Rebuild BCD with hardware Raid1 and GPT


  1. Posts : 4
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64
       #1

    Rebuild BCD with hardware Raid1 and GPT


    Apologies in advance if this topic has already been covered.
    Long story short I have an Intel mobo, with a RAID 1 (2 x 3TB drives) built using the Intel controller.

    On more than 1 occasion I have had to rebuild the BCD (for reasons I have not been able to identify, possibly a bad drive - but it recovers easy enough with the rebuild). However this time the rebuild is not working and I have ended up where I can not edit the BCD. Even when trying to /rebuildbcd I get the following error:
    "the requested system device cannot be identified due to multiple indistinguishable devices potentially matching the identification criteria"

    I cant say I spend a lot of time mucking around with the BCD, and I have even less experience in rebuilding it in a RAID1 configuration. In fact I am even confused as to what drive the BCD would be on? Of course disk part is showing them all.

    It is UEFI, but I dont think that should complicate things too much but wanted to point that out.

    If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions on how I might get this fixed I would appreciate it.

    Heck I would even break the RAID (its got to be rebuilt anyways) if I thought this would make it any easier.

    TIA
    -Boldt
      My Computer

  2.    #2

    We see nothing but trouble here with RAID, not a single good report in the entire six years since Win7 beta. It is not even redundant (the first letter in its name!) since users often lose everything if one drive fails.

    I would use this as the opportunity to break the RAID, Clean Reinstall Windows 7 to a single HD with the others detached. Then you can use the other hard drive for storage of a backup image and your files.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 4
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Gregrocker - thanks for the reply. While I appreciate your perspective on RAID (and will keep this in mind going forward) I wish to repair the BCD. I have no interest in performing a clean install. However I do most certainly agree that this will solve my issue and something that others that may come across this post may want to consider.

    Has anyone come across a good article, or instruction, for rebuilding a UEFI boot, GPT partition BCD?

    I am open to open to breaking the RAID during the repair but wish to better understand the working structure of the BCD as it relates to UEFI, GPT and RAID.

    I can provide much more detailed information on the related errors and sheps taken to date if needed or interested.

    Thanks for your consideration!
      My Computer

  4.    #4

    Have you run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times?

    Do you have an image of the EFI System partition you can replace the extant then again try repairs? We see it successfully moved from another drive which indicates some transferability.

    I do not know if RebuildBCD commands from Step 5 of Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Boot are Updated for UEFI but you can try them from Installer or Repair CD CMD.

    Frankly we are still early in the learning curve on UEFI boot repair after pioneering most MBR fixes here early on. You might also ask at Technet and MS Community in hopes of attracting a MS Engineer or someone who's more knowledgable on this. The RAID is of course an overhanging wild card.

    Please keep us posted.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 4
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64
    Thread Starter
       #5

    I apologize for going radio silent (I was distracted with some larger fires). I should have chance to play with this later today or tomorrow morning and will post an update.

    To answer one of your questions, I am not sure that I did try to run the start up repair 3 times in a row.
    If I recall properly the first time I ran it, it did find a problem and tried to fix it and failed.
    I rebooted and tried it again, however I don't think that I went for a strike out. I think on the 3rd try I went right to running the BCD rebuild (which I have had success in the past with).

    I will try running it 3 times in a row before I try anything else.

    One other thing of note is that the drive that is"damaged" in the RAID1, is disk 0. I would think that this might be the target for the BCD? This was why I was thinking that removing the drive (or swapping their cables so the good drive would be 0) might be a quick and dirty.

    I am just not sure how the BCD work in terms of a RAID 1 and what (if anything) needs to be done to the BCD if a drive fails? I would have thought that nothing would as this RAID is hardware based, so I am not sure what might be happening.

    Thanks and I will report back as soon as possible.
      My Computer

  6.    #6

    We could say a lot more with certainty if we could see a camera snap of drive map with all listings from booted Partition Wizard CD, which also has a Rebuild MBR and HD Surface scan.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 4
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64
    Thread Starter
       #7

    Sorry for the delay, and I do appreciate your candor on this being an issue that is new to us all!
    I may cross post this on a MS or Intel forum to see if I can get somebody there to give this some attention.

    I re-ran the startup repair 3x without success. Each time it completed and indicated that the root cause (The partition table does not have a valid System Partition) was found and repaired/completed successfully (see attached)

    For grins I also ran both diskpart and the Partition wizard. See attached.

    any other ideas?
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Rebuild BCD with hardware Raid1 and GPT-img_0348.jpg  
    Rebuild BCD with hardware Raid1 and GPT Attached Files
      My Computer

  8.    #8

    Go ahead and run the PW Surface Scan on both HD's, as well as the actual maker's HD Diagnostic extended CD scan to know with absolute certainty the condition of each HD, and whether repair is possible. If repair is possible then you might be able to repair it enough to start it to retrieve a System Image.

    After diagnostics I would run another full Disk Check from the disk's System Recovery Options Command Line.

    A System Image is of course the best way to have the OS backed up in cases like this, besides the need for a data backup.
      My Computer


 

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