Windows 7: Can't rebuild BCD

Hi,

I've been running Windows 7 64 bit ultimate for a few weeks now and I went to turn on today and was presented with a black screen with the following error message:

Windows had encountered a problem with I/O

0xc00000e9 boot\bcd

I ran the repair utility on the windows 7 dvd and it was unable to find a previous installation of windows with an error box saying "The file or directory C:\Boot\BCD is corrupt and unreadable please run Chkdsk utility". I've read various people saying that I needed to rebuild the BCD through the command prompt (which I was still able to access). However, every time I tried a command relating to the BCD I got the same message saying "The file or directory C:\Boot\BCD is corrupt and unreadable please run Chkdsk utility"



I've run chkdsk and it threw up no errors. Any suggestions

Hello freelancepolice, and welcome to Windows Seven Forums.

I have read here where you say you have tried BCD commands, so I would like to know which ones you have tried already? Here is a link to a MS site ti rebuild the BCD. Is this one you tried?

bootrec /RebuildBcd

How to use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment to troubleshoot and repair startup issues in Windows

Cheers!
Robert

Yes that's the one I tried. Thanks for the welcome and speedy response!

You are welcome. We try to be helpful, and this is a really friendly place, too!

You haven't given us much to work with as far as the brand, model, kind of computer, single hard drive, single OS etc. Do you have an install DVD of Windows 7? Have you booted to the DVD and run any of the startup repair utilities?

Cheers!
Robert

It's a gigabyte mobo, dual core 1.6ghz, three hard drives (two maxtor 120 and a seagate 240 gig)

The OS harddrive is a clean install onto one of the 120 gig maxtors.

I've booted into a windows 7 DVD and tried to run the repair utility but it doesn't find the OS and instead gives me the message "The file or directory C:\Boot\BCD is corrupt and unreadable please run Chkdsk utility" several times (it even says the same for D: as well even though there's no windows installation on my d.

The startup repair tool says it can't be repaired. When I check the details it says "repair offline" and "cannot find OS installed" or something similar.

Here are some of the things other have tried from Googling the error code:

Open the bios menu. First, determine which hard drive is first in boot order ... you want your Windows 7 (or the "Active, Primary" partition with the boot code) hard drive first. Note: if you have a boot menu F-key (F12?) and can select to boot from your DVD drive, put the hard drive first in boot order. Otherwise, the DVD will need to be first to boot to your repair DVD.

Remove any USB devices, maybe disable usb temporarily, disconnect from your network cable, re-try booting to the DVD and repair / rebuild.

I might also suggest for diagnostic purposes to shutdown the computer and unplug the other hard drives to see if Windows will boot when it is the only hard drive.

Please let us know if any of this helps?

Cheers!
Robert

OK I unplugged all hard drives except the main one. Was able to repair windows correctly with the DVD.

Not sure why it happened as the Hard disk seems fine. Thanks for your help! Thought I best post my ending for reference for future users!

Thank you. That is very kind of you to let us know you are going again. Come back any time!

Happy surfing!
Robert

I'm having what sounds to be the same issue, but do not have any additional hard drives or USB devices to disable.

I've tried all of the suggestions in this post with no success. If I just choose the Install Windows 7 link instead of the repair link, will it find all of my previous settings and programs?

The PC has been working fine for several months since doing a clean install of Windows 7. There were several Windows updates installed today on one of my other PCs. I think something may have happened to the other one during the reboot to cause the issue.

Welcome to Seven Forums.

It would be better if you could make a new thread, give the error messages that you have seen, list exactly what steps you have already done and list your system specs.

This will allow more people to see this is a new problem and you will get more responses.