reboot loop, missing users, windows, programfiles folders

Question

Hello,

I have two separate SSD's on which I have two installations of Windows 10.  For simplicity's sake, let's say I started working with Disk 1, then installed W10 on disk 2.  I set the BIOS to use disk 2 and have been running with disk 2 for the last 6 months.

Last night I needed to get data and a few other things off of disk 1 so I set the boot in the BIOS to disk 1.  I booted in, generated and copied some data files, rebooted, and went into the bios to change the boot order back to disk 2.

Now I'm stuck in the Automatic Repair loop that many folks have seen if I set the BIOS to boot from disk 2.

Even more interestingly, when I boot back into disk 1 and look at the mounted disk 2 (it's currently the G:\ drive) there are only 4 folders: NVIDIA, Python35, temp, and WINDOWS.  No users folder.  No Program Files.  No Program Files x86.

I always turn off the "hide extensions, don't show hidden", so it's not that.  If I open a command prompt and try a "cd users" from the g:\ drive I get "The system cannot find the path specified."

If I boot from disk 2 into the command prompt from the Auto Repair screen and change drives to disk 2 and do a dir, I see the 4 directories I mentioned.  Again, doing a "cd users" from there yields the same "The system cannot find the path specified."  Interestingly, if I cd into the Windows folder and do a dir it only lists a "Logs" subdir.  Nothing else.  No system32, no Windows files, nothing!

I used two different data recovery tools and neither shows any of the files that I need as having been deleted, although it does show files I did manually delete from days earlier.  It's as if those directories never existed!

Answer 1

AVG is an immediate suspect, especially if something like this would arise after a clean install with only its bloatware installed. No expert in forms where we see the most cases by the thousands has recommended AVG for 10 years since it loaded up and started causing issues. But we do solve a lot of problems by having customers uninstall it.

Answer 2

Hi,

booted with all other drives disconnected.  Same issue; comes up with the Auto Repair loop.

Again, dropping to a command prompt shows only the 4 previously mentioned directories.  If I navigate into the Python35 folder I can see scripts that I wrote, so I *know* this is the correct drive.

The other directories just vanished.  I have no idea what could literally make them insta-vanish like that.  It was like one reboot and *poof*, everything is gone.  

I had AVG updated and running on disk 2 (the main use one) and AVG was running on disk 1 but hadn't had virus definitions updated for six months-ish.  I think the possibility of a virus is pretty small, although I suppose anything is possible.

At this point, I don't care about being able to boot into disk 2 ... but I *really* need the data that was on it.  Using freeware disk recovery programs show a ton of old, deleted things, but none of the actual dirs/files that were a part of the users or program files folders.  It's as if they never existed.  And again, the windows folder is completely empty, too.  

This is quite maddening.  Is my only option some specialized company that can recover drives?  It seems quite improbable that Windows would just randomly delete itself ...

Answer 3

Having the EFI system partition booting Disc 1 stranded in the middle of an otherwise empty disc 2 is one of the wrongest things I have ever seen, and I've probably helped over 10,000 consumers in forums sort out complicated boot issues in the past 10 years - including troubleshooting the entire beta phase of UEFI firmware before it ever worked correctly.

Answer 4

Hi Greg,

thank you for the reply.  Yes, it's a UEFI install; I pointed the BIOS to the W10 boot manager on each drive, not the drive itself.

I think the bigger issue isn't the booting, but the fact that the user, windows, and program file directories are gone/empty.

I'll try booting with all other drives unplugged.

Answer 5

Hey Eggo. I'm Greg, an installation specialist and 9 year Windows MVP, here to help you.

Is this a UEFI install? If so the hard drive is never set to boot first, only the WIndows Boot Manager. So a multiboot like that must be managed through a Boot Menu installed when you install subsequent Windows installations with the other drive attached, or by installing EasyBCD to add the other to a Boot menu.

You could also in UEFI Setup have one drive be installed in Legacy Mode or CSM to MBR so that it could be managed by setting it's hard drive first to boot.

You did not need to start the other Windows to access it's data. Just assign it a drive letter in Disk Management so you can browse it like any data drive.

What I'd do now is unplug all other drives, set UEFi firmware to Windows Boot Manager first to boot, unless it's Legacy MBR in which case you can set the hard drive first to boot, then run Startup Repair. This will rarely work if other OS drives are not unplugged first. You can also go through this list which compiles everything possible to get Windows started: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki...

I hope this helps. Feel free to ask back any questions and let us know how it goes. I will keep working with you until it's resolved.

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