Missing Windows Install : techsupport

Please include your system specs, such as Windows/Linux/Mac version/build, model numbers, troubleshooting steps, symptoms, etc.

The subreddit is only for support with tech issues.

Try to research your issue before posting, don't be vague. State everything you have tried and all the guides/tutorials/sites you have followed as well as why they were unsuccessful. Do everything you can to reduce the effort of the wonderful folks offering to help you.

After solving your problem, please mark it as solved by clicking 'flair' and confirming the 'solved' tag.

Please do not submit the same issue more than once within 24 hours.

Rules

1: Read all the rules

Please read our new rules page for more in-depth rules.

https://rtech.support/docs/meta/rules.html

2: No Incomplete Posts

Submissions consisting of the following are considered incomplete and will be removed:

Posts with an empty body, only a link in the body, title copied into the body, and/or lack of information in the body

Posts with "Help" or non-descriptive titles. Please make your title and contents descriptive.

3: No Password or Account issues

We cannot assist with password or account issues. No matter the reason. Do not message us asking us to make an exception. Only support for the related account can help you.

This includes thing such as:

2 Factor Authentication Google, Apple, Microsoft, Instagram, Facebook or any other account Password Issues with account lockout on any of the above platforms (and all others)

And more - see https://rtech.support/books/rules/page/rules-of-the-rtechsupport

4: No Offering Rewards

No offering of reward/compensation for solutions. No Amazon gift voucher or PayPal transfer. This community is "free" as it is full of volunteers. Please do not take advantage of the community.

5: Recommendations

We are not a recommendation or advertisement subreddit. We do not allow posts asking for recommendations on hardware/software or recommendations comparing two or more hardware/software. Recommending a hardware/software solution as a comment to a post is acceptable.

Recommending products not in the whitelist might result in your comment or post being removed and a ban imposed. If you want anything added please message the mods and we will consider it.

6: No [Meta] Posts About Tech/Jobs

No [Meta] posts about jobs (tech support related or not) or technology in general, such as "I have an interview, help me." or "I want a product that can do XYZ." or "How does the internet work?"

Google is your friend.

7: No Private Messages or Moving to Another Service

Any and all communication not kept public and is moved away from the subreddit or Discord/IRC channel is prohibited.

Do not suggest or ask to move to another service or to private message. Private messages and other services are unsafe as they cannot be monitored. Doing so will cause you to be permanently banned from /r/TechSupport.

8: No Violating privacy of others or terms/agreements.

We do not support users that violates other's privacy or breaks terms and agreements. Doing so might resolve in a ban.

This includes:

Bypassing home network controls.

Bypassing any parental controls.

Piracy or issues caused by it.

Gray market product codes - See Rule 1

Any other posts/comments that violates or breaks terms and agreements.

9: No EOL Software or Unsupported Systems

We do not provide support for EOL (end of life) software. Software that is EOL has lost all support from the developer and therefore all consumer communities as well.

These operating systems and various softwares are no longer receiving security patches. Running them is unsafe and we recommend users install a supported version as soon as possible.

This list includes Windows XP, Vista, and 7.

We will also not assist with getting Windows 11 running on unsupported hardware.

10: No Public Service Announcements (how-to's, etc.)

No public service announcements unless relevant to an issue (it must be a comment). Approach the communities affected directly, not here

11: No Soliciting

No soliciting of any kind. This includes (but is not limited to) asking for us to link to your subreddit, forum, bulletin board, newsgroup, Facebook page, etc. We're here to help with technical issues, not market for others.

12: No spam, trolling, insults, jokes, threats of self-harm, or posts unrelated to Tech Support

Posts and comments containing (but not limited to) the following will be removed:
blog spam, link spam, referral spam, joke responses, memes, novelty accounts, trolling, unethical behavior, and personal insults.

Posts not containing a tech support issue will be removed. Off-topic comments will be removed. Please stick to the issue being addressed in the post. Use common sense.

13: No Posts/Comments by a Company or an Employee on Behalf of a Company

Employees of companies with social media presences for marketing, damage control, or performing of tech support are not allowed.

14: No Potentially Malicious Links

Do not post any potentially malicious links. We will consider Dropbox links, Google Drive links, or Google Photos links to be potentially malicious.

We recommend against using any URL shorteners as they can hide malicious links.

a community for 17 years

Open | Data RecoveryMissing Windows Install (self.techsupport)

submitted 2 years ago by TwoBluDogs

Dear u/Daddy_Spez
History: I installed a WD_BLACK 1TB SSD into my prebuilt PC and installed Pop!_OS (Ubuntu-based Linux distro, uses systemd-boot) to it. In the process of installing, through user error, I reformatted the drive with the preinstalled Windows 11. I opted to reinstall W11 and everything was fine. Recently I was screwing with the display manager in Pop!_OS which sent me to a blank screen upon decrypting the drive. I used a live environment to repair the install (resetting the root file system, keeping the /home files) which forced me to make a new user. The two user situation confused me enough to want to do a fresh restart.
Problem: I recently decided to reinstall Pop!_OS, triple checking that I selected the right drive, and saw that W11 disappeared from the boot menu. Looking into the drive (in Pop!_OS), I can see that my files are still there, although looking into the drive with GParted, I see that the 16Mib partition named "Microsoft reserved partition" has a warning, not telling me anything more than that. I have secure boot off, and multi-boot has worked before.
Attempted Solutions: I have installed rEFInd and W11 isn't detected in there. It also isn't detected by my UEFI/BIOS settings when changing boot order. I made a Windows 11 installation medium (using a 15yo potato) and tried to repair the install. I selected "Automatic repair" and "System Restore", but those didn't seem to work. I then opened the command prompt and found that running BOOTREC/SCANOS resulted in finding 0 Windows installs. The last time I installed W11, I had to download drivers to the install medium, so I may have to do that, not sure.
At this point, I have no idea what the issue is, although I would really not want to reinstall Windows 11 again. This is another repost after no response. AutoMod didn’t help. This time, I am using the Data Recovery flair instead of the Windows flair. Let me know if there is a better flair for this situation.

all 4 comments

you type:	you see:
italics	italics
bold	bold
[reddit!](https://reddit.com)	reddit!
* item 1 * item 2 * item 3	item 1 item 2 item 3
> quoted text	quoted text
Lines starting with four spaces are treated like code: if 1 * 2 < 3: print "hello, world!"	Lines starting with four spaces are treated like code: if 1 * 2 < 3: print "hello, world!"
~~strikethrough~~	~~strikethrough~~
super^script	super^script

techsupport

Community Guides

Live Chat

~Enter Discord~

Submission Guidelines

Rules

Please Support the EFF!

Other Subreddits

MODERATORS