also consistent with GPT.

A GPT drive must have a FAT32 partition to boot from and it is typically 100 MB.
This partition was not seen on disk 0.

Maybe @NavyLCDR is available to comment on the drive failure and possible fixes.

These are commands to create a new EFI partition.

Diskpart

Lis Dis

Sel Dis 0

Lis Par

Sel Par 2

Shrink desired=100

Create Partition EFI

FORMAT FS=FAT32 LABEL="ESP"

Assign Letter=W

Exit

bcdboot C:\Windows /s W: /f ALL

BobSter2 · 22 Jul 2019

I followed zbook's diskpart commands

following this, macrium PE could see the first partition
OLYMPUS-DIGITAL-CAMERA — imgbb.com

..but still bombed-out when trying to run a restore operation

so I thought I'd do a chkdsk
OLYMPUS-DIGITAL-CAMERA — imgbb.com

then a chkdsk/f
OLYMPUS-DIGITAL-CAMERA — imgbb.com

...now Macrium PE sees the partition as greyed-out again!!
OLYMPUS-DIGITAL-CAMERA — imgbb.com

diskpart cant see the partition either
OLYMPUS-DIGITAL-CAMERA — imgbb.com

I'm guessing that I should re-run:

FORMAT FS=FAT32 LABEL="ESP"
Assign Letter=W
Exit
bcdboot C:\Windows /s W: /f ALL

But I won't do it until instructed, as I've messed with enough things I don't understand!

zbook · 22 Jul 2019

Run windows RE > command prompt : chkdsk C: /r /v
Reboot
It should display ETA.

Which disk was added?

BobSter2 · 22 Jul 2019

dialog
OLYMPUS-DIGITAL-CAMERA — imgbb.com

diskpart result
OLYMPUS-DIGITAL-CAMERA — imgbb.com
(seems to have just relabelled the partitions, omitting the first (greyed) one)(?)

macrium PE still sees a greyed-out first partition, similar to
OLYMPUS-DIGITAL-CAMERA — imgbb.com

The extra disk was a microSD card that I have my Macrium Reflect restore point on. Have removed it now.

storageman · 22 Jul 2019

This is a complex problem. You stated that the battery ran out when you were trying to do the restore was the battery fully charged when you started ? If it wasn't then is the battery capable of holding a FULL CHARGE ? Without out a pointing device/mouse, there is no way you can restore a Macrium image backup. Only having that one USB port and needing to maintain a charge via that port, really limits this effort. Does the Macrium PE recognize the mouse when you plug it in to the USB port ?

BobSter2 · 23 Jul 2019

Hi

Thanks for the response.

I'm not so concerned about the port/power logistics. I can put the restore point on a microSD card and slot that into the machine, use the external mouse to initiate the PE restore session and (per Bree's suggestion) then unplug the mouse and plug-in the power while the restore operation is running. I could have done this last time but didn't think it was necessary (as I have done numerous restores in the past on battery power).

The battery can hold a full charge: WMIC Path Win32_Battery / Get EstimatedChargeRemaining typically shows 98 or 97 when it is charged.
Right now, I can launch Macrium PE from the Win RE command line and kick-off a restore session using the external mouse, then swap-in the power lead. The main issue at the moment is that the Macrium Restore session bombs-out, presumably due to some disk/format issue in that first partition..
OLYMPUS-DIGITAL-CAMERA — imgbb.com

- - - Updated - - -

Note @zbook's post Number 11 for a briefing on the disk status.

To answer your specific questions, the battery was pretty full when I started, but probably not at 100%. Yes, PE recognises the external mouse. I usually put the mouse, a keyboard and the external spinny-HDD (powered) with the restore-image on it though a passive USB hub whenever I do a restore, which has worked fine in the past. I think I was using a different hub this time, maybe it runs slower so extended the length of the restore operation). Whatever. Now with the knowledge that I need to put the restore point on a SD card in the machine, that problem can be avoided.

The battery can hold a full charge: WMIC Path Win32_Battery / Get EstimatedChargeRemaining typically shows 98 or 97 when I've left it charging.

storageman · 23 Jul 2019

OK I believe I understand why the restore effort failed the first time.

According to Macrium in that picture you linked to, the remaining parttions need to be deleted on the target disk. I believe after you select what you want restore, Macrium will ask you if you want to delete all of the other partitions on the target drive, answer yes and then proceed with the restore.

BobSter2 · 25 Jul 2019

hi

tl,dr
new development:
I can no longer see the c: drive from the command prompt, so I can no longer run macrium recovery PE.
I can boot into WinRE from my Macrium Recovery boot disk or from my Windows boot disk.
So I guess that my only remaining option is a full "Reset This PC" or full fresh install of the OS. Is that correct? Would that fix/avoid any physical issues with disk/partitioning?

