Windows 8 Won't boot after windows update

[rpahl13]

This is on a six-core system, 8GB ram, win 8.1 64bit.
Yesterday everything was fine. I went to shut down at the end of the day and selected 'update and shut down.'
Then in the morning windows would not boot up.
After some digging around it looks like the update moved my entire windows folder (which was in my C drive) to my E drive.
Could not do a system restore, could not do a repair, have no backup image.
Please help.

 

[ussnorway]

You haven’t given us anywhere near enough information to acutely trouble shoot this yet… in order of importance;

• What (exact) make and model is the hardware?
• What antivirus is running on it?
• Have you used any 3rd party backup software to make an image BEFORE you let Microsoft take control?
• Is the system now a dual boot i.e, is windows 10 and windows 8.1 both installed at the same time?

If the last answer is no then at a guess I’d assume you have two harddrives (one ssd and one hdd) so windows picked the older hdd as the default… if so and if you have made good back up images then I recommend reboot one of them because ime this scenario doesn’t end well using only the basic windows tools.

 

[rpahl13]

Processor: AMD FX-6300 six core 3.5GHz
Hard drive 1: Seagate Barracuda ST3250820AS ATA (C Drive)
Hard drive 2: Toshiba DT01ACA050 (partitioned into drives D and E), salvaged from previous computer and installed into this newer one.
Video card: Radeon R7 200.
Ram: 8GB DDR3

Windows defender...sometimes I run Malware Bytes and spybot S&D.

No.

No. It's 8.1 home 64bit only.

"so windows picked the older hdd as the default"
Why now? I've had this computer just over 2 years and run many windows updates and it never moved my windows folder.

 

[ussnorway]

Why now? I've had this computer just over 2 years and run many windows updates and it never moved my windows folder.

prob because the other drive failed to respond (at a bios level) during the upgrade process.

• ok so the old c drive is now; blank, formatted, just missing? ... and your old data is on the e drive or its a fresh windows install with no other data?

if you open disk manager does both disc show and has any new partitions been added... from the desktop press [windows key] + [x] together then press [k] to open your disk manager

• if you temp disconnect the Seagate Barracuda from the computer then does it boot to e drive?

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Possible answer to your question in Post #3 here:
>>>
"so windows picked the older hdd as the default"
Why now? I've had this computer just over 2 years and run many windows updates and it never moved my windows folder."

>>>That re-purposed drive is a Toshiba drive, they are the most unreliable drive on the market, especially their laptop drives. Toshiba uses them in their laptops, and they don't even make their own drives anymore and they haven't since about 1991. Toshiba buys them from Fujitsu and Hitachi and a couple of others and then "private-labels" them. What Make/Model computer did you take that Toshiba hard drive out of? My guess is Norway is spot on, and the answer to your question is that you might have a 5 or a 7 or a 9 year old hard drive (specs show that model can be as small as a 40GB capacity which is quite ancient). This means the probability for failure is quite high, and if you added 2 years of usage onto a drive that could be as old as 7 years; it could be 9 years old or older. Hard drives are only designed to last 3 years in desktop PC's and 2 years in laptops. I know you're trying to save money, but that drive is seriously out of date, and the fact that it still even turns on and spins is quite remarkable. I would follow Norway's suggestions to test a reboot to see where you are, but you should back up whatever you can on that drive to external media and throw it in the trash ASAP or your nearest eco-recycle dump! Get a brand new drive as your secondary drive, and this problem will most likely vanish.

As an additional precaution I would download the free SEATOOLS utility from www.seagate.com and run BOTH short and long tests on that Seagate drive (your C: bootdrive). If SEATOOLS returns errors on either test, your Seagate drive has failed and must be replaced. Make sure to backup your data from that drive before you do the replacement if possible. You mention in your Post #3 you have no Image backup, so that's why I mention it.

If either of your drives is failing or has failed, this could be the reason why this problem occurred. When a catastrophic event occurs especially after a failed Windows upgrade attempt, such as a W10 upgrade, or even after a weekly Microsoft push update, "coincidental hardware failure" often comes to mind. Almost always, aging hard drives that have failed are at fault. I'm sure that you're aware of the fact that failed hard drives are the #1 failed computer component we Techs see in our repair businesses on a daily basis. If not, you are aware now. You should consider testing, and or replacing those older drives in that computer to prevent a repeat of this failure.<<<

Best of luck,
<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>

 

[rpahl13]

"ok so the old c drive is now; blank, formatted, just missing?"
Nothing is blank, formatted, or missing. The 3 drives just switched around.

"specs show that model can be as small as a 40GB capacity which is quite ancient)"
This one is 500GB.