A Windows 10 desktop PC powers on but immediately displays the message "No operating system found." The system's SSD is detected in BIOS/UEFI and passes the manufacturer's hardware diagnostics. After booting from Windows installation media, the technician opens Command Prompt and confirms that the Windows partition and user data are present and readable. Which of the following problems is MOST likely causing the startup error?
Critical system files such as WINLOAD.EXE are missing
BIOS/UEFI is set to boot from the wrong device
The Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store is corrupted or missing
The hard drive or SSD has suffered a physical failure
Because the disk hardware, partition table, and files are all intact, the firmware is handing control to the disk but Windows cannot complete the hand-off to its loader. The Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store tells Windows where the boot manager and installed OSs reside. If the BCD store is corrupt or missing, the firmware cannot locate a valid loader even though the drive and files are present, so it reports that no operating system is found. An incorrect boot order or failed drive would keep the disk from appearing in diagnostics or BIOS, while a single missing system file (such as winload.exe) normally produces a different loader error, not the generic "No OS found" message.
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What is the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store in Windows?
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How can you repair a corrupted or missing BCD store?
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Why doesn’t a missing critical file like WINLOAD.EXE cause the 'No operating system found' error?