New motherboard; system will not boot; cannot find windows; no BCD

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  1. Posts : 19
    windows 7
       #1

    New motherboard; system will not boot; cannot find windows; no BCD


    Hello,

    Installed a new "gigabyte" motherboard and now I cannot boot. On powerup, past the BIOS, gets stuck in a windows boot loop, showing the "Starting Windows" splash for a few seconds and then restarting.

    Using the recovery USB that I have, and with much googling, here are the things I have seen and tried.

    1. Start up with recovery USB
    2. Click "Next"
    3. Click "Repair your computer"
    .. "Searching for windows installations ..."
    4. Popup "Windows found problems with your computer's startup options"
    5. Click "Repair and restart"
    6. Popup "Failed to save startup options"

    I don't see any OS listed in the "System Recovery Options" window

    7. Click "Next"
    8. Popup "An internal error occurred ... The system cannot find the file specified (0x80070002)"

    Went to command prompt :

    X:\Sources>diskpart
    DISKPART> select disk 0
    DISKPART> detail disk
    :
    :
    Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
    -------------- --- -------------- ------ --------- -------- --------- ------
    Volume 0 D System Rese NTFS Partition 100MB Healthy
    Volume 1 C NTFS Partition 232GB Healthy

    DISKPART> exit

    Odd. I used to only have a single disk, "C". Now I have two, with Windows (and my data) in C, but D has the /Boot dir.

    9. d:
    D: cd boot
    D:\Boot> attrib bcd -h -r -s
    File not found - bcd
    D:\Boot> bootrec /fixmbr
    The operation completed successfully

    D:\Boot> bootrec /fixboot
    The operation completed successfully

    D:\Boot> bootrec /scanos
    :
    Total identified Windows installations : 1
    [1] C:\Windows
    The operation completed successfully

    D:\Boot> bootrec /rebuildbcd
    :
    [1] C:\Windows
    Add installation to boot list? Yes(Y)..: Y
    The requested system device cannot be found.

    D:\Boot>bcdedit
    The boot configuration data store could not be opened.
    The requested system device cannot be found
    D:\Boot>


    soooo.. what happened!!! And how do I get back to a working windows 7 ?

    Please help!
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 1,363
    Win7 pro x64
       #2

    need to know your exact motherboard model and also your former motherboard model, the one this boot drive used to be on

    your bios has a SATA mode field in it. The new board needs to have the same setting there as did the old board (e.g. AHCI, RAID). Something to check.

    can you boot to safe mode?
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 19
    windows 7
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Hi johnhoh,

    The old motherboard is fried, unfortunately, so I cannot get into BIOS to check settings :-(

    New motherboard is gigabyte Gigabyte B250M-DS3H. Old one is System Board MS-7145 (Computer tower indicates: Power Spec PC Systems)??

    No, I cannot boot into safe mode.

    After all the bootrec/diskpart fiddling, I don't get the boot-loop. I now get a message:

    Windows Boot Manager

    Windows failed to start ... to fix your problem :

    1. Insert your installation disk and restart
    2. Choose your language and click Next
    3. Click Repair your computer

    ...

    File: \Boot\BCD
    Status : 0xc000000f
    Info: An error ocurred while attempting to read the boot configuration data

      My Computer


  4. Posts : 19
    windows 7
    Thread Starter
       #4

    When I click through the repair options, and it says it found problems.. there is a "View Details" link.
    When clicked it shows :

    Repair details:
    The following startup option will be repaired:
    Name: {bootmgr}
    Identifier : {....}

    The following startup option will be added:
    Name: Windows 7 Professional N (recovered)
    Path: Windows
    Windows Device: Partition=C: (238373 MB)

    ...

    A copy of the current boot configuration will be saved as C:\Boot\BCD.Backup.002

    When I click "Repair and Restart" I get the message : Failed to save startup options...
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 1,363
    Win7 pro x64
       #5

    you've gone from a 2005 AMD chipset to a 2017 Intel chipset, which I believe is a record for generation jumping. So its likely that the windows driver for your old disk controller is not liking your new motherboard. To remedy this, I recommend you keep your default bios settings for now (which is probably SATA AHCI), and use Offline Regedit to modify your registry so that the next time windows boots it will load the default AHCI and IDE drive controllers. The below page gives details how to do that, beginning in the Scenario 2 section..

    How to replace Motherboard without Reinstalling Windows - wintips.org - Windows Tips How-tos
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 1,363
    Win7 pro x64
       #6

    If none of that helps, try changing your bios SATA mode to IDE
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 19
    windows 7
    Thread Starter
       #7

    Whoa!

    I followed the tips in the link and was able to boot up into my existing disk!!

    Thank you Johnhoh!!!

    After all that bootrec and diskpart fiddling were red herrings. It was drive compatibility problem!

    Phew.

    Do you think I need to follow up with any more driver installations?
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 1,363
    Win7 pro x64
       #8

    fuzzled said:
    Whoa!
    Do you think I need to follow up with any more driver installations?
    First run windows update until you have no more updates available, then check start > run > msinfo32 > enter > components > problem devices to make sure it is blank. If you do need drivers, start with the chipset and usb 3 drivers here:

    GA-B250M-DS3H (rev. 1.0) | Motherboard - GIGABYTE


    Once you have no problem devices within msinfo32, I recommend running Device Cleanup Tool and removing all non-present devices, as your system is probably full of them from your old motherboard

    Tools for Windows
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 19
    windows 7
    Thread Starter
       #9

    Right so I need drivers. LAN/USB etc : no network, and not recognizing any USB drives..

    On a different PC, I downloaded LAN and USB drivers from gigabyte. How do I transfer this to the target PC, since it will not recognize any USB drive in windows?

    I thought I could copy it to the recovery USB, and then boot into recovery, copy from USB to the target hard drive, reboot into windows and find the files there.

    But when I copy to the recovery USB, I don't see any of the files in drive X: when in recovery mode.

    Any hints?
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 1,363
    Win7 pro x64
       #10

    fuzzled said:
    How do I transfer this to the target PC, since it will not recognize any USB drive in windows?
    Your USB 3.0 ports need the gigabyte intel driver but the USB 2.0 ports should work

    https://images10.newegg.com/producti...28-980-Z02.jpg
      My Computer


 
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