Solved bcdedit - a device which does not exist was specified

Wisewiz · Aug 23, 2023

@Brink Any idea why I get this bottom line? (device ... does not exist ...)

Brink · Aug 23, 2023

Wisewiz said:
@Brink Any idea why I get this bottom line? (device ... does not exist ...)

Could be the EFI partition.

Wisewiz · Aug 23, 2023

Brink · Aug 23, 2023

Wisewiz said:
?

View attachment 68691

Go ahead and post back with a screenshot of the full bcdedit output to see if anything may standout.

Wisewiz · Aug 23, 2023

Wisewiz · Aug 23, 2023

I guess what stands out is the line "device unknown."

Brink · Aug 23, 2023

@Wisewiz,

Yep, it looks like an "unknown" device issue for the EFI partition.

Next, post a screenshot of Disk Management showing the full layout of your drives. Especially the EFI partition.

Wisewiz · Aug 23, 2023

Brink · Aug 23, 2023

@Wisewiz,

Well, it doesn't look like it's going to let you use a workaround to assign a drive letter to the EFI partition.

If you like, doing a repair install should sort this pretty easily.

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SIW2 · Aug 23, 2023

at admin cmd:

reg query "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control" /v FirmwareBootDevice

should be able to set it for example like this:
Bcdedit -set {bootmgr} device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume1

find out where it booting from by using the reg query command above.

Or you can use this little thing what I cobbled together quite a while ago which should return something like this:

Wisewiz · Aug 23, 2023

Tried using MiniTool Partition Wizard to assign a drive letter to EFI partition. That seemed to work (at least in the MTPW window), but a new run of bcdedit shows the same "device unknown" line.

My question: Since I have no booting issues, either with ordinary boot, restart, or boot-from-USB, I'm wondering whether this problem that bcdedit reveals (and which I was unaware of until now) is worth the annoyance of a repair install. I love the convenience of the repair install procedure, and I've used it several times with great results, but it takes away almost all of my customizations and puts everything (like the File Explorer display and my Power Win+X Menu, and a bunch of other things I use registry tweaks for -- mostly created by you, Good Sir) back the way MS defaults it, so I'm wondering whether it's worth the effort.

What's your professional opinion, Dr. Brink?

Brink · Aug 23, 2023

Wisewiz said:
Tried using MiniTool Partition Wizard to assign a drive letter to EFI partition. That seemed to work (at least in the MTPW window), but a new run of bcdedit shows the same "device unknown" line.

My question: Since I have no booting issues, either with ordinary boot, restart, or boot-from-USB, I'm wondering whether this problem that bcdedit reveals (and which I was unaware of until now) is worth the annoyance of a repair install. I love the convenience of the repair install procedure, and I've used it several times with great results, but it takes away almost all of my customizations and puts everything (like the File Explorer display and my Power Win+X Menu, and a bunch of other things I use registry tweaks for -- mostly created by you, Good Sir) back the way MS defaults it, so I'm wondering whether it's worth the effort.

What's your professional opinion, Dr. Brink?

Since you assigned a drive letter for the EFI partition, you could run the command below in an elevated command prompt to change "unknown".

bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device partition=<drive letter>:

Change <drive letter> in the command to the same drive letter you assigned to the EFI partition.

For example, if you assigned "F" to EFI, use this command:

bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device partition=F:

SIW2 · Aug 23, 2023

That is another way to do it. Can use a letter or the symbolic link device path.

It is stored as disk id and partition id in the bcd store, but it displays an alias to the user either a letter or device path.

Because it is showing unknown in bcdedit, it would be interesting to see the output from the getbootdevice.exe I posted.

Wisewiz · Aug 23, 2023

Nope. That command failed, with result

I think the MTPW labelling attempt failed, and I now have no Healthy (EFI ...) designation in dsk mngt for that partition. Is that another problem, and should I go ahead and do the repair install to fix all this?

Brink · Aug 23, 2023

Wisewiz said:
Nope. That command failed, with result

View attachment 68700

I think the MTPW labelling attempt failed, and I now have no Healthy (EFI ...) designation in dsk mngt for that partition. Is that another problem, and should I go ahead and do the repair install to fix all this?

View attachment 68701

A repair install would be the easiest way.

SIW2 · Aug 23, 2023

Because it is showing unknown in bcdedit, it would be interesting to see the output from the getbootdevice.exe I posted.

bcd stores the data something like this:

device PartEx {6e277fa6-aa82-4939-b7e4-1cb049271596} HD GPT Sig:{fa75f1bd-5ec8-4fa2-98c8-e124d85014cd} and diplays either a drive letter or device path to the user.

Wisewiz · Aug 23, 2023

SIW2 · Aug 23, 2023

That looks ok.

I dont know why it isn't displaying the device path in your bcdedit output.

Try setting as I suggested earlier at Admin cmd prompt:

Bcdedit -set {bootmgr} device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume1

SIW2 · Aug 23, 2023

Dont know what you have done with that partition manager. Look in diskmgmt to see if it shows as efi system. It did in your earlier screenshot of diskmgmt.

if it is not showing as efi in diskmgmt you might have inadvertently changed the partition type when mucking around with minitool.

If that is what you have done, it is quite easy to change it back.

Bcdedit wont work properly unless the system partition is {C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B}

I use diskgenius for changing partition type , perhaps it can be done minitool. Only takes a few seconds.

rt clcik the system partition and select Modify Partition Parameters

select Efi system partition in the dropdown. Then click Ok

Click Save All at top left of diskgenius window.

Wisewiz · Aug 23, 2023

@SIW2

Got it. Many thanks.

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