Win10 0x490 error - How to fix without clean install?

[Marlboro_Red]

 

I open my computer and it said in summary, autorepair couldn't repair your pc find the reason why at "C:\WINDOWS\System32\Logfiles\Srt\SrtTrail.txt"

 

I look inside and I find that the error it is talking about is 0x490. 

Root cause found: boot manager failed to find OS loader.

 

I have loads of passwords and other information baked into the windows install itself which I would very much like to keep intact so I could sort them for a later date when I do a clean install on this machine.

 

I also have files which I will need for a court process on that machine so I would also like to keep it intact since I would much rather be sure I backed up everything when windows if fixed than booting up with a linux usb.

 

I have tried the usual fixboot command and it spewed out "access denied".

 

I have also tried what is said on this website https://neosmart.net/wiki/fix-mbr/ to no satisfactory results.

 

 

Edited August 26 by Marlboro_Red

[westrt]

 

[MrZeb]

Hi,

 

The Macrium Reflect Rescue includes one option to repair the boot try that

https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW80/Fixing+Windows+boot+problems

 

 

[Marlboro_Red]

13 hours ago, westrt said:

 

I tried this back in may when it first broke.

/fixboot "access is denied"

/bcdrepair then said yes "The requested system device cannot be found"

[xkryptonx]

@Marlboro_Red

 

There could be several reason your PC end up in such situation.

 

1. Using a partitioning tool.

2. Dual/Multiboot that overwrites the bootloader (MBR/UEFI).

3. Some malicious / Obsolete software that broke the bootloader setting / data,

 

Can you provide more details. 

Like:

 

1. What changes you made on your last session?

2. What bootloader setting >> BIOS / UEFI?

 

I will then try to help you better if i could. TY

[Marlboro_Red]

4 hours ago, MrZeb said:

Hi,

 

The Macrium Reflect Rescue includes one option to repair the boot try that

https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW80/Fixing+Windows+boot+problems

 

 

Man, I cannot open anything other than cmd line on my win10 laptop. I cannot use this application.

[Marlboro_Red]

1 hour ago, xkryptonx said:

@Marlboro_Red

 

There could be several reason your PC end up in such situation.

 

1. Using a partitioning tool.

2. Dual/Multiboot that overwrites the bootloader (MBR/UEFI).

3. Some malicious / Obsolete software that broke the bootloader setting / data,

 

Can you provide more details. 

Like:

 

1. What changes you made on your last session?

2. What bootloader setting >> BIOS / UEFI?

 

I will then try to help you better if i could. TY

A-1 what do you mean by partitioning tool?

A-2 I do not dualboot on that laptop. I only have windows installed.

 

B-1 I haven't made any changes nor downloaded anything

B-2 I have not changed anything in the bios. This is very clearly a windows problem as shown here https://files.catbox.moe/zc1sgj.jpg

[xkryptonx]

@Marlboro_Red

 

Sometime resizing moving partition mess up the boot/active partitions which leads to this issue boot being missing and system fails to load.

 

Since you did not do any of those as you mentioned, that is not the case.

 

Also Windows Update is sometime a culprit.

 

You fail to mentioned the important question i asked.

 

While attempting to repair boot you have two options based on your File System.

 

Older PC with MBR/BIOS

Newer PC with UEFI.

 

So, i am asking you again to confirm which of the above mentioned system you machine use. Older or Newer,

 

You need to use correct version of command to repair your boot partition, 

Edited August 27 by xkryptonx

[Marlboro_Red]

32 minutes ago, xkryptonx said:

@Marlboro_Red

 

Sometime resizing moving partition mess up the boot/active partitions which leads to this issue boot being missing and system fails to load.

 

Since you did not do any of those as you mentioned, that is not the case.

 

Also Windows Update is sometime a culprit.

 

You fail to mentioned the important question i asked.

 

While attempting to repair boot you have two options based on your File System.

 

Older PC with MBR/BIOS

Newer PC with UEFI.

 

So, i am asking you again to confirm which of the above mentioned system you machine use. Older or Newer,

 

You need to use correct version of command to repair your boot partition, 

 

Here is a picture of the boot screen from my laptop's bios menu. I hope this is enough.

Edited August 27 by Marlboro_Red

[xkryptonx]

@Marlboro_Red

 

That is EFI. 

 

Here is hat you have to do step by step.

 

1. IMPORTANT: Look for the ISO of Macrium Reflect on the forum and take backup of all your system partitions.

2. Boot into recovery and use the following commads

 

 

diskpart
list disk
select disk x
list volume
select volume x
assign letter x
exit diskpart
cd /d x:\efi\microsoft\boot\
attrib bcd -s -h -r
ren bcd bcd.old
bootrec /rebuildbcd
winpeutil reboot

 

 

Disk X  is your Active Hard disk

Volume X  is the volume that contains your boot files. It is usually the the volume on disk as of now no bigger than 100 MB in size by default.

Assign any letter other than the one taken. Let's assign it Y in this case.

 

If you assigned Y then command will look like so:

 

cd /d Y:\efi\microsoft\boot\

 

Rest of the procedure is simple. Follow the commands and your PC shall reboot. This should fix all Boot issue

Hope that helps

 

 

[Marlboro_Red]

57 minutes ago, xkryptonx said:

@Marlboro_Red

 

That is EFI. 

 

Here is hat you have to do step by step.

 

1. IMPORTANT: Look for the ISO of Macrium Reflect on the forum and take backup of all your system partitions.

 

I have installed downloaded from the link below the server plus version and made a bootable usb with it without going through the usual process for using a .iso file. Could this be used? or would I need a .iso file?

What do you mean take backup of all my system partitions?

 

How do I do that? Using a bootable usb with linux on it?

 

https://files.catbox.moe/ghk6rb.jpg

 

If I use the ISO of this program, can't I use just a bootable usb with win10 on it so that I do not rely on some 3rd party program?

 

Edited August 27 by Marlboro_Red

[Marlboro_Red]

46 minutes ago, xkryptonx said:

2. Boot into recovery and use the following commads

 

 

diskpart
list disk
select disk x
list volume
select volume x
assign letter x
exit diskpart
cd /d x:\efi\microsoft\boot\
attrib bcd -s -h -r
ren bcd bcd.old
bootrec /rebuildbcd
winpeutil reboot

 

 

Disk X  is your Active Hard disk

Volume X  is the volume that contains your boot files. It is usually the the volume on disk as of now no bigger than 100 MB in size by default.

Assign any letter other than the one taken. Let's assign it Y in this case.

 

If you assigned Y then command will look like so:

 

cd /d Y:\efi\microsoft\boot\

 

Rest of the procedure is simple. Follow the commands and your PC shall reboot. This should fix all Boot issue

Hope that helps

 

 

Disk X being my active hard disk(I presume this means the one I run windows on) is pretty easy to understand. But what about Volume X? there are multiple volumes which I do not know the meaning or purpose of despite only having 2 storage mediums(1 500gb ssd and 1 1tb hdd) See picture:

 

https://files.catbox.moe/v8qepv.jpg

 

Also, not sure if this is related but when I select different disks and then list their partitions, despite the disks being of vastly different sizes all the volumes are the same. Why is that? 

 

 

https://files.catbox.moe/d3myoo.jpg

 

Are partitions alike to volumes in them being unchanged even if you switch disks?

 

https://files.catbox.moe/a8dv1i.jpg

 

What exactly is the list of commands from diskpart to winpeutil reboot supposed to do?

 

I have seen previously that any adjustments to volume letters do not save over after you turn off the computer. Would using your change this?

 

Couldn't I just use a regular win10 bootable usb stick instead? I would very much like to do so just like I would prefer to learn to fix something with a common tool which you can find just about anywhere and is free over a very rare one which you have to sneakly take and use while watching your back so no one working for the owner of the tool sees you and reprimands you.

 

Thanks for the kind help,I hope to hear your explanations for my questions.

Edited August 27 by Marlboro_Red

[xkryptonx]

@Marlboro_Red 

 

Volume X is Your target Volume. X could mean any number 0,1,2,3....

 

In my case it is volume Volume 3. It is 100 MB in size and file system is FAT32.

 

Select your active disk and then have a look for the volume that looks something like this

 

 

Your command shall then be modified as, if above is the case:

 

select volume 3

assign letter Y

45 minutes ago, Marlboro_Red said:

I have installed downloaded from the link below the server plus version and made a bootable usb with it without going through the usual process for using a .iso file. Could this be used? or would I need a .iso file?

What do you mean take backup of all my system partitions?

 

How do I do that? Using a bootable usb with linux on it?

 

If I use the ISO of this program, can't I use just a bootable usb with win10 on it so that I do not rely on some 3rd party program?

 

For that you can use apps like:

 

RUFUS

Ventoy etc, etc.

 

If you have a bootable usb maker on Linux then you could use that. Any usb with grub loader modified to multiboot like ventoy shall do the job

 

You need the to boot the iso of macrium reflect from your usb drive to take the backup of your system partitions 

Edited August 27 by xkryptonx

[westrt]

i not win 8/10/11 user,insert u windows install,select recovery

 

Edited August 28 by westrt
add

[Marlboro_Red]

17 hours ago, xkryptonx said:

@Marlboro_Red 

 

Volume X is Your target Volume. X could mean any number 0,1,2,3....

 

In my case it is volume Volume 3. It is 100 MB in size and file system is FAT32.

 

Select your active disk and then have a look for the volume that looks something like this

 

 

Your command shall then be modified as, if above is the case:

 

select volume 3

assign letter Y

For that you can use apps like:

 

RUFUS

Ventoy etc, etc.

 

If you have a bootable usb maker on Linux then you could use that. Any usb with grub loader modified to multiboot like ventoy shall do the job

 

You need the to boot the iso of macrium reflect from your usb drive to take the backup of your system partitions 

I appreciate the effort you are putting into this but I am not sure I can understand you. Please, please, answer my previous question so that I may get an idea of what I can do as I am not an expert on windows.

 

Could you please answer the following questions?

 

1.I have a bootable macrium reflect usb made without the iso, but with the application itself. Could this be used?

2.What do you mean take backup of all my system partitions? I have used linux mint bootable usb to get the legal files in case something goes wrong. See picture: 

3.Couldn't I just use a regular win10 bootable usb stick instead? I would very much like to do so just like I would prefer to learn to fix something with a common tool which you can find just about anywhere and is free over a very rare one which you have to sneakly take and use while watching your back so no one working for the owner of the tool sees you and reprimands you.

4.How do I figure out which the volume my bootfiles are located in? there are multiple volumes which I do not know the meaning or purpose of despite only having 2 storage mediums(1 500gb ssd and 1 1tb hdd) See picture: 

5.Is it gonna be a problem that the volumes are all the same despite switching disks with different file sizes? See picture: 

6.What exactly is the list of commands from diskpart to winpeutil reboot supposed to do?

Edited August 28 by Marlboro_Red

[xkryptonx]

@Marlboro_Red

 

 

1. Let's get this step by step.

diskpart

list disk

 

You get disk 0 and 1. I assume, in case you have two disk.

 

(Here disk 0 is the disk that have your Windows Installed on it.)

 

Next step you select the OS disk (Where your Windows is installed)

Command should be:

 

select disk 0

 

Next step listing volumes.

 

list volume

 

You get a list of volume on the disks selected previously

 

Let's just say you get list of volumes as:

 

volume 0  

volume 1

volume 2

volume 3

 

Next you have choose the right volume (See the picture in post above) 

 

You can see volume labeled as 

volume 0    system   Fat32.

 

This partition is no bigger than a hundred MBs.

Here I am attaching a SS again for clarity

.

 

Here is what I did

diskpart

list disk

select disk 0

list volume

(You can see volume 3 is labeled as System and 100MB FAT32 file system)

select volume 3

assign Y

 

(This will assign letter Y to the volume 3 or any other number let's say 0 in some/most cases. If the number is different like 0 or 2 then select that volume.)

 

Next Step

 

exit diskpart

cd /d Y:\efi\microsoft\boot\

attrib bcd -s -h -r

ren bcd bcd.old

bootrec /rebuildbcd

winpeutil reboot

 

You can provided me SS of the diskpart steps so i can see what you are getting at. Make sure you provide new SS as you follow the procedure step by step 

[Marlboro_Red]

1 hour ago, xkryptonx said:

@Marlboro_Red

 

 

1. Let's get this step by step.

diskpart

list disk

 

You get disk 0 and 1. I assume, in case you have two disk.

 

(Here disk 0 is the disk that have your Windows Installed on it.)

 

Next step you select the OS disk (Where your Windows is installed)

Command should be:

 

select disk 0

 

Next step listing volumes.

 

list volume

 

You get a list of volume on the disks selected previously

 

Let's just say you get list of volumes as:

 

volume 0  

volume 1

volume 2

volume 3

 

Next you have choose the right volume (See the picture in post above) 

 

You can see volume labeled as 

volume 0    system   Fat32.

 

This partition is no bigger than a hundred MBs.

Here I am attaching a SS again for clarity

.

 

Here is what I did

diskpart

list disk

select disk 0

list volume

(You can see volume 3 is labeled as System and 100MB FAT32 file system)

select volume 3

assign Y

 

(This will assign letter Y to the volume 3 or any other number let's say 0 in some/most cases. If the number is different like 0 or 2 then select that volume.)

 

Next Step

 

exit diskpart

cd /d Y:\efi\microsoft\boot\

attrib bcd -s -h -r

ren bcd bcd.old

bootrec /rebuildbcd

winpeutil reboot

 

You can provided me SS of the diskpart steps so i can see what you are getting at. Make sure you provide new SS as you follow the procedure step by step 

Thank you for the speedy response! But I just finished editing the message above which outlines what I am having trouble with. So would you please revise your message?

 

May you have as much luck in life as you have patience with me and other users on this forum!

 

Note at 20:33 EET: I have reached the maximum number of posts you can make per day. So I shall edit this message.

20:51: "The way i see it, there is no such partition on all of your disks. As a caution, I would advice to remove all your non system disk from your PC. There is two things you can do.

 

1. view the disk layout and see if that volume is deleted. If you are on Linux, use some disk management tool like GParted for example and share the screenshot. That way i can see hat is happening there"

 

 

21:22 "Can you provide me the model detail of your machine?"

 

"Some machines come with support for both UEFI and MBR BIOS. Check in your BIOS settings. If that is setting is available, switch from UEFI boot to BIOS/MBR boot, and then try booting your machine"

 

my machine can do both

 

 

 

"Can you send SS that focus on on the partition layout. It is unreadable to me. "

 

I use the 500gb ssd for windows not the 1tb hdd.

 

21:44 "Change the boot setting. Prioritize legacy boot and disable secure boot. Try rebooting the system and see if it works"

 

 

I cannot find secureboot but regardless of what I do I can only boot through the USB with win10 on it.

 

would what you have said previously with macrium reflect usb not work in my current state?

Edited August 28 by Marlboro_Red

[xkryptonx]

@Marlboro_Red

 

The way i see it, there is no such partition on all of your disks. As a caution, I would advice to remove all your non system disk from your PC. There is two things you can do.

 

1. view the disk layout and see if that volume is deleted. If you are on Linux, use some disk management tool like GParted for example and share the screenshot. That way i can see hat is happening there

[xkryptonx]

@Marlboro_Red

 

Some machines come with support for both UEFI and MBR BIOS. Check in your BIOS settings. If that is setting is available, switch from UEFI boot to BIOS/MBR boot, and then try booting your machine

[xkryptonx]

@Marlboro_Red

 

As a last resort, take Macrium backup of the system drives. Install Fresh Windows. And then restore your Windows partition only.

 

Here is how you can do:

 

1. Backup C drive where you windows is. And also the Recovery partition. So, if things did not work you can go back to your old settings.

2. Install Windows

3. Restore C drive over the newly Installed Windows using previous Macrium backup.

 

That shall fix the boot issue with your system.

[Marlboro_Red]

@xkryptonx Hello. It seems that the only reason the macrium reflect rescue usb didn't work was because when it was automatically made in the app and not with an .iso it was made to work in UEFI and not MBR.

After digging around the files I have found that my recovery partition has the boot manager and related files however the BCD file is missing. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am now in the process of using the macrium reflect app to repair my boot problems.

I have come to ask you about the restore options at the end about what they do and if I should apply them or not

Also if I am doing this right.

 

 

 

 

[MrZeb]

Based on the partitions you have on the disks Windows was installed in CSM mode and not in UEFI mode, so make sure that the CSM option is enabled on the BIOS, also in this mode you need to adjust the boot order to start from the Adata M2 and not from the HDD.

 

I suspect that if you disconnect the Seagate HDD temporarily then the Fix Boot option on Macrium should find automatically the partitions where the boot code must be fixed.

The Seagate HDD have also a system partition that shouldn't be there if the HDD only contains data and not another operating system!

[Marlboro_Red]

2 hours ago, MrZeb said:

Based on the partitions you have on the disks Windows was installed in CSM mode and not in UEFI mode, so make sure that the CSM option is enabled on the BIOS, also in this mode you need to adjust the boot order to start from the Adata M2 and not from the HDD.

 

I suspect that if you disconnect the Seagate HDD temporarily then the Fix Boot option on Macrium should find automatically the partitions where the boot code must be fixed.

The Seagate HDD have also a system partition that shouldn't be there if the HDD only contains data and not another operating system!

In the past it booted from the ssd ditectly and not the hdd.  I already use legacy mode. The one mistake I made on wednesday was to default install the rescue disk using macrium reflect thus it installed in uefi mode and not mbr and not getting the iso file and using rufus to install in the mbr mode.

 

As shown in the images it automatically selected the right recovery partition on the ssd.

 

What I am asking about is if I lose any information on the windows install if I hit any of the boot code options other than to rebuild the BCD

[xkryptonx]

@Marlboro_Red

 

Thanks for providing all the details. Before attempting anything, i would again advise to remove all you non boot hard/ssd drive. That will ensure safety that you won't loss any data. Another thing, make sure you adjust the partition layout and adjust the size accordingly. If the backup/restore layout is larger than the target drive layout, it will delete the adjacent disk to adjust the layout, You can find layout option under the wrench icon. 

 

 

Also, backup all the target volume just in case and transfer all the data to the spare disk/ssd, Then perform the restore operation. Remember, the adjusting layout option is IMPORTANT. if you overlook this, your data is as good as gone.

[Marlboro_Red]

2 hours ago, xkryptonx said:

@Marlboro_Red

 

Thanks for providing all the details. Before attempting anything, i would again advise to remove all you non boot hard/ssd drive. That will ensure safety that you won't loss any data. Another thing, make sure you accordingly. If the backup/restore layout is larger than the target drive layout, it will delete the adjacent disk to adjust the layout, You can find layout option under the wrench icon. 

 

 

Also, backup all the target volume just in case and transfer all the data to the spare disk/ssd, Then perform the restore operation. Remember, the adjusting layout option is IMPORTANT. if you overlook this, your data is as good as gone.

I have nothing on my hdd. All my files are on the ssd, sane with the boot files.

 

 

"If the backup/restore layout is larger than the target drive layout, it will delete the adjacent disk to adjust the layout"

How should I know if that is the case?

 

>Remember, the adjusting layout option is IMPORTANT. if you overlook this, your data is as good as gone.

Why?

 

Could you please tell me what each option(check image) does and if I should be worried if it will delete some data off my drive so that I can proceed forward?