---

Long version:
It appears that for the "Delete Existing Partition" dialog, you are supposed to select (in the "Destination" line) the partition(s) you want deleted, then it greys them out, then you press the Next/Finish buttons to start the restore operation.

(by the way, at this stage I am trying to concurrently restore all four partitions from the "Source" line)

OLYMPUS-DIGITAL-CAMERA — imgbb.com
1) selecting the first (greyed out) partition in the "Destination" line then clicking on "Delete Existing Partition", doesn't seem to have any effect (the greyed-out partition doesn't seem to be selected). Clicking 'Next', 'Finish' to start the recovery operation gives the usual result (=the 'recovery in progress' box displays in the UI, but fails at 0% completed (after 20 seconds - this is not a battery issue); then the UI closes and I am taken back to the command prompt window in WinRE). Restarting the computer without a recovery disk plugged-in returns 'no luck, can't boot' (Your PC needs to be repaired. Error 0xc0000225)

2) using diskpart FORMAT FS=FAT32 LABEL="ESP" makes that first partition visible/blue in macrium PE
OLYMPUS-DIGITAL-CAMERA — imgbb.com
Now it is possible to select it and click on "Delete Existing Partition". Doing so instantly turns it greyed-out. Clicking on Next/Finish to run the restore operation results in the usual: Macrium PE bombs out at 0%. Nothing gets fixed.

3) using diskpart FORMAT FS=FAT32 LABEL="ESP" makes that first partition visible/blue again in macrium PE.
Selecting ALL FOUR of the partitions in the the "Destination" line and clicking on the "Delete Existing Partition" button turns them into a single greyed-out band:
OLYMPUS-DIGITAL-CAMERA — imgbb.com
Clicking on Next/Finish to run the restore operation results in the usual: Macrium PE bombs out at 0%. Nothing gets fixed.
Afterwards, we are back to the standard state, with the first partition greyed-out:
OLYMPUS-DIGITAL-CAMERA — imgbb.com

4a) I turned it blue again with FORMAT FS=FAT32 LABEL="ESP"
At this point I had the genius brainwave of trying to restore individual partitions one at a time, rather all at the same time (which you have been saying all along, but I missed, sorry).
Doing a Macrium Restore PE restore on just the first partition completed to 100%. Yay!
But unfortunately it did not fix the main problem (booting the machine without an emergency disk plugged in still resulted in "Your PC needs to be repaired. Error 0xc0000225"

4b) Doing a Macrium Restore PE restore on just the SECOND partition completed to 100%. but again did not fix the main problem (booting clean returns "Error 0xc0000225").

4c) Doing a Macrium Restore PE restore on just the FOURTH partition completed to 100%. but again did not fix the main problem (booting clean returns "Error 0xc0000225").

Here's the problem bit:
4d) Doing a Macrium Restore PE restore on just the THIRD partition (the C:\Windows one) completed to 3% then bombed out Macrium PE. Now, all of a sudden, the command line can't see C: any more
("the file or directory is corrupted and unreadable")

I had been running macrium recovery PE from C:\Program Files\Macrium\Recovery . Now, no more C:, no more Macrium.

I can boot the machine from my Macrium Emergency recovery disk, and see WinRE. But the command line can't see C: It can see X:, but there is no executable for running Macrium Recovery PE in X:

Rebooting the machine without any recovery drives plugged-in went through the standard Windows "Preparing Automatic Repair" routine. But it didn't repair anything noticeable.

Now, 'Startup Repair' thinks it has generated a srttrail.txt file at
D:\Recovery\WindowsRE\Winre.wim\System32\Logfiles\Srt\Srttrial.txt
but there is nothing in D:\Recovery\WindowsRE\

I can still run WinRE from a recovery disk, but apparently can't do anything useful with it.

---------

so that seems like the end-of-the-road to me. I Guess I have to do a full Reset/Reinstall and take my chances with the alien Drivers and the Windows Registration Codes? Yes? No? Any opinions welcome...

- - - Updated - - -

I'm all sorted now. Win "Recover from a Drive" did it. There was still some weird stuff* going on, but I got through the recovery, reloaded Macrium Recovery then restored back to an old Macrium restore point, no problem.
thanks all

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* The Win10 Media creation disk I made three days ago (which previously booted to two options "Install Now" and "Repair Your Computer",) no longer seemed to boot, instead letting the OS in the machine 'boot' (i.e. run "Preparing automatic repair", and then just going to a WinRE where (1) none of the reset/restore options worked (e.g. "There was a problem resetting this PC".); (2) "boot from a device" did nothing and the bios couldn't see the disk).

Plugging both the Macrium Recovery disk AND the Windows Media Creation disk in together saved the day. With this, it seemed to boot from the Macrium disk (it was the only one that the bios could see, anyways), then "Recover from a Drive (Just Remove My Files)" worked OK. It even had 30% of the battery left afterwards!