Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Windows 10 Boot Failure Error Code 0xc000000e

Problem:
Windows tries to load but fails with blue screen.

Recovery
Your PC/Device needs to be repaired
The application or operating system couldn’t be loaded because a required file is missing or contains errors.
File: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Error Code:0xc000000e



Solution:

I was unable to recover from this error! But Peter was able to -- highly recommended -- he knows his stuff: http://www.peterspcrepair.com/

Notes based on my limited understanding of the problem:

1.
This was one of the clearest articles I could find.
https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-rebuild-the-bcd-in-windows-2624508
However, my understanding is it's not a suitable fix for a UEFI SSD system drive.

2.
This was one of the clearest articles I could find suitable for UEFI.
https://www.easeus.com/partition-manager-software/fix-uefi-boot-in-windows-10-8-7.html#part5

My results from command prompt: list vol



What tripped me up is I kept thinking the UEFI volume was the same as the system drive. I could assign a letter and see the files on my system drive (i.e. my C:\ drive with windows). But this is the wrong drive to use for bcdboot. The UEFI is apparently always FAT32. I "think" I should have been using volume 5. Volume 7 seems to be from my Windows 10 recovery disk.

So I should have been running (from command prompt) this:
diskpart
sel disk 0
list vol
sel vol 5
assign letter=G: Note: G is a unique drive letter not already in use.

3.
Restoring from a recent restore point did NOT resolve the issue. But was done before the boot repair above.

4.
BIOS boot mode changed from "Dual" to "UEFI". Unclear if this was a necessary fix. My understanding is this was NOT necessary. PC had been working with zero issues for the past 3 months.

No comments:

Post a Comment