Can Not Boot without USB of Win 10 Attached


  1. Posts : 3
    Windows 10
       #1

    Can Not Boot without USB of Win 10 Attached


    The electric company came by and swapped out our meter and shut off the power without telling us. I have a Win 10 desktop PC and after the power cut it won't start up at all. I fire it up and it gets to the point where it should access the C drive to load windows and I get a black screen and blinking cursor.

    I attached my bootable Win 10 installer USB stick and only when it's attached will the computer start and access all of my drives and act exactly like my regular operating system. When I remove the USB the OS crashes so clearly the USB is acting as the OS which is why the system is so slow.

    Anyone have ideas on what I can do? I tried to do the bcdboot C:\Windows to rebuild the boot structure but that didn't work.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 18,424
    Windows 11 Pro
       #2

    This is what I would do. Download an ISO of Kyhi's recovery drive. Mount the ISO file. Follow my quote in the middle of the op here:
    Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Forums

    You can rename the original boot.wim file to boot.bak before copying Kyhi's recovery drive boot.wim to the USB flash drive.

    Reboot the computer from the USB flash drive - you might have to actually set the computer to boot from the USB flash drive even though you may think it seems like it is. You should boot into Kyhi's recovery drive. Then run Macrium Reflect. Under the restore menu is a utility to fix Windows boot problems. Run that utility.
    Last edited by NavyLCDR; 24 Jul 2016 at 22:50.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 2,799
    Linux Mint 20.1 Win10Prox64
       #3

    Before you try the above (post #2). Try this first to see if it works.
    Open Admin Command and type: bcdboot c:\windows
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 18,424
    Windows 11 Pro
       #4

    topgundcp said:
    Before you try the above (post #2). Try this first to see if it works.
    Open Admin Command and type: bcdboot c:\windows
    Do you mean try it AGAIN?

    brarob said:
    Anyone have ideas on what I can do? I tried to do the bcdboot C:\Windows to rebuild the boot structure but that didn't work.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 2
    Windows 10
       #5

    SOLVED (Need USB to boot Windows)


    SOLVED!! And easy too! I scoured the net and here is the very simple solution:
    1. Boot with your USB flash drive
    2. Download NeoSmart EasyBCD (it's free for non commercial) EasyBCD - NeoSmart Technologies
    3. Run it and select "Recreate/Repair Boot files" and PERFORM ACTION
    4. Select Change Boot Drive and select you C: (if that's the one you want) and PERFORM ACTION
    5. Do a clean shut down
    6. Remove your flash drive
    7. Make any necessary BIOS change to make sure you're booting from the HD
    8. Boot!
    Did this work for you? Give me a thumbs up on the post!
    Last edited by Veliko; 13 Nov 2016 at 19:00. Reason: spelling error
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 7,128
    Windows 10 Pro Insider
       #6

    Veliko said:
    SOLVED!! And easy too! I scoured the net and here is the very simple solution:
    1. Boot with your USB flash drive
    2. Download NeoSmart EasyBCD (it's free for non commercial) EasyBCD - NeoSmart Technologies
    3. Run it and select "Recreate/Repair Boot files" and PERFORM ACTION
    4. Select Change Boot Drive and select you C: (if that's the one you want) and PERFORM ACTION
    5. Do a clean shut down
    6. Remove your flash drive
    7. Make any necessary BIOS change to make sure you're booting from the HD
    8. Boot!
    Did this work for you? Give me a thumbs up on the post!
    I've been using EasyBCD for years. Great program. One thing I found out by using it. On a dual boot system if you make changes and don't click on save the changes are made and you don't lose the Windows 10 graphical start menu. If you make changes in EasyBCD and hit save it converts back to the Windows 7 text login Window.
      My Computers


  7. Posts : 2
    Windows 10
       #7

    About that Windows 7 thing... That may have been a glitch in earlier versions. The current version [albeit, it's from October 2015], on the NeoSmart site in the link above, supports Windows 10 as well as support for UEFI. Just wondering if you're running the latest ver 2.3
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 7,128
    Windows 10 Pro Insider
       #8

    Veliko said:
    About that Windows 7 thing... That may have been a glitch in earlier versions. The current version [albeit, it's from October 2015], on the NeoSmart site in the link above, supports Windows 10 as well as support for UEFI. Just wondering if you're running the latest ver 2.3
    Yes I am. I normally check for updates before I use it. I discovered this by accident. One day I was playing around and making a lot of changes on my PC. The first change I made in EasyBCD I didn't hit the save option and when I restarted all my changes were made and I still had the Win 10 graphical boot menu. The next time I clicked save after making some changes and when I restarted I was back at the old windows 7 start menu. It's easy to get the graphical boot menu back. Just run "bcdboot c:\windows" without the quotes in a elevated command prompt.
      My Computers


 

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