[Veridian]

I get issue after issue since upgrading to windows 8.

I used to have windows 8 on a raid 0 system but i've decided to switch it to ssd. Cloning went fine and everything worked as it should until I decided to delete old raid controller driver. For some reason this has also deleted ALL sata drivers so after reboot I am getting:

File: \windows\system32\winload.exe

Status: 0xc000000e

Info: The selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing or corrupt.

I do not have recovery cd (at least for windows 8) but I do have acronis, knoppix and easeus boot cd's and an image of the system disk.

Is there a way to restore those drivers using knoppix or do I have to revert to an older image of windows? I can manually restore winload.exe but I'm not sure that will help.

 

[JimE]

Re: Accidentally deleted sata drivers, can't boot.

Have you tried booting the Windows disc and performing a Repair? Or simply using a restore point (assuming Win8 still has that feature).

 

[Veridian]

Re: Accidentally deleted sata drivers, can't boot.

Have you tried booting the Windows disc and performing a Repair? Or simply using a restore point (assuming Win8 still has that feature).

Unfortunately i did not have Windows disc (its an upgrade version) and you can't get to restore point if there's something wrong with boot sector. You can't even launch safe mode or repair services.

I had to use EaseUS TodoBackup to restore boot sector from a previous windows image. I forgot that windows now creates small 350Mb partition for storing boot settings.

 

[JimE]

Re: Accidentally deleted sata drivers, can't boot.

A missing/deleted driver is NOT the same as a HDD with a corrupt boot sector.

So are you having a HDD issue, or is Windows simply missing files? In any event, without a Windows boot disc, your options are limited in fixing a OS issue. A fresh install or restore from an image (if you have one).

 

[Veridian]

Re: Accidentally deleted sata drivers, can't boot.

A missing/deleted driver is NOT the same as a HDD with a corrupt boot sector.

So are you having a HDD issue, or is Windows simply missing files? In any event, without a Windows boot disc, your options are limited in fixing a OS issue. A fresh install or restore from an image (if you have one).

Well it seems that after driver was deleted the boot sector got somehow corrupt, or at least winload.exe file did.

In any case - i've used a software to copy boot sector from an image and it worked. Drivers got restored (raid driver finally gone) and windows 8 is working fine... for now.