Bootrec /fixboot → "Element not found"

Kyhi said:

Currently (Pictured) Disk 1 is the New SSD
Partition 1 = OEM System Partition
Partition 2 = Cloned OS Partition - (set to active - thus also System Partition)
Partition 3 = OEM PBR Recovery Image Partition...
Partition 4 = WinRE Tools Partition...

Now that you can see the New SSD you can setup the correct BCD on That Drive via command Prompt admin

diskpart
select disk 1
select partition 1
format quick fs=ntfs label="System"
assign letter="S"
set id=17
active
select partition 2
inactive
exit
bcdboot E:\Windows /s S: bios

Shut down
remove old Drive
reboot
Post results.......

If you are going to make Partition 1 as the system partition, basically from scratch, isn't the bootsect command needed to write BOOTMGR to the MBR?

Also, since it was the 12.5GB Recovery partition on Disk 2 that was the Active and System Partition, why not make the cloned 12.5GB Recovery partition the active partition? It should contain all the boot files that were in the original System partition.

Kyhi said:

diskpart
select disk 1
select partition 1
format quick fs=ntfs label="System"

I can't do a diskpart format. With both SSDs connected:

Code:

DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online         1863 GB      0 B
  Disk 1    Online          465 GB      0 B
  Disk 2    Online          223 GB      0 B
  Disk 3    Online           15 GB  3072 KB

DISKPART> select disk 1

Disk 1 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> list partition

  Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset
  -------------  ----------------  -------  -------
  Partition 1    OEM                 39 MB    31 KB
  Partition 2    Primary            452 GB    40 MB
  Partition 3    Primary             12 GB   452 GB
  Partition 4    Recovery           883 MB   464 GB

DISKPART> select partition 1

Partition 1 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> format quick fs=ntfs label="System"

There is no volume selected.
Please select a volume and try again.

DISKPART> list volume

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 0     R   ESD-ISO      UDF    DVD-ROM     4027 MB  Healthy
  Volume 1     D   Data         NTFS   Partition   1863 GB  Healthy
  Volume 2     E   OS           NTFS   Partition    452 GB  Healthy
  Volume 3         RECOVERY     NTFS   Partition     12 GB  Healthy
  Volume 4         RECOVERY     NTFS   Partition     12 GB  Healthy    System
  Volume 5     C   OS           NTFS   Partition    210 GB  Healthy    Boot
  Volume 6     F   WIFI SD      FAT32  Removable     15 GB  Healthy

DISKPART>

kyhi said:

personally i would copy any oem dell windows 7 recovery files to d:\ data drive

and clean the new ssd drive - set up 2 partitions and apply a single partition backup..

agreed!

OK, so I've established that my Dell recovery partition is toast and nobody knows what the 39 MB partition is. I guess don't need any Dell recovery anyway since:

• I make daily image backups
• I have a Macrium Reflect rescue CD handy
• Any Dell recovery files would be Windows 7 drivers anyway

As a reminder, my system uses BIOS and MBR; here are the partitions on my old (current) 240 GB SSD:


So should I reformat the new (500 GB) SSD and clone just the OS C: partition (expanding it, obv.)? What diskpart commands should I issue to make that new SSD bootable? Thanks again for your help.

topgundcp said:

fixboot/bootrec that might screw up the master boot record

How did or does this happen?