Laptop won't boot with fresh installation of Windows 10

Jojonut · 08 Apr 2021

have an Acer Aspire E5-575-33BM and I can't get it to boot correctly from a new SSD with a fresh installation of Windows 10 for the life of me. The laptop originally came with a 1TB HDD which I still have and still works but naturally, I wanted a more responsive experience and got a 250GB SSD (PNY).

I know that cloning is iffy, especially when going from a larger storage device to a smaller one but I've made it work before so why not. No dice, I get a blue screen with various errors.

I think okay, cloning is weird anyway, and move on to plan b which is freshly installing Windows 10 onto the SSD through the laptop. I have my media creation tool set up on a USB drive and have my SSD in and start the process. It's going fine and then the computer prompts a restart so that the computer can boot up to freshly installed windows on the SSD and continue the setup. However, once the laptop restarts and attempts to boot to the SSD, I get a blue screen with the error number 0x0000185.

Sometimes it says:
Your PC/Device needs to be repaired.
The operating system couldn't be loaded because the system registry file is missing or contains errors.
File: \\Windows\system32\config\system
Error code: 0xc0000185

and other times it says something is wrong with the BCD

I'm unsure of what the problem is, I know the SSD works as I tried to install windows on it through my desktop and it worked perfectly fine, booting up into windows and everything. Does anyone have any solution?

Also, it seems this guy had the exact same problem as me but there was never a solution posted: Clean Install Troubles; Error code: 0x0000185

Tekkie Boy · 09 Apr 2021

Hello

I think there will be an incompatibility between the SSD and the laptop bios.

It sounds implausible, but unfortunately there are these problems.

The first phase of the Windows installation is running, but cannot be booted from the hard disk in the second phase because the BCDs are not created on the EFI partition.

Incidentally, the OP in this german community tried everything and did not get the problem solved.

Your error code 0xc0000185 means: STATUS_IO_DEVICE_ERROR - The I/O device reported an I/O error.

And if the hard drive, as you wrote, works in another computer and Windows could be installed there without any problems, I claim that the SSD is ok.

Friendly greetings
Sorry for any mistakes. English is not my native language.

Paul Black · 09 Apr 2021

Hello @Jojonut,

[1] Have you checked that the cables are securely inserted?
[2] Just for information . . .

Disconnect ALL Other Disks

It is highly recommended that you disconnect [ temporarily unplug ] ALL other Disks [ HDD's/SSD's/US's ] BEFORE installing Windows. The reasons for this are . . .

You CAN'T accidentally OVERWRITE a connected Disk.
The BOOTLOADER [ boot configuration files ] will get installed on the correct Disk [ because Windows has the tendency to install the bootloader rather randomly on ANY connected Disk ], and therefore STOP problems with booting once the installation is complete.

Once the installation is complete . . .

Check that the OS boots correctly.
Check if the boot order in the BIOS/UEFI settings are correct [ if NOT, adjust accordingly ].
Reconnectthe other Disks.

EXPLANATION:

Windows uses a different partition structure for BIOS/UEFI. During the installation process, Windows asks which Disk / Partition you want to use for the Windows C:\ drive, it does NOT however, necessarily use the same Disk for the other Partitions, and can therefore incorrectly create the hidden recovery partition on ANY attached Disk.

Additionally, for BIOS, if another Disk is left attached, and at a latter stage you remove that Disk, you will find that the OS will NOT boot. If you check the BIOS, you will see that the OS has assigned the AHCI/RAID setting instead of the LEGACY setting and set it up as RAID, therefore breaking the boot process.

I hope this helps.

zbook · 09 Apr 2021

Please post images.
After the attempted clone what steps were made?
Indicate whether all partitions were deleted making an unallocated drive.

NavyLCDR · 09 Apr 2021

When you installed it on the desktop, did you use the same USB flash drive that you were using on the laptop?

itsme1 · 09 Apr 2021

If it is the ssd which is not compatible with your acer, search in the acer forum and throughout the web for m.2 compatible ssd, people who have installed the ssd and windows 10 on it. There is no Qualified Vendor List for laptops for ssd and dram.

Jojonut · 29 Apr 2021

NavyLCDR said:

When you installed it on the desktop, did you use the same USB flash drive that you were using on the laptop?

Yes, I did.

- - - Updated - - -

Tekkie Boy said:

Hello

I think there will be an incompatibility between the SSD and the laptop bios.

It sounds implausible, but unfortunately there are these problems.

This would be a similar case:
Web Translator

The first phase of the Windows installation is running, but cannot be booted from the hard disk in the second phase because the BCDs are not created on the EFI partition.

Incidentally, the OP in this german community tried everything and did not get the problem solved.

Your error code 0xc0000185 means: STATUS_IO_DEVICE_ERROR - The I/O device reported an I/O error.

And if the hard drive, as you wrote, works in another computer and Windows could be installed there without any problems, I claim that the SSD is ok.

Friendly greetings
Sorry for any mistakes. English is not my native language.

So if this were the case then is the ssd is useless to this acer laptop?

- - - Updated - - -

zbook said:

Please post images.
After the attempted clone what steps were made?
Indicate whether all partitions were deleted making an unallocated drive.

I'm not sure what images you'd like, if it's whether or not the ssd is securely connected I can assure you that it is. After the attempted clone I put the ssd into the acer laptop and booted it up, after I got an error (which was I believe the same as the one above), I entered the bios and turned secure boot off, no change, I then turned on legacy mode, no change. I tried recloning, no dice.

Tekkie Boy · 29 Apr 2021

Jojonut said:

So if this were the case then is the ssd is useless to this acer laptop?

Yes i suppose.

Take a look, as suggested by @itsme1, for drives that have been listed as compatible or reported by other users.

Friendly greetings

Megahertz · 29 Apr 2021

Is the original HDD a Legacy-MBR or UEFI-GPT?
How did you install on the SSD Legacy-MBR or UEFI-GPT?
Did you deleted all partitions till you had one and only one unallocated space and then proceeded?
Is Secure boot disabled on BIOS?

Boot from the original HDD and post a Disk manager image of the disk
How to Post a Screenshot of Disk Management

If the original HDD is UEFI-GPT and you installed as Legacy- MBR (or vice versa) it can explain the issue.

MisterEd · 29 Apr 2021

According to the specs I read the laptop has two 2.5-inch SATA connectors. One is for the hard drive while the second is for the DVD drive. There are no M.2 connectors. Is this correct?

I assume the new SSD was a 2.5-inch SATA one and you had it in an external enclosure when you cloned the hard drive.

The software I use can clone from a larger drive to a smaller one. The important thing to remember is that the spaced used on the larger drive must be less than the size of the smaller one.

Drive 1 size=1TB, used =512GB
Drive 2 size=1TB, used =100GB
Drive 3 size=256GB

In this example Drive 1 couldn't be cloned to Drive 3 because it would not fit.
However, Drive 2 could be cloned to Drive 3 because it would fit.

When you did a clean install of Windows 10 on the SSD I assume it was installed in the computer and the hard drive was removed. Since you had a failed clone you should have done a custom installation and chose to delete all existing partitions on the SSD before installing Windows 10 on it.