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Ultimate Guide: Manual BCD Rebuild for Windows Devices That Won’t Boot

Introduction: Encountering booting issues on your Windows device can be frustrating, but there are steps you can take to manually rebuild the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) and resolve the problem. In this guide, we will walk you through the process of using the Windows 10 installation media to rebuild the BCD and get your device up and running again.

Disclaimer: Manipulating system files and configurations carries a level of risk. It’s crucial to follow the instructions carefully and take a backup of your important data before proceeding. If you’re uncomfortable performing these steps on your own, it’s recommended to seek professional assistance.

Requirements: Windows 10 Installation Media If you do not have a Windows install disk learn how to make one here

Step 1: Booting from the Windows 10 Installation Media

  1. Insert the Windows 10 installation media (DVD or USB) into your PC.
  2. Restart your computer and make sure it boots from the installation media. You may need to adjust your boot order settings in the BIOS or use a specific key (such as F12 or Esc) to bring up the boot menu and select the media.

Step 2: Accessing Repair Options

  1. Once the Windows Setup screen appears, select your language preferences and click “Next.”
  2. Click on “Repair your computer” located at the bottom left corner of the screen.
  3. In the next screen, select “Troubleshoot.”

Step 3: Opening the Command Prompt

  1. From the Troubleshoot menu, choose “Command Prompt.” This will open a Command Prompt window with administrative privileges.

Step 4: Identifying the EFI and Windows Volumes

  1. In the Command Prompt, type diskpart and press Enter. This will launch the DiskPart utility.
  2. Type list volume and press Enter to display a list of all available volumes.
  3. Identify the volume that corresponds to the EFI partition. It will be formatted as FAT32 and approximately 100MB in size. Make a note of its volume number.
  4. Identify the volume that contains the Windows installation. Take note of its volume number as well.

Step 5: Formatting the EFI Partition

  1. Still in the Command Prompt, type select volume <EFI_volume_number> and press Enter. Replace <EFI_volume_number> with the volume number of the EFI partition you noted earlier.
  2. Type assign letter=V: and press Enter. This assigns the drive letter V: to the EFI partition.
  3. Type exit and press Enter to exit DiskPart.
  4. Type V: and press Enter to navigate to the V: drive, representing the EFI partition.
  5. Once you’re in the V: drive, type format V: /FS:FAT32 and press Enter. Confirm the formatting process when prompted. This will format the EFI partition.

Step 6: Rebuilding the BCD

  1. After the EFI partition is formatted, type bcdboot C:\windows /s V: /f UEFI and press Enter. This command rebuilds the BCD and points it to the Windows installation.
  2. Wait for the process to complete.

Step 7: Restarting the Computer

  1. Type exit and press Enter to close the Command Prompt.
  2. Shut down your computer.
  3. Power on your computer and check if it starts normally.

Conclusion: By following this step-by-step guide, you can manually rebuild the BCD using the Windows 10 installation media. Remember to exercise caution and back up your important data before proceeding. If you’re uncertain or uncomfortable with the process, it’s advisable to seek professional assistance. With a successful BCD rebuild, your Windows device should boot up properly, allowing you to resume normal usage.

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Maximizing Your Home WiFi: Tips and Tricks from the Pros

Wireless internet is an essential component of our daily lives, but it can be frustrating when the signal is weak or the connection is slow. Fortunately, there are several easy ways to optimize your home WiFi network and improve its performance. In this article, we’ll explore some tips for optimizing your home WiFi that are user-friendly.

  • Use a Mesh Network A Mesh Network is a popular solution for homes that have dead spots or areas where the WiFi signal is weak. A Mesh Network system consists of multiple access points that are placed throughout your home, ensuring that the signal is strong in every corner. This solution is easy to set up and maintain, making it an ideal option for home users.
  • Upgrade Your Router If your router is outdated or not designed to handle high-speed internet, upgrading to a newer model can improve the performance of your network. Look for a router that supports the latest WiFi standards, such as 802.11ac, and has features like beamforming, which helps focus the signal on your devices.
  • Use a WiFi Extender A WiFi extender is a cost-effective solution that can help boost the signal strength and range of your network. These devices work by picking up the signal from your router and amplifying it, allowing you to access the internet from further away. WiFi extenders are easy to set up and are an ideal solution for users who have a smaller home.
  • Limit the Number of Devices Connected Having too many devices connected to your WiFi network can slow down the speed of your connection. Try to limit the number of devices connected to your network at any given time, especially devices that use a lot of bandwidth like streaming devices or gaming consoles.
  • Position Your Router Correctly The location of your WiFi router can have a significant impact on the signal strength and range. For optimal performance, position your router in a central location, away from walls and other obstacles. Avoid placing your router in a closet or a cabinet, as this can block the signal.
  • Keep Your Firmware Updated Regularly updating your router’s firmware can fix bugs and security vulnerabilities that can impact the performance of your network. Check your router’s manual or manufacturer’s website for instructions on how to update the firmware. Keeping your firmware updated ensures that your router is working at its best and keeps your network

By following these tips, you can optimize your home WiFi network and enjoy faster, more reliable internet.

