Solved Completely locked out of system. Can't access system restore

[SIW2]

You are using EFI firmware.

You may already have an EFI System partition (ESP) - likely the first partition on the disk - check with Aomei partition Assistant. It will be FAT32.

[If you don't have an EFI System partition, create one. You can put it at the end of the drive, if necessary.]

1.Tick the box that says "tick for Uefi/bios"

2. In Active partition dropdown, you select the EFI System partition letter.

3. In the Windows partition dropdown, select your windows partition letter.

 

[sterfri99]

You are using EFI firmware.

You may already have an EFI System partition (ESP) - likely the first partition on the disk - check with Aomei partition Assistant. It will be FAT32.

[If you don't have an EFI System partition, create one. You can put it at the end of the drive, if necessary.]

1.Tick the box that says "tick for Uefi/bios"

2. In Active partition dropdown, you select the EFI System partition letter.

3. In the Windows partition dropdown, select your windows partition letter.

Sorry for the late reply, but I did the above and now have this:

 

[SIW2]

Try running the bcdboot command manually.

bcdboot e:\windows /s [EFI partition letter]:

 

[sterfri99]

Try running the bcdboot command manually.

bcdboot e:\windows /s [EFI partition letter]:

My drives rn: (Ignore H, that's an external HDD)

After running bcdboot:

 

[SIW2]

Check the FAT32 partition ID.

Bootice will do it



It should say EF. If not, change it to EF.

 

[sterfri99]

Check the FAT32 partition ID.

Bootice will do it

View attachment 402851

It should say EF. If not, change it to EF.

done. Next?

 

[SIW2]

Was it EF already, or did you need to change it?

 

[sterfri99]

Was it EF already, or did you need to change it?

changed it

 

[SIW2]

What happens if you run startup repair?

it is under the start menu\MS\MsRecEnvX64

 

[sterfri99]

What happens if you run startup repair?

it is under the start menu\MS\MsRecEnvX64

Strange, since the SSD is formatted properly (I think...) and has W7 installed

 

[sterfri99]

What happens if you run startup repair?

it is under the start menu\MS\MsRecEnvX64

At this point, should I just consider buying a new drive?

 

[SIW2]

Looks that way.

 

[sterfri99]

Looks that way.

****!

Well, okay then. Any idea what may have caused my original issue? Just so I can avoid doing it again.

 

[RolandJS]

...Just so I can avoid doing it again...

While I have no idea about what caused the situation, I do have an idea going forward, not one of prevention, rather, one of recovery:
If you have not already been doing so, please make routine (bi-monthly or weekly +-) full image backups of your OS and Data partitions onto any affordable, reliable, external media. There a number of free and pay-for backup / restore utilities you can experiment with and settle on just one or two of them.

 

[sterfri99]

While I have no idea about what caused the situation, I do have an idea going forward, not one of prevention, rather, one of recovery:
If you have not already been doing so, please make routine (bi-monthly or weekly +-) full image backups of your OS and Data partitions onto any affordable, reliable, external media. There a number of free and pay-for backup / restore utilities you can experiment with and settle on just one or two of them.

Oh, lesson learned for sure