[charles.actuary]

It looks as if we might have another option here.  I tried normal booting, but pressing f12 when the splash screen came up.  It came up with the Boot Manager screen.  This time it gives me 3 boot options, 1 from the hard disk drive, 2 from CDROM, and 3 a network boot.  Until recently it has only offered me the HDD.  Would it be worth trying a CDROM recovery disk?

 

I don't have an existing recovery disk created by the computer in question, but are recovery disks interchangeable between computers, if the other computer is also running Windows 8.1?

[Advertisements]

What manufacture is the other computer ?

It looks as thought the BCD has been corrupted if it is not recognising the HDD

[Essexboy]

What manufacture is the other computer ?

It looks as thought the BCD has been corrupted if it is not recognising the HDD

[charles.actuary]

The other computer is a Dell.

[charles.actuary]

Alternatively I can get recovery disks from Acer Customer Service, apparently.

[Essexboy]

That is true from my understanding the only cost is for shipping

OK final shot

First could you try refresh once more, if that fails then from the command prompt type the following commands and press Enter after each one:

bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /rebuildbcd


Could you let me know the system response to each

[charles.actuary]

Same message on Refresh - "The drive where Windows is installed is locked.  Unlock the drive and try again."

 

This looks better.

 

fixmbr - "The operation completed successfully"

 

fixboot - "The operation completed successfully"

 

rebuildbcd -

Scanning all disks for Windows installations.

 

Please wait, since this may take a while...

 

Successfully scanned Windows installations.

Total identified Windows installations: 1

[1]  C:\Windows

Add installation to boot list? Yes(Y)/No(N)/All(A):

 

Should I say Yes?

[Essexboy]

Yes please, then initially try a normal boot

[charles.actuary]

I entered "Y" but got a response The requested system device cannot be found.

 

Then with a normal boot I still get the same messages PXE-E61, PXE-M0F and No bootable device.

[Essexboy]

OK one further set of commands to try this one will force windows to recreate the bcd store

 

Same as before press enter after each command

bootrec.exe /fixmbr
bootsect.exe /nt60 all /force
bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd

[charles.actuary]

OK, the responses are:

 

fixmbr - "The operation completed successfully"

 

bootsect etc - 

Target volumes will be updated with BOOTMGR compatible bootcode.

 

Then there are a series of lines that say "Successfully updated XXX filesystem bootcode"  The volumes referred to are:

 

C: - NTFS filesystem

D:  - NTFS filesystem

\\?\Volume  - NTFS filesystem

\\?\Volume  - NTFS filesystem (again)

\Device\HarddiskVolume2 - FAT32 filesystem

\Device\HarddiskVolume3 - Could not open the volume root directory: The parameter is incorrect

 

Bootcode was successfully updated on at least one volume

 

Then ... /rebuildbcd - exactly the same response as last time ie:

 

Please wait, since this may take a while...

 

Successfully scanned Windows installations.

Total identified Windows installations: 1

[1]  C:\Windows

Add installation to boot list? Yes(Y)/No(N)/All(A):

 

I responded Y but got the same response  The requested system device cannot be found.

 

Then when I try booting normally I get the same error messages - No bootable device

 

But I then tried booting with the USB stick and pressed f12 for boot manager, and I now have the USB HDD (ie the stick) showing as an option 4.  Should I try booting from there?

 

I'm afraid that I'm going to have to leave that question hanging as I need to go out for the evening, but I'll have a look when I get back late tonight.

 

Charles

[Essexboy]

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you as I had some more research to do
 
Could you download the following programme to the USB
For x64 bit systems please download Listparts64
Run the recovery console to the command prompt
Locate the USB as you did for FRST
Then run Listparts64.exe ensure that there is a tick in list BCD

It will create a log on the USB (Result.txt)
Please post that

[charles.actuary]

Here's the log.  By the way, I assume that I was supposed to run the Scan, not a Fix.

