Boot failure after chkdsk /r No bootable image found

Years ago the windows operating system had crashed and I had moved the internal windows HD to the bays of other computers to see if the files could be backed up. Those computers are available now but I did not try that step yet. In a non identical computer the drive I remember was read as RAW as you commented the RAID was broken. There is Intel RST software to turn off the RAID before moving the drive but with a non-bootable computer this was not able to be used.

Last night I had contacted HP tech support and reported to them that I had ran the onboard BIOS UEFI diagnostics and that the HD passed SMART, short and long DST. The problems with default onboard UEFI diagnostics is that it never indicated which drive was tested. The Windows drive is 750 GB and the storage drive 1 TB so I was unable to determine which drive was tested. So HP suggested that the RAID be broken with removal of the internal 32 GB flash drive and removal of the 1 TB HD. Then the BIOS UEFI HD tests were run again and the tests passed. So the hardware is OK. The operating system is problematic.

There are important files on the drive.
Many months ago I had copied and pasted the USERS folder to the 1 TB drive.
A Macrium backup was made many months ago too.
There was a double backup (files and image) but these were many months ago.
So it is unclear whether the regular Macrium automatic backups have saved the files.
A Macrium restoration I have never had to perform on the computers and this is the first time where it appears to be needed.
If the files from the past 4 to 6 months can be saved then HP wants me to run disk sanitizer on the HD before reinstalling Windows to make sure that there is no residual problems on the drive file system.

Currently these are the tools that I have in front of me now: Windows 10 iso on a 32 GB flash drive, a brand new 4 TB USB3 drive and several computers with empty secondary bays.
The Macrium backup has never been tested and it is unclear the status of the files on the storage drive.
Essentially I downloaded the software, made a backup image and allowed it to run in the default settings.
If the storage drive is moved to another computer how could you check the status of the Macrium backup image? Is there a way to find the date of the latest image update and is there a way to test the ability to restore before the drive is erased?

If you have macrium installed on another computer and/or a macrium repair flash drive, you could preview the images to see if they are valid. But if you took the time to verify before finalizing the images, then the images should be good. Given the time lag though, most likely quite a bit of data is lost from then till now.

As an aside regarding RAID: I used to stripe my disks using software raid running on Windows NT4 Workstation. IIRC, there was an option to create a recovery disk to rebuild the raid should it be broken. I used to break the raid so many times and restored it using this disk successfully each time. Windows wasn't installed in any of the raid partitions since it was used to create the raid in the first place, so it was easy to rebuild with it. Does/did your motherboard offer something similar whereby you could restore a broken raid in like fashion?

The computer has 2 bays for internal drives and there is a separate connection for the 32 GB flash drive or flash cache.
The RAID only was broken once when I had troubleshooted a boot loop. The windows drive was removed from the problematic computer and was placed in the second bay of a computer with a different configuration and another with an identical configuration. The drive files were not able to be saved as one had read it as RAW and the other I don't remember but it may have been a conflict with two bootable drives in the same computer.

There was Intel RST software that I had explored that allows the end user to turn off the RAID and then be able to remove the drive. The drive could be removed and then returned and the RAID restarted. This software I rarely used except to see how it functioned.

The 1 TB storage drive has a copy of the Users folder that is 4 - 6 months old. The Macrium backup image was made 4 - 6 months ago but was on the default update settings. There was never a need until now to restore an image.

If the image is up to date the drive can be sanitized or secure erased and a new OS can be installed with a windows 10 iso.
If the image is not up to date then the files need to be recovered.

So before the drive is sanitized or secure erased I am wondering how to check the Macrium image to reduce any pitfalls in the process.

The storage drive can be moved to the second bay of a working computer.
The other computers do not currently have Macrium.
If it can be installed on the Windows drive how would you check to see if the storage drive is or is not up to date?

Can you copy the macrium images to a flash drive? Once that's done, install macrium on another computer, no need to create an new iso and all that jazz, open it and plug in the flash drive. There's an option in the restore tab to preview and explore images and even to access protected areas of the OS that's backed up.

The Macrium backup image was made from a 750 GB HD and place onto a 1 TB HD. It's a guess that the image is 300 - 400 GB. The software I've not used except to make a backup image so I can read the Ten Forum tutorial on the restoration. Before the restoration how can you tell the status of the backup image on the storage drive?

zbook said:

TBefore the restoration how can you tell the status of the backup image on the storage drive?

I was poking around in Macrium and there is an option to verify the image during the backup. I didn't see one for verifying after the fact as you are requesting now. You can browse and explore the images directly to see if any files can be recovered from them.