Lost installation of windows 10 after formatting the other drive

Hello everyone,

I have 2 seperated (physically) SSD drives in my laptop.
Previously I had windows 8.1 on one drive, and I installed windows 7 and upgraded it to windows 10 on the other SSD drive.

I enjoyed windows 10, so I formatted the drive with the windows 8.1, but now suddenly my laptop says he can't find system drive, and I can't load the windows 10, althogh it was installed with no connection to the windows 8.1 and on another drive.

Why did this happen? how can i fix it?

Thanks,

Beny

Anytime you install an OS with two or more connected drives Windows can end up installing part of the boot partition on the other drive even if you target a specific drive for installation. That seems to have happened on your 8.1 drive and when you formatted that drive you would have deleted that partition, Try a repair install. And this time only connect the single drive.

Also, if you have another computer you can load Macrium Reflect Free on it. Make a rescue CD/USB with it. Boot from that on the laptop and under the tools menu of Macrium Reflect Free you will find a utility to fix boot problems. It will find your Windows 10 and set up the boot files for it on the proper SSD.

Make sure you adjusted the boot drive in BIOS to point to the SSD containing Windows 10 first. If you don't, it could cause problems.

Also, if you have another computer you can load Macrium Reflect Free on it. Make a rescue CD/USB with it. Boot from that on the laptop and under the tools menu of Macrium Reflect Free you will find a utility to fix boot problems. It will find your Windows 10 and set up the boot files for it on the proper SSD.

Sorry, but unlike with previous Windows versions, the MR Boot media Windows Repair does not necessarily work on Win10 -- I know, because I tried it. Turns out that Win10 does some hidden file compression in some of its versions. IF that is the case with yours, the MR tool will not work. I'm running Win10 Pro 64-bit, which I installed clean from a USB stick made using the Media Creation Tool, and my attempt to do a Windows Repair with it failed -- every time. I opened a ticket with Macrium, and they (1) gave me the explanation provided above, and (2) said they're now working on a WinPE10 version of the boot media builder that should work on all Win10 versions.

Mark Phelps said:

Sorry, but unlike with previous Windows versions, the MR Boot media Windows Repair does not necessarily work on Win10 -- I know, because I tried it. Turns out that Win10 does some hidden file compression in some of its versions. IF that is the case with yours, the MR tool will not work. I'm running Win10 Pro 64-bit, which I installed clean from a USB stick made using the Media Creation Tool, and my attempt to do a Windows Repair with it failed -- every time. I opened a ticket with Macrium, and they (1) gave me the explanation provided above, and (2) said they're now working on a WinPE10 version of the boot media builder that should work on all Win10 versions.

and I had just the opposite experience. Trying to set up dual booting by cloning a partition I lost ability to boot altogether. Attempted to startup using the Windows 10 installation USB and repairing and it said could not repair the boot/startup files. Put in the Macrium Reflect Rescue USB and it rebuilt my boot files in under 1 minute and set up dual booting for me.

NavyLCDR said:

and I had just the opposite experience.

Like I said, it does not work on SOME Win10 installs, while it does work on others. They are working on putting out a new WinPE version that will work on ALL Win10 installs.