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heliotrope
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2005
- Messages
- 173
Has anyone ever heard of receiving the dreaded "Missing operating system" error after enabling BitLocker? Any ideas how to repair or work around this error?
The Backstory:
I have a Bitlocker-encrypted (TPM + pin) spinning 160 GB hard drive running Windows 7 SP1. Newly purchased, there is a 240 GB SSD drive sitting next to it, and my plan is to copy my whole partition from the 160 GB drive to the 240 GB drive and then enjoy a faster computer.
First step was to fully decrypt BitLocker (took about 6 hours). Then, with the 240 GB SSD attached to my laptop with a USB adapter, I created a 240 GB partition, quick-formatted to NTFS, but did not assign any drive letter.
Next step was to boot the latest version of CloneZilla, and I did a partition-to-partition from the spinning disk to the SSD. Note that my original spinning drive did have a 300 MB partition for bootlocker - I ignored this partition and cloned only the Windows 7 partition. My reasoning was that the 300 MB Bitlocker partition may have drive-specific information that wouldn't work on the new SSD.
So with my partition cloning complete (about 1 hour), I swap the physical drives. My spinning 160 GB disk is removed and placed on the table, and my new SSD is inserted and screwed into the laptop. I restart - and boot directly into a Windows 7 install disk. From that disk's recovery console, I run the automatic recovery option, which "fixes" a corrupt boot record.
With that completed, I reboot and hope for the best. And I am rewarded by the startup of my Windows 7 environment on the new SSD. It works!! I log in, all my applications are there, settings identical, nothing is awry. AND IT IS FAST. This is great!
Well then I have only one thing left to do! I will re-Bitlocker up both my old drive so that it is safe while lying in a desk drawer, and then I will Bitlocker-encrypt the new SSD as well. So I remove the new SSD, insert my old spinning 160 GB disk, and re-enable Bitlocker (TPM + pin). I wait 6 hours and it completes.
Next I remove the old spinning drive, insert the new SSD, and load it back up. I enable Bitlocker, but before I can select a PIN, it says that it needs to prepare the drive. No worries - that's what I expected - and it says it will shrink the boot drive in order to create a Bitlocker-type partition. That takes a few minutes, and before I reboot, I see that there is a 300 MB partition sitting there, NTFS formatted, and no drive letter. It's looking great so far. Now I restart by hitting the button from within the Bitlocker utility.
At that point, the computer fails to boot. "Missing operating system" is what it says.
So I restart, loading up the Windows 7 install disk's recovery console. Auto-detect finds nothing. So I enter the command prompt. Using DISKPART, I find that the new 300 MB bitlocker partition has the C: letter assigned, and my regular Windows 7 drive has the D: drive assigned. So I remove the C: drive from the 300 MB partition, and add it back to the ~223 GB partition that should be the C: drive.
Reboot. "Missing operating system."
Reboot again, enter Windows 7 install disk recovery console, and this time using DISKPART, I just delete the volume containing the 300 MB Bitlocker partition, and re-name the 223 GB partition as C: (did I mention the drive letters switched again??). Reboot. "Missing operating system."
So I re-enter the Windows 7 install disk recovery console, and this time run these three commands:
bcdboot C:\Windows /s C:
bootsect /nt60 C:
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
Then I restart, and voila! Windows 7 boots successfully! And upon logging into Windows, the Bitlocker utility gives an error saying "could not encrypt drive as it contains critical system files".
And so Bitlocker will not enable. But hey, at least I recovered without requiring a re-imaging.
Now here's where I need the help. Why did this happen? Has anyone seen "Missing operating system" errors as I described after enabling Bitlocker? It worked on my spinning disk - why not my new SSD? Any suggestions on things I should try?
Many thanks!
The Backstory:
I have a Bitlocker-encrypted (TPM + pin) spinning 160 GB hard drive running Windows 7 SP1. Newly purchased, there is a 240 GB SSD drive sitting next to it, and my plan is to copy my whole partition from the 160 GB drive to the 240 GB drive and then enjoy a faster computer.
First step was to fully decrypt BitLocker (took about 6 hours). Then, with the 240 GB SSD attached to my laptop with a USB adapter, I created a 240 GB partition, quick-formatted to NTFS, but did not assign any drive letter.
Next step was to boot the latest version of CloneZilla, and I did a partition-to-partition from the spinning disk to the SSD. Note that my original spinning drive did have a 300 MB partition for bootlocker - I ignored this partition and cloned only the Windows 7 partition. My reasoning was that the 300 MB Bitlocker partition may have drive-specific information that wouldn't work on the new SSD.
So with my partition cloning complete (about 1 hour), I swap the physical drives. My spinning 160 GB disk is removed and placed on the table, and my new SSD is inserted and screwed into the laptop. I restart - and boot directly into a Windows 7 install disk. From that disk's recovery console, I run the automatic recovery option, which "fixes" a corrupt boot record.
With that completed, I reboot and hope for the best. And I am rewarded by the startup of my Windows 7 environment on the new SSD. It works!! I log in, all my applications are there, settings identical, nothing is awry. AND IT IS FAST. This is great!
Well then I have only one thing left to do! I will re-Bitlocker up both my old drive so that it is safe while lying in a desk drawer, and then I will Bitlocker-encrypt the new SSD as well. So I remove the new SSD, insert my old spinning 160 GB disk, and re-enable Bitlocker (TPM + pin). I wait 6 hours and it completes.
Next I remove the old spinning drive, insert the new SSD, and load it back up. I enable Bitlocker, but before I can select a PIN, it says that it needs to prepare the drive. No worries - that's what I expected - and it says it will shrink the boot drive in order to create a Bitlocker-type partition. That takes a few minutes, and before I reboot, I see that there is a 300 MB partition sitting there, NTFS formatted, and no drive letter. It's looking great so far. Now I restart by hitting the button from within the Bitlocker utility.
At that point, the computer fails to boot. "Missing operating system" is what it says.
So I restart, loading up the Windows 7 install disk's recovery console. Auto-detect finds nothing. So I enter the command prompt. Using DISKPART, I find that the new 300 MB bitlocker partition has the C: letter assigned, and my regular Windows 7 drive has the D: drive assigned. So I remove the C: drive from the 300 MB partition, and add it back to the ~223 GB partition that should be the C: drive.
Reboot. "Missing operating system."
Reboot again, enter Windows 7 install disk recovery console, and this time using DISKPART, I just delete the volume containing the 300 MB Bitlocker partition, and re-name the 223 GB partition as C: (did I mention the drive letters switched again??). Reboot. "Missing operating system."
So I re-enter the Windows 7 install disk recovery console, and this time run these three commands:
bcdboot C:\Windows /s C:
bootsect /nt60 C:
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
Then I restart, and voila! Windows 7 boots successfully! And upon logging into Windows, the Bitlocker utility gives an error saying "could not encrypt drive as it contains critical system files".
And so Bitlocker will not enable. But hey, at least I recovered without requiring a re-imaging.
Now here's where I need the help. Why did this happen? Has anyone seen "Missing operating system" errors as I described after enabling Bitlocker? It worked on my spinning disk - why not my new SSD? Any suggestions on things I should try?
Many thanks!