 

ListParts by Farbar Version: 31-07-2014

Ran by SYSTEM (administrator) on 12-02-2015 at 17:28:32

WIN_81 (X64)

Running From: d:\

Language: English (United States)

************************************************************

 

========================= Memory info ====================== 

 

Percentage of memory in use: 11%

Total physical RAM: 6036.35 MB

Available physical RAM: 5318.36 MB

Total Pagefile: 6036.35 MB

Available Pagefile: 5326.5 MB

Total Virtual: 131072 MB

Available Virtual: 131071.91 MB

 

======================= Partitions =========================

 

1 Drive c: (Acer) (Fixed) (Total:914.19 GB) (Free:824.88 GB) NTFS

2 Drive d: (DVD_ROM) (Removable) (Total:3.76 GB) (Free:3.34 GB) NTFS

4 Drive x: (Boot) (Fixed) (Total:0.5 GB) (Free:0.5 GB) NTFS

 

 

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt

  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---

  Disk 0    Online          931 GB      0 B        *

  Disk 1    Online         3856 MB      0 B         

 

Partitions of Disk 0:

===============

 

 

Disk ID: {93A334A7-5A12-40EB-A75E-34E8A1CCC726}

 

  Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset

  -------------  ----------------  -------  -------

  Partition 1    Recovery           400 MB  1024 KB

  Partition 2    System (partition with boot components)             300 MB   401 MB

  Partition 3    Reserved           128 MB   701 MB

  Partition 4    Primary            914 GB   829 MB

  Partition 5    Recovery            16 GB   915 GB

 

======================================================================================================

 

Disk: 0

Partition 1

Type    : de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac

Hidden  : Yes

Required: Yes

Attrib  : 0X8000000000000001

 

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info

  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------

* Volume 2         Recovery     NTFS   Partition    400 MB  Healthy    Hidden  

 

======================================================================================================

 

Disk: 0

Partition 2

Type    : c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b

Hidden  : Yes

Required: No

Attrib  : 0X8000000000000000

 

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info

  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------

* Volume 3         ESP          FAT32  Partition    300 MB  Healthy    Hidden  

 

======================================================================================================

 

Disk: 0

Partition 3

Type    : e3c9e316-0b5c-4db8-817d-f92df00215ae

Hidden  : Yes

Required: No

Attrib  : 0X8000000000000000

 

There is no volume associated with this partition.

 

======================================================================================================

 

Disk: 0

Partition 4

Type    : ebd0a0a2-b9e5-4433-87c0-68b6b72699c7

Hidden  : No

Required: No

Attrib  : 0000000000000000

 

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info

  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------

* Volume 1     C   Acer         NTFS   Partition    914 GB  Healthy            

 

======================================================================================================

 

Disk: 0

Partition 5

Type    : de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac

Hidden  : Yes

Required: Yes

Attrib  : 0X8000000000000001

 

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info

  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------

* Volume 4         Push Button  NTFS   Partition     16 GB  Healthy    Hidden  

 

======================================================================================================

 

Partitions of Disk 1:

===============

 

 

Disk ID: 04464CED

 

  Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset

  -------------  ----------------  -------  -------

  Partition 1    Primary           3855 MB  1024 KB

 

======================================================================================================

 

Disk: 1

Partition 1

Type  : 07

Hidden: No

Active: Yes

 

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info

  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------

* Volume 5     D   DVD_ROM      NTFS   Removable   3855 MB  Healthy            

 

======================================================================================================

============================== MBR Partition Table ==================

 

==============================

Partitions of Disk 0:

===============

Disk ID: 07A72123

 

Partition : GPT Partition Type

==============================

Partitions of Disk 1:

===============

Disk ID: 04464CED

Partition 1: (Active) - (Size=4 GB) - (Type=07 NTFS)

 

The boot configuration data store could not be opened.

The requested system device cannot be found.

 

 

****** End Of Log ****** 

[Essexboy]

Ok download the attached fix.txt to the same location as listparts64
 fix.txt   27bytes   187 downloads
Restart to the recovery console command prompt and start listparts64
When it is running press fix
On completion remove the USB and try a normal boot

[charles.actuary]

Still the same errors I'm afraid.  (Was I supposed to tick the List BCD option again?)

 

Charles

[Essexboy]

No, could you run a listparts scan again to ensure that it took. No need for list BCD