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How to Recover Data from a Failing Hard Drive with DDrescue

In this post I want to share a very powerful skill that can be used to recover data from a disk that is undergoing physical failures. I will share in another post about how to quickly tell, using SMART reporting, whether computer system issues are Hard Drive related. This is another entry in a group of posts that will focus on using Parted Magic (a bootable utility) to perform various diagnostic and recovery operations.

The great part about this, is that sending a disk for professional recovery can cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars. The method that we will share in this post can be done for a very cost effectively, and if you have a spare Hard Drive, it can be done almost for free (except for the $15 charge to purchase Parted Magic). This method is very safe if done carefully, because no data on the original drive will get lost. Also, a “Recovery Clone” (As I like to call it) is very useful before attempting disk pounding, file system recovery software tools to recover files. A ddrescue recovery, uses a sophisticated algorithm and is extremely patient, when creating a clone onto a healthy drive. It is designed to gently go around failing sectors of the disk and “trim them” later on in the process, so you can get as much usable data in your copy as possible.

It also is very versatile with a myriad of options and also the ability to save your progress, so that if you need to interrupt it for whatever reason (Failing disks especially sometimes, need to be disconnected for a while and then reconnected – in my experience) you can resume from where you were up to. The goal would be to get as much usable data off of the failing disk and then perform file recovery operations on the physically healthy (although very possibly badly corrupted) disk while leaving the original alone.

That’s enough intro for now – Let’s Dig In!

Step 1 – Identify Drives

This step is arguably the single most important step of all. It is crucial not to mix up the source and target drive. If we are not %1000 percent sure of which drive is the one that has the data we need and which one is the destination, we could end up in a disastrous situation where we fully erase the disk we were trying to save.

One tip that I find helpful is to not have any drives attached to the computer that we are working with before beginning. Even the boot media should be removed after Parted Magic loads. If the drive we are recovering is the internal drive of the computer then further action is needed. If we are using another computer to try to restore a drive externally, remove the computer’s internal drive as well. Now connect the drive that we are recovering.

Open a terminal window (The icon looks like a black computer screen with a “$”).

Type the command “lsblk” (No Quotes). This will display the physical disks and logical drives that the system can see. In Linux, disks get labeled sequentially – /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc etc. Logical partitions (drives) are nested underneath each physical disk also sequentially – /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2, /dev/sda3 etc.

If you all you have is the single disk that we are trying to recover as described above, your output should only include the /dev/sda drives.

Now connect the second drive and type the ‘lsblk’ command again. The output should now show both sda and sdb drives.

Step 2 – Wipe the Destination Drive

If your destination drive is brand new and never been used before, you can skip this step. This step is important if the drive you are recovering to has been used before and contains data. The reason this is important is because very often the source drive is so badly damaged that the recovered partition is too corrupted to read and will require recovery software to use. In this case having the old layer of data will just result in confusion.

WARNING: BE VERY CAREFUL TO BACK UP ANY REQUIRED DATA FROM SDB BEFORE PROCEEDING. ALL DATA WILL BE WIPED.

Open “Erase Disk” from the Desktop.

Select Block Wipe and Disk Write Zeros

Select the disk that we will be wiping (in our example sdb) and accept the warnings.

Perform Recovery Clone

In the terminal type the following command to clone the damaged drive to your healthy drive.

ddrescue -d -f -r 0 -n /dev/sda /dev/sdb logfile

The breakdown of the command is as follows

ddrescue – This is the actual clone command

-d – This calls for direct disk clone which bypasses the kernel cache

-f – This means force overwrite target

-r 0 – This means do not retry failed reads

-n – This means no scrape. This avoids a lengthy step which does not usually produce results in my experience.

logfile – This is extremely important. This means that ddrescue will log progress so that it can be resumed in case of interruption. The next time you run the command with that switch and call the file, it will resume based on the file contents. It is important to copy the file to removable media before powering off the computer so that it can be used again.

You can get more information in the official manual here GNU ddrescue Manual.

Although it can seem a bit intimidating, with the proper care, ddrescue can be a powerful tool to recover a damaged drive.