New
#20
What is the model number of your motherboard?
Boot from USB Drive on Windows 10 PC
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New #21
Leave it man, thanks for helping me though but I’ll just call someone from support to figure it out :)
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New #23
Cannot boot from USB drive--changing BIOS boot order causes HDD errors
To make a long story short, I am trying to migrate from an HDD to an SSD. I've done this before and it went well. This time it has been a virtual nightmare. The source drive is a Samsung/Seagate Momentus 750Gb HDD. The target is a Samsung EVO 860 1TB VNAND SSD. However, I ran into problems trying to clone the drive. I used 3 different programs, including Samsung Data Migration Tool and they all failed to complete.
So it seems I have some quirky issue with the hard drive, some stealth bad sector somewhere that doesn't trip up running Windows 10... but will throw off a full copy (cloning) so badly, it can cause Windows to abruptly reboot.
Fast forward, I've prepared a USB drive to boot from that will allow me to run DOS level repair tools in hopes of getting rid of this nightmare so I can complete my data migration. I ran CHKDSK /F and CHKDSK /R, and supposedly something was fixed... but this did not solve the problem.
I wish I'd read this tutorial first... and gone the route of invoking Advanced Options within Windows. But I'm old school and my "instinct" is to go for the BIOS boot menu for this.
Well, I tried changing the boot order so that the USB drive would be selected before the HDD, but had trouble getting it to work. I finally tried putting the USB/CD boot option before the UEFI boot entry. And that's when I was tossed down into the long dark pit of fail. Because when I tried this, Windows took a very long time to boot and in the end gave me the Blue Screen of fail, and a stop code. When I rebooted back into BIOS, I changed the boot order back to the way it was. And then when I tried to boot again, Windows informed me that there were disk errors and then presented the repair screen. I tried the basic startup repair, and that didn't work, so I fell back to doing a save point restore. That worked.
OK, presuming everything is now copacetic, I try again. The system would not boot off the USB drive. I tried changing the sort order once more... and then headed into an even more troubling zone of screw-up. I tried to boot up again, and it failed. I changed the sort order back, and after a full 30 minutes, I get the blue screen of fail, telling me I have a BAD CONFIG. I reboot, change the order back, and now Windows tells me the disk needs repair again. I let it go about it... for nearly an hour... only to be told that it has failed. I tried once more, then thankfully got to the Advanced Options and selected to do a system restore. However, I wasn't presented ONE restore point. I see a whole bunch of different partitions listed (about 6 of them). Still, I go with "C"... but when it's about half-way through, THAT FAILS.
WTH... how can the O/S be so damned fragile and sensitive where you change the boot order and screws up the boot sector or MBR? I just don't get it. But most of all, just don't understand why I can't seem to boot USB from the hard boot. I'm in the frustrating dark corner of being an experienced Windows user who is usually very good at figuring things out like this, and beside myself on why at this stage of the game, Microsoft self-lauded Windows 10 can be so damned easy to badly screw up on something that should be so solid. Linux/Ubuntu have NO ISSUES with doing this sort of thing.Anyway... I'm now on the path to try recovering my system. Hopefully once I have Windows working properly again, I'll be able to try the USB boot selection from within Windows. Meanwhile, I'm still stumped as to why it failed to work from a hard boot and why changing the boot order can damage the hard drive like this.
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New #24
Hello cytherian,
You don't want to change the boot priority order as it will no longer boot from your Windows drive by default as you found out. Changing it back to your OS drive should fix this part.
Just to verify, did you create the USB to be able to boot with UEFI?
Create Bootable USB Flash Drive to Install Windows 10 | Windows 10 Tutorials
In addition, double check your UEFI firmware settings to make sure you have the "USB at boot" type setting enabled. Usually it is by default.
Were you able to see the USB using any of the option in the tutorial on the first page?
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New #25
Hi Brink,
Thanks for helping me out!
In the old days, you'd have to change boot order if the USB drive was below HDD, as the HDD would be hit first and USB option would never appear. I'm guessing now that this requirement is no longer valid. I created the USB to boot for FreeDOS using Rufus. Not for booting into Windows 10. I don't recall if there was a "boot with UEFI" option, but if it was there and the default, then I'd have left it as-is.
I've now gotten to the point where I get the login screen and after entering PIN, I get the Welcome message and spinning dots progress indicator... only after about 5 minutes, it fails. Then it takes a long time before I'm given a stop code, which is "SYSTEM SERVICE EXCEPTION".
I'm really baffled I'm in this place... Was changing the boot order the equivalent of changing the gears of a manual transmission car without using the clutch? It just stuns me how changing boot order in UEFI settings can corrupt a hard drive like this. Next, when I get the login screen, I'd do the SHIFT + RESTART and hopefully get to a diagnostic screen where I can try another restore. EDIT: I was able to finally get that chance... was able to get the Advanced Options and select the system restore menu option. But upon loading, it presented me 2 ID's to choose from. One was my usual, but the other was my "backup profile", which showed a mangled name (not the original name I created). Weird. Anyway, this time when I went to select a previous restore point, it looked proper -- ONE entry for the C: Drive, not a mishmash of partitions that shouldn't be listed (e.g. WINRE, Restore). Anyway, this time it went as far as to show a "Finished" status, with a 100% green status bar, only to smack me in the face with "System Restore did not complete successfully." The drive might be corrupt. An unspecified error occurred during System Restore (0x80070017).
Then... get this... I reboot, I get the login screen, and I figure why not--I log in. Sure enough I get the desktop. A message indicating that the restore failed, but still--I have a working desktop once more. Bizarre how it "self corrected" somehow.Last edited by cytherian; 19 Jul 2018 at 15:14.
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New #26
By the way, I tested out the USB drive in my other laptop, and it wasn't recognized as a UEFI bootable device. So, I found another Seagate executable from 2018 that's supposed to create the bootable USB drive for diagnostic use. Currently running that.
It's clear to me now that I need to get myself more educated on UEFI, so I don't trip up like this again. But seriously... fragile! Cracks like an egg if you're not careful.
EDIT:
OK, I'm really stumped. I created this bootable USB drive using the Seagate Tool for Windows 10. I go to Recovery, Advanced Options, and select to boot from device. I then select the USB device that shows up. It tries to boot from it but then tells me "the selected boot device failed."
NOW I understand. I had CSM Legacy disabled. Although, it's pretty scary when you enable it because you're warned you may damage your operating system. How comforting... but what choice do you have when you want to boot legacy?Last edited by cytherian; 19 Jul 2018 at 17:25.
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New #27
Thanks for the tutorial, @Brink. I have created a bootable USB flash drive using the Media Creation Tool. Is there anyway that I can test this without having to go through the installation process? I want to ensure I can boot from it, but don't want to start any process that could give me problems in the future.
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New #28
Sure, you can just boot from it as normal.
Boot from USB Drive on Windows 10 PC | Tutorials
When you see the screen below, you can close it to cancel Windows Setup and restart back to the currently installed Windows.
Clean Install Windows 10 | Tutorials
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New #29
Thanks, I just tested and it's working perfectly. Hopefully I will never need to use it :)Sure, you can just boot from it as normal.
Boot from USB Drive on Windows 10 PC | Tutorials
When you see the screen below, you can close it to cancel Windows Setup and restart back to the currently installed Windows.
Clean Install Windows 10 | Tutorials
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