Windows 7: Dual Boot: Win7: Boot Manager Status: 0xc000000f boot selection failed

Bikaln1 · 22 Oct 2014

Hello,

I have dual boot in my laptop with Ubuntnu 14.04 LTS and Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. Today after working on Ubuntu I restarted and switched to Windows and as soon as it logged in I noticed the battery was 0%. I thought maybe it was some kind of glitch or something (silly me!) so I just pulled the power supply and the laptop abruptly turned off. My laptop battery is completely dead now...won't charge at all and after that incident when I tried to log back into Windows it showed this error:

Windows failed to start. A recent hardware of software change might be the cause. To fix the problem:

1.Insert your Windows installation disc and restart the computer.
2.Choose your language settings, and then click "Next".
3.Click "Repair your computer."

If you do not have this disc, contact your system administrator or computer manufacturer for assistance.

Status: 0xc000000f

Info: The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible.

I don't have an installation disc, I tried pressing F8 and none of the options there helped. Ubuntu still works totally fine though. So I'm guessing it is not some hard drive crash and my data are fine in Windows but I just can't boot into it! Please Help!!

Kaktussoft · 22 Oct 2014

Are you using GRUB2 as bootmanager and is windows one of the options? Or do you start ubuntu from the win7 boot menu?

Kaktussoft · 22 Oct 2014

Quote: Originally Posted by Bikaln1

Hello,

I have dual boot in my laptop with Ubuntnu 14.04 LTS and Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. Today after working on Ubuntu I restarted and switched to Windows and as soon as it logged in I noticed the battery was 0%. I thought maybe it was some kind of glitch or something (silly me!) so I just pulled the power supply and the laptop abruptly turned off. My laptop battery is completely dead now...won't charge at all and after that incident when I tried to log back into Windows it showed this error:

Windows failed to start. A recent hardware of software change might be the cause. To fix the problem:

1.Insert your Windows installation disc and restart the computer.
2.Choose your language settings, and then click "Next".
3.Click "Repair your computer."

If you do not have this disc, contact your system administrator or computer manufacturer for assistance.

Status: 0xc000000f

Info: The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible.

I don't have an installation disc, I tried pressing F8 and none of the options there helped. Ubuntu still works totally fine though. So I'm guessing it is not some hard drive crash and my data are fine in Windows but I just can't boot into it! Please Help!!

Boot to ubuntu and run a partition manager like GPARTED or any other partition manager. Post a screenshot of the partition layout and the file systems like shown on GParted -- Screenshots for example

Bikaln1 · 23 Oct 2014

Hi Kaktussoft,

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I use Grub 2 and select Windows 7. The screen shots from GParted are attached. It definitely shows some errors...Sorry, I replied a little late but I had a major problem with GParted and had to make a new thread about it in UbuntuForums but I figured it out by myself. Thanks for help, much appreciated...

Kaktussoft · 23 Oct 2014

You see the warning at sda3 screenshot? Most likely because the ntfs drivers aren't loaded. Please borrow a win7 x64 install DVD or a System Repair Disc - Create

Don't perform a "startup repair" because that rewrites the disk's MBR and linux won't boot afterwards!

Boot from that CD/DVD and enter recovery options System Recovery Options . Now select "command prompt". Or just do Command Prompt at Startup

From within command prompt determine what drive letter the win7 volume has.

Code:

diskpart
list volume (what volume has flag system or boot in output?)
exit

Its label is OS but what is the drive letter? In this example I use Q use drive letter.

Code:

chkdsk/f  Q:

Many errors? All repaired? Maybe run it twice to see if all has been fixed.

Code:

bcdedit /store C:\boot\bcd  /enum all> Q:\bcd.txt

C is drive letter of partition marked "system" in "list volume" output. Now copy the file Q:\bcd.txt to usb stick. For example (assuming K is usb stick drive letter)

Code:

copy  Q:\bcd.txt  K:\

Attach the usb stick to a healthe machine and post that file bcd.txt .

Bikaln1 · 23 Oct 2014

Actually, I don't mind losing Ubuntu. It's just been around 2 months that I've installed it and there are not much files in Ubuntu...I just use it to learn Linux and become familiar with it but I need Windows as it was and I can again install and dual boot Ubuntu. So, in that case can I perform a Startup Repair...I will have all the files in Windows right. Also, if it is ok to perform startup repair then, since their are two OS, what kinds of errors or warnings am I likely to get at that point?

Kaktussoft · 23 Oct 2014

Startup Repair will fix a few things by simply overwriting stuff. For example the MBR will be overwritten, and the NTFS bootsector of the active partition for example. Both are not the source of the problem anyway!

Is OS drive still healthy? chkdsk/f command will show and fix that.
Is boot entry in bootmenu still pointing to OS partition? Answer... NO and that's the cause of the problems! Did you move start position of partition OS?
What is sda2?

Startup repair isn't needed! Did you burn a win7 x64 install dvd already? Or a system repair cd?

Bikaln1 · 23 Oct 2014

No, unfortunately I can get hands on the Windows 7 disc only after 4 days...Meanwhile, I will be using Ubuntu...I will definitely report after 4 days, so please stay subscribed to this post...Thanks a lot!! :)

Kaktussoft · 23 Oct 2014

In linux:

Code:

 
sudo  apt-get  update
sudo  apt-get  install  ntfs-3g
sudo  apt-get  install  ntfsprogs

Both install succesfullly? If so reboot to linux and try access sda3 and sda2 again.

Kaktussoft · 23 Oct 2014

