BOOT/BCD problem

Hi,

Toshiba laptop, L300D.
Cant get it to boot up.
A black screen with white writing gives a message about unable to boot,
cannot find BOOT/BCD
And an error: 0cx000000f
------------------
I am not familiar with using the repair facilities,
and i would appreciate any help with this.

Cheers, John

Hi John, welcome to Seven Forums.

Im pretty sure you have the same laptop as my girlfriend, if I remember rightly the repair options are under F8 when you switch the laptop on.

Boot the laptop, and spam F8 until the Repair options surface. (see attached screenshot, although it won't look identical, as it will also have an option that says "Toshiba HDD recovery" or something similar. LEAVE THAT OPTION ALONE!)



Run Startup Repair - Tutorial: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html you may need to repeat this up to 3 times, until the laptop boots.

Hi severedsolo,

Well i hope your girlfriends machine doesn't give the problems that this one has.
i will try to post a pic of the display i get after pressing F8,
or after not pressing F8,
as it ignores the pressing of F8.

I can get to the bios,
not that this is much help.
Or any help really.

John

Do you have the installation disc?

Hi badkarma11,

No i'm afraid i don't have the installation disk.
If only i had that installation disk.

I do however have a 'Windows 7 32-bit Repair Disc.iso'
with which i am able to bring up several options,
including CMD.

Unfortunately, i know nothing about Win7.
So i thought i would ask here, on this forum.
I will try to post a pic of one of the displays from that CD.

John

Hello John,

Read this tutorial: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html

If problem persists, run these commands in Command Prompt (in System Recovery Options)...
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /fixmbr

If THAT does not fix either, run this final command in Command Prompt...
bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup
c:
cd boot
attrib bcd -s -h -r
ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old
bootrec /RebuildBcd

Hi John,

Sorry to hear the first option didn't work, it looks like toshiba has linked the recovery partition to the BCD... that's a really clever idea.

If you have a repair disk, then that should be sufficient to run Startup Repair. Boot from the repair disk and run startup repair from there as per the tutorial I posted before. Again, you may need to run it 3 times.

On a side note, it may be worth checking how you would normally access recovery options, it should be in the documentation that came with the laptop if you have it. Normally this is on F8, I suspect the laptop was ignoring it because it couldn't find an OS to boot anyway. May be worth checking though.

Hi DeanP,

Thank you for your reply.
I read through that post/tutorial - Startup Repair
an interesting read.

Also, i am quite surprised at how busy this forum is.
And a lot of it seems to be startup problems.

Somewhere in that Tutorial i found out something very interesting,
that there are two CMD arrangements.
There is an Advanced Command Mode,
as well as an ordinary Command Mode.

I did not know that.

Apparently you know when you are in Advanced Command Mode
because it starts from System32.

Well i am pleased to say that the command mode that i was able to access
did indeed start in system32.

I went back over that tutorial to read up more about this, but i didn't
find it again. I think it may have been via one of the links in there.
From what i recall some of the functions can only be done in the
Advanced Command Mode, so i spose i should be glad i've got to that one.

*************

Anyway, the problem does indeed persist.

After many "Startup Repair" routines, there does not seem to be any change.
I began to wonder if this machine has Win7-64, instead of Win7-32
so i downloaded a 64bit rescue disk, and got the same results.

Thing is, although i am pretty sure its 32bit, i dont really know.
And i dont know how to tell.

The build is Ver 6.1.7600
For all i know, the 64bit has the same build number.
So, i am going to go with it being a 32bit machine.
(unless theres a way to tell for sure)

*****************

I am going to get back to the advanced CMD,
and do as you say,
bootrec /fixboot then bootrec /fixmbr

Now, will it be Ok to run these commands from the starting point of CMD,
which in this case is
Administrator.X:\windows\system32\cmd.exe
which takes me to

X:\windows\system32>_

********************

Or should i navigate to the C drive ?

Maybe the X drive holds the instructions to work on the C drive,
Or maybe i should go to the C drive to do this.

Unfortunately my knowledge of Win7 architecture is no more than a mustard seed,
and my knowledge of repairing it, is even less.
I dont even know what or where drive X is.
(maybe its a repair partition ?)

**********************

I am gratefull for your help,
and i will patiently await your reply.

Regards, John

Hi SeveredSolo,
Just noticed your last reply, thanks.
reading through it now.
John

found that bit i was looking for.
Its called "Elevated Command Prompt"
not advanced as i had thought.

Elevated Command Prompt means the Command Prompt is running as administrator.

Navigate to C: instead of X:

Ah, do it on C:
i should have known that.

I'll do that now.

John

Hi DeanP,

Done that, seems Ok.
What should i do next ?

(its still switched on ,running on the repair disk)

Cheers, John

Start booting again and see if that works.

Okay, will do,
then i got to go to bed, its pretty late here. (London UK)

Cheers John

Hi DeanP,

Restarted it a couple of times, still the same as in post #3.
"an error ocurred while attempting to read the boot config file"

So perhaps i should try the other possibility that you suggested:

If THAT does not fix either, run this final command in Command Prompt...

bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup
c:
cd boot
attrib bcd -s -h -r
ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old
bootrec /RebuildBcd


I'll wait a while for a reply,
then i'll give it a go, Ok.

Cheers, John

I have run out of ideas - just wait for another guru to come. Installation & repair is not one of my expertise.

Hi,
I will try to post a pic of the cmd prompt display,
not having much experience of dealing with directions from the CMD prompt.

(dunno how to post in text)

I dont know what to make of this.
*
Add installation to boot list?
*
*
This is clearly a question.
*
The machine is asking me something.
*
The programmer obviously thinks that i should know what is being asked,
and what the appropriate answer should be.
The question kind of implies that this installation of Windows
is not on "boot list"
*
I didnt know it had to be on a list.
*
Or maybe its badly worded,
Maybe the programmer is just asking if i want to
set these booting instructions to start this installation of windows ...
*
Maybe he was trying to be brief and concise.
*
I dunno, but the question doesn't make much sense to me.
*
If this machine had lots of installations of windows,
but this one got forgotten, and wasn't on the list,
then it might make sense a little bit.
*
I think i need a bit of guidance,
with sort of basic stuff.
*
Like what does that question mean, and what does it want?
*
*
Cheers John

It is asking if you want the Windows 7 partition to appear at the boot list (known as boot manager) - go with Yes

Hi,
Googled "Bootcfg commands" and got Microsoft article, "Article ID: 317521"
about the bootcfg command and its uses.
*
It seems that there is a sort of list.
*
Apparently it allows for many operating systems to be available.
The article also says i will be asked for an 'Identifier'
.
.
In my case there is only one,
so when it asks for an identifier i will assume thats the one it found: C:/Windows,
I guess i would put that as the identification.
Unless just one will automatically go into the default position.
We shall see.
*
I'll go with Yes (Y) as instructed.
Cheers, John