Hey everyone! I attempted to install Windows 11 on a second drive for my dad's laptop, which has a BIOS restriction that prevents changing the boot order. I used my own PC to do the installation. I created a bootable USB drive, but the installation failed at 77%. I removed all other drives except my own NVMe drive with Windows 11 to avoid file conflicts, and made some BIOS adjustments to enable legacy boot. After that, the installation on the new drive seemed successful, so I switched the drive back to the laptop. However, it wouldn't boot to Windows and instead showed a drive selection screen, which ultimately failed to load Windows. To make things worse, my original installation on my PC is now failing with error code 0xc000000e. I attempted to use the USB drive again for repairs, but no fixes worked. I'm contemplating a full format and reinstall, but I'm hoping to recover my files and original setup if possible. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
1 Answer
It sounds like you ran into some major issues with the installation process. Installing Windows on one system and then transferring it to another, especially with a locked BIOS, often won't work. You likely overwritten the secure boot settings and UEFI configurations, which is causing troubles for both machines now. I recommend attempting a startup repair on your PC first to see if that can get it back up and running.
Is there really no chance to recover either Windows installation?