How do I create boot configurations on a drive without it.

It depends on the partition style. Is the disk mbr or gpt ?

If the disk is MBR, the easiest way is going to be to set the Windows partition as active and write the boot files to it. I can post an example this afternoon when I get home from my trip.

OK, @Tenbens, here we go. I have a hard drive installed in the computer that contains only the Windows OS. It is not bootable. First I boot the computer from a regular Windows 10 installation USB flash drive (I created mine with Microsoft's Media Creation Tool). At the first screen where it asks for Language, Time and Currency and Keyboard, I press Shift + F10 to open a command prompt. You may need to press Shift + Fn + F10. In the command prompt, I run:

Code:

diskpart
list volume

This shows me that the Windows partition on my hard drive is C: and my flash drive that I booted from is D:. Change the drive letters in the following commands to match what you have. Next I am going to make the Windows partition on the hard drive active and exit diskpart:

Code:

select volume c
active
exit

Next, I am going to run a command in the \boot\ folder of the USB flash drive that will make sure the Windows 10 bootloader is installed in the MBR of the hard drive and Windows partition on it. Don't forget to change drive letters to match yours.

Code:

d:\boot\bootsect /nt60 C: /force /mbr

Then I am going to run the command to write a BCD to the Windows partition to make it bootable:

Code:

bcdboot C:\Windows /s C: /f BIOS

Now, pull out the USB flash drive and run the final command to reboot the computer and if your BIOS is set correctly, it should boot from the hard drive:

Code:

C:\Windows\System32\shutdown /r /t 00

Again, if C: is not your Windows drive, change the drive letters above! Note, you have to type the whole command above for shutdown. Good luck!

NavyLCDR said:

OK, @Tenbens, here we go. I have a hard drive installed in the computer that contains only the Windows OS. It is not bootable. First I boot the computer from a regular Windows 10 installation USB flash drive (I created mine with Microsoft's Media Creation Tool). At the first screen where it asks for Language, Time and Currency and Keyboard, I press Shift + F10 to open a command prompt. You may need to press Shift + Fn + F10. In the command prompt, I run:

Code:

diskpart
list volume

This shows me that the Windows partition on my hard drive is C: and my flash drive that I booted from is D:. Change the drive letters in the following commands to match what you have. Next I am going to make the Windows partition on the hard drive active and exit diskpart:

Code:

select volume c
active
exit

Next, I am going to run a command in the \boot\ folder of the USB flash drive that will make sure the Windows 10 bootloader is installed in the MBR of the hard drive and Windows partition on it. Don't forget to change drive letters to match yours.

Code:

d:\boot\bootsect /nt60 C: /force /mbr

Then I am going to run the command to write a BCD to the Windows partition to make it bootable:

Code:

bcdboot C:\Windows /s C: /f BIOS

Now, pull out the USB flash drive and run the final command to reboot the computer and if your BIOS is set correctly, it should boot from the hard drive:

Code:

C:\Windows\System32\shutdown /r /t 00

Again, if C: is not your Windows drive, change the drive letters above! Note, you have to type the whole command above for shutdown. Good luck!

Thanks a lot, this worked. I had bitlockered it, and during the course of trying to figure it out, I had deleted Windows\Boot. I had to place the hdd back with the original drive to disable bitlocker because it wouldn't let me do it from the installation and repair USB command line because it detected boot information. But, I had also established bitlocker from that other drive's OS, and though it froze in the decryption process, it eventually finished anyway when after doing that I booted up the repair and installation USB.

Once the partition no longer registered to the system as a bitlockered partition, all I had to do then was xcopy everything in the Windows\Boot folder of the other system to the Windows\Boot of the system that I had finally gotten decrypted.

Then I noticed I had a tab opened still from another one of your posts that demonstrated how to shrink a bitlockered partition to create a boot partition, to which I remembered, "oh right, I wanted to try that before trying to decrypt."

I've never used bitlocker so have no experience of knowledge how to work with an encrypted drive.

NavyLCDR said:

I've never used bitlocker so have no experience of knowledge how to work with an encrypted drive.

Move the Boot Loader from HDD to M2 disk drive

NavyLCDR said:

Since BitLocker is encrypting C: drive, you will have to shrink C: drive by 100 meg to make room for a separate System Partition. I'm going to show you the easy way, but you will end up with a non-standard disk layout because the system partition will end up after C: drive and the standard is for the system partition to be in front of C: drive. Open a Command Prompt (Admin) [Run as Administrator Command Prompt] and run:

Code:

diskpart
select disk 2
select part 1
shrink desired=100
create part pri
format fs=NTFS
active
assign letter=z
exit
bcdboot C:\Windows /s Z: /f BIOS
exit

Then reboot your computer into BIOS setup and set the disk containing C: drive as the first boot priority.

The method to make a more standard drive layout is to use a program such as Minitool Partition Wizard free to shrink C: drive by 100 meg from the front of the partition - not the back of the partition. Then create a 100 meg primary partition, format it, mark it as active, give it a drive letter, then run the bcdboot command to make it bootable.

I might still try this, but I'm really just glad you gave me something that worked.