Diskpart not locating volume with windows installed on it

elusiveness · 07 Apr 2020

Hello,

I have a desktop that is currently stuck in a Repair loop, and goes to BSOD. One thing I found is when I try to rebuild BCD it says Total identified Windows installations: 0.

Currently it appears Windows is installed on the X:\ drive of this computer, but when I check diskpart and list volumes it doesn't show X:\ and none of the volumes displayed have a system partition in them.

If anyone has any suggestions I would really appreciate it!

NavyLCDR · 07 Apr 2020

Maybe post the output of diskpart so we can see?

Code:

Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.18362.1

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: JOHN-LAPTOP

DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online          476 GB  1024 KB        *
  Disk 1    Online          476 GB      0 B        *
  Disk 2    Online           29 GB      0 B

DISKPART> select disk 0

Disk 0 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            348 GB   117 MB
  Partition 4    Primary            127 GB   348 GB
  Partition 5    Recovery           493 MB   475 GB
  Partition 6    Recovery           603 MB   476 GB

DISKPART> select disk 1

Disk 1 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> list part

  Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset
  -------------  ----------------  -------  -------
  Partition 1    Reserved            16 MB  1024 KB
  Partition 2    Primary            468 GB    17 MB
  Partition 3    Primary              8 GB   468 GB

DISKPART> select disk 2

Disk 2 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> list part

  Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset
  -------------  ----------------  -------  -------
  Partition 1    Primary             29 GB  1024 KB

DISKPART> list vol

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 0     C   Win10        NTFS   Partition    348 GB  Healthy    Boot
  Volume 1     E   Home         NTFS   Partition    127 GB  Healthy
  Volume 2                      FAT32  Partition    100 MB  Healthy    System
  Volume 3     D   Data         NTFS   Partition    468 GB  Healthy
  Volume 4     R   RECOVERY     FAT32  Partition      8 GB  Healthy
  Volume 5     F   ESD-USB      FAT32  Partition     29 GB  Healthy

DISKPART>

Samuria · 07 Apr 2020

Welcome to the forum. what are you booting from to run cmd if its usb then it will be c and your c drive will have another letter. what sort of disk is it gpt mbr uefi as it may not be bcd but uefi thats the problem

Bree · 07 Apr 2020

elusiveness said:

Currently it appears Windows is installed on the X:\ drive of this computer, but when I check diskpart and list volumes it doesn't show X:\

Welcome to Ten Forums elusiveness

Yes, a version of Windows is running from the X: drive, but it is not what you think it is. When the PC boots to the Windows Recovery environment a windows image is loaded into memory from the WindowsRE\winre.wim file as a virtual RAM drive with the letter X:. This is where the Windows you are currently running was loaded from. Diskpart only shows you the physical disks and volumes so the X: drive will not be listed.

Normally on a working machine when you boot into WinRE you'd expect the volume with the installed Windows on it to be the C: drive, just as it would be if booted into your normal Windows.

Bree · 07 Apr 2020

NavyLCDR said:

Maybe post the output of diskpart so we can see?

@elusiveness appears to be booted into the WinRE environment (hence the X: drive). It will be a little difficult to capture the text of Diskpart to post it here, but not impossible.

Notepad is available in WinRE, so the text of the command prompt window could be copied, pasted into Notepad, then saved as a text file to a usb memory stick.

Click on the title bar of the command prompt to ensure it is the current window. Press Ctrl+A to select all, then press Enter to copy it to the clipboard. Type Notepad and press Enter to run it. Paste the text into Notepad then save to a USB stick (NOT to any of the drives in the system, we don't want to risk corrupting them).

elusiveness · 07 Apr 2020

Bree said:

Welcome to Ten Forums elusiveness

Yes, a version of Windows is running from the X: drive, but it is not what you think it is. When the PC boots to the Windows Recovery environment a windows image is loaded into memory from the WindowsRE\winre.wim file as a virtual RAM drive with the letter X:. This is where the Windows you are currently running was loaded from. Diskpart only shows you the physical disks and volumes so the X: drive will not be listed.

Normally on a working machine when you boot into WinRE you'd expect the volume with the installed Windows on it to be the C: drive, just as it would be if booted into your normal Windows.

That makes a lot of sense with it not finding any Windows installations...

Here's a copy of my diskpart. (Talking so much about it I probably should have thought to post it.... Sorry)

Code:

X:\Windows\System32>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.18362.1

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: MININT-NEAD6TA

DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###   Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  -----------------------------------------------------------------
  Disk 0         Online      0 B       0 B       
  Disk 1         Online    1863 GB    0 B

  DISKPART> sel disk 1

  Disk 1 is now the selected disk.

  DISKPART> list part

  Partition ###   Type            Size       Offset
  -----------------------------------------------------------
  Partition 1       Primary     579 MB       1024 KB
  Partition 2       Primary    1862 GB        580 MB

  DISKPART> sel disk 0

  Disk 0 is now the selected disk.

  DISKPART> list part

  There are no partitions on this disk to show.

  DISKPART> list vol

  Volume ###    Ltr    Label          Fs     Type       Size     Status       Info
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Volume 0          E                       DVD-ROM        0 B    No Media
  Volume 1          C  System Rese    NTFS  Partition   579 MB    Healthy
  Volume 2          D                 NTFS  Partition  1862 GB    Healthy     Pagefile

  DISKPART>

Thank you all so much for your replies. I really appreciate the help

- - - Updated - - -

Bree said:

@elusiveness appears to be booted into the WinRE environment (hence the X: drive). It will be a little difficult to capture the text of Diskpart to post it here, but not impossible.

Notepad is available in WinRE, so the text of the command prompt window could be copied, pasted into Notepad, then saved as a text file to a usb memory stick.

Click on the title bar of the command prompt to ensure it is the current window. Press Ctrl+A to select all, then press Enter to copy it to the clipboard. Type Notepad and press Enter to run it. Paste the text into Notepad then save to a USB stick (NOT to any of the drives in the system, we don't want to risk corrupting them).

Thanks for the concern. I just ended typing it out manually, not too big a deal. :)

NavyLCDR · 07 Apr 2020

Looks like D is probably your Windows drive.

elusiveness · 08 Apr 2020

NavyLCDR said:

Looks like D is probably your Windows drive.

Ok thanks for the response! In that instance how can I go about fixing the BSOD issue going on? I get error code 0xc000021a and when I try to follow other steps online to rebuild BCD it says no windows installations found...

NavyLCDR · 08 Apr 2020

elusiveness said:

Ok thanks for the response! In that instance how can I go about fixing the BSOD issue going on? I get error code 0xc000021a and when I try to follow other steps online to rebuild BCD it says no windows installations found...

Well, judging from the diskpart information you posted, there is a concern with drive 0. You have two hard drives/SSDs installed? Drive 0 appears to be completely broken - 0GB capacity. Although, that might be the DVD-ROM? Except my DVD-ROM does not appear in Disk Part as a disk so I doubt that is it. It could be that your Windows partition is actually on Disk 0, which is broken, and the D drive partition is actually data. Did you have a second drive set up for data?

If disk 1, D drive is Windows, then judging from your setup the commands would be:

Code:

diskpart
select disk 1
select part 2
active
exit
bcdboot D:\Windows /s D: /f BIOS

zbook · 08 Apr 2020

Please run these commands and post results into the thread: (save using notepad or use a smartphone camera to take pictures and post images into the thread)

bcdedit / enum all
bcdedit | find "osdevice"
c:
dir
d:
dir
e:
dir

When these have completed > right click on the top bar or title bar of the administrative command prompt box > left click on edit then select all > right click on the top bar again > left click on edit then copy > paste into the thread