Missing Operating System

[tenpole]

For some reason this message came up on my wife's computer when it was turned on this evening. She said that everything seemed normal this morning.

I am able to boot to windows 10 upgrade by pressing F11 selecting the hard drive with the o/s which is second on the list below EfI drive or something which I never quite understood from win 8.
The other drives listed are the second hd, optical drive and I think the RAM was listed.

On restart the problem has not fixed itself. I only have the windows 8 disk so I would need to find another way to repair the o/s rather than stick in the disk.

At the moment its late, I am tired and my brain is not with it enough to research a solution so I am throwing out the problem to the forum. In the morning I will read the replies if any. Thanks

 

[Elixer]

That usually means the boot loader is damaged.
You can repair that easily enough with the windows install DVD/flash drive.

Of course, why it was damaged is another story, could be a failing HD/SSD or malware, or...

 

[Z15CAM]

I agree with Elixer. Keep in mind the Boot Loader Partition is an Active FAT32 Partition (which the MB BIOS polls in order to load an OS located on a separate say the C : NTFS OS Partition). The Active Fat32 Boot Partition is generally a Hidden Partition unless you un-hide in order to see it in Windows File Explorer. Either the bootmgr, grldr or Boot Directory BCD files are corrupt or missing for what ever reason.

Loading your Win DVD Disc and selecting "REPAIR" should fix the Boot Member problem. If it don't you can suspect a HDD issue , then again a virus in the OS Partition C : can hide the OS from the Active Boot Loader Partition.

Another way, if you have a backup image of the Boot Partition, is to restore and over-write it through a DOS Boot with a Ghost Backup utility Such as Ghost. Acronis or Macrum - I personally use GHOST SERVER v8 Corp_Bld 8.0.0.984.

I always keep a CLEAN monthly updated DOS Boot Backup image of both the Active Boot Member partition and OS Partition for such incidents and never depend on Crap MS Repair or Restore.

PS: You should have filed your Post in "Operating Systems" ;o)

 

[Z15CAM]

I don't rely booting Window GUI to make my Bootable DOS backups and why I choose a DOS Boot GHOST.EXE. Acronis and Macrum are OK but their apps are GUI initiated to make a Bootable Fat32 32 GB Volume. Which by the way are limited and rely booting Window GUI before making a Bootable backup DOS entry for backups and why I choose GHOST.EXE spanned at 701 MB's (Bootable CD Disc's) and limited Fat32 32 GB Volumes - if and when.

Nothing can prevent Microsoft Windows OS or any OS for that point assurance against a Bootable DOS entry.

Last words from me on this topic ;o)

 

[tenpole]

Is there going to be an issue as the disk is a windows 8 version and the o/s is now windows 10.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Is there going to be an issue as the disk is a windows 8 version and the o/s is now windows 10.

Yes; they must match.

 

[tenpole]

Yes; they must match.

Which I thought hence I mentioned this in the original post.

 

[Ketchup]

Which I thought hence I mentioned this in the original post.

Fortunately, it's pretty easy to get Windows 10 onto a flash drive.

Once you do (if you don't already have it), this article should help with your issue:
http://techgage.com/article/repairi...-or-master-boot-record-in-windows-7-8-and-10/