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I had a problem after tyring to install Ubuntu and I kinda screwed some things up, so my Windows 10 wouldnt boot, luckily I had a drive with nothing important on it so I installed Windows 10 on it, and I am currently using it. But I want my old drive back or at least migrate all my data so the new installment looks like the old one. I can accses my old drive without any problems.

Anything I can do to repair my old drive or anything else. I really dont know what information you need, but I am happy to give it if it can help.

Enoo_58
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  • Are you dual booting Linux or is Windows the only bootable OS? If you're not dual booting with Linux, boot to WinRE and run `BootRec /FixMBR && BootRec /RebuildBCD`; however, if you're dual-booting Windows and Linux, `BootRec` cannot be used as it'll overwrite GRUB, so you'll need to use a Linux program to rebuild the BCD store _(search @harrymc's answers, as he addresses it somewhere)_. Was anything modified on the non-bootable Windows OS partition when the Ubuntu install was attempted? If no, the aforementioned will fix the issue; _(cont'd in next comment)_ – JW0914 Jan 09 '22 at 13:21
  • _Cont'd..._ if yes, [capture](https://superuser.com/a/1581804/529800) a WIM _(Imaging section)_ of the old _and_ new OS partitions, reformat the _old_ Windows OS partition, apply the WIM of the new [current] install to the reformatted partition, then apply the WIM of the old install to the same [reformatted] partition, run the `BootRec` commands from my previous comment and try to boot it. If that fails to boot w/ BSODs, you can use the [USMT](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/usmt/usmt-overview) [User State Migration Tool] to migrate your user profile to the current install. – JW0914 Jan 09 '22 at 13:21

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First, backup all your personal data from the old disk, in case the following causes an error.

Then try to physically disconnect the new Windows disk, leaving on the old one in the computer. Now boot the Windows installation and try to install into the old Windows partition. Stop if the installation doesn't detect that this partition already contains a Windows installation (it should ask if this is OK).

If the old Windows cannot be detected by the installation, you need a more complicated solution.

harrymc
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