ssd - This should be simple: "winload.efi missing or corrupt" yet neither. Win8.1 not booting

08
2014-07
  • Mugsy

    I have a desktop PC that was running Windows 8.0 from a slow HDD. I unplugged the old drive and installed a new SSD and Windows 8.1.

    Once I got it running, I unplugged the SSD and plugged the HDD back in to transfer my files & settings. But it won't boot. Instead, I get a message that "winload.efi is missing or corrupt. 0Xc0000225". To get the SSD working, I had to disable "Fast Boot" in the (bare-bones) UEFI bios and force "CSM Support" to "Enabled", but undoing those changes and restoring the BIOS back to it's defaults didn't help.

    I checked the drive using a Linux Live boot disk and verified the file is still there, and the chance of it being corrupt is very low since it was booting just fine prior to the upgrade.

    I tried my Win8 Rescue Disk (USB). It attempts repairs and fails.

    I'm stumped. Online searches for this similar issue are no help.

    Setup: ASUS CM1855 PC (AMD 3.3Ghz) with really low-end UEFI bios (few options).

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    Related Question

    bios - OS (Fedora) not booting after disconnect/reconnect hard drive
  • YTKColumba

    I have two hard drive install on a system, one with Fedora installed, and one with Windows. They are NOT dual booting and they do not power on at the same time.

    I disconnected from the Fedora hard drive and connected to the Windows hard drive to do some work, but after I connected back to the Fedora hard drive, the system won't boot. It says no system install and insert boot disk.

    I know the Fedora OS is still there because when I connected the hard drive to another computer I can still see all the files.

    One assumption I came up with is that the system BIOS is UEFI BIOS and Fedora is installed using LVM, and there might be a conflict there, but I am not sure.

    Any help on the issue?

    Thanks in advance.


    • Related Answers
  • UtahJarhead

    UEFI has nothing to do with the filesystem in question. There are a few options. The MBR went toes up. The drive went kaput (it's a technical term), or perhaps the drive did not get connected back up all the way. Does the BIOS see it? Does this system see it when booted to a live CD?