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Cant boot/install Win7 to SSD after BIOS update - Need Advice!
Hello All,
Several days ago I installed several updates that were identified by the MSI Live update for my machine. One of these updates for the BIOS which I stupidly included (yes I understand now that was a dumb mistake).
After rebooting, I was presented to "please insert boot disk and press any key" so I figured some settings were set incorrectly in the BIOS. After playing around there for awhile and checking the boot order and SATA settings among other things, everything looked fine but I still could not boot to my SSD with Win7. The drive is listed in BIOS but I cannot boot to it. I also manually reset the BIOS configuration by jumping CMOS battery and that did not help either.
After giving up on the BIOS I put in a Ubuntu disk and ran Disk/Memory diagnostics both which returned no issues. At this point I began to suspect an issue with the MBR on the disk so I followed these directions on Tom's Hardware:
How to Fix Windows 7 When It Fails to Boot
Somehow between then and now I think I have managed to put myself in a worse state. The instructions work up to bootrec.exe /RebuildBcd. At this step I see that 1 Windows installation is detected on Drive D, however when prompted to add to the boot list, I enter Y and then get "the requested system device cannot be found". I deleted the bcd file but now I cant get Windows to generate a new one because of this issue.
Startup repair also fails, and the problem signature includes "StartupRepairOffline" and "NoOSInstalled". So now it seems Windows is completely failing to recognize/use anything on the drive. I have system backups saved on my external HDD, but I cant even restore those because it says the target drive is invalid. I cant get any installations to display in the system recovery dialogue.
At this point I am completely stumped and out of my comfort zone. I'm not sure how to fix the issue, and I have no way to repair windows or restore a backup. Any other suggestions/advice would be greatly appreciated. I just want to get the PC back up and running one way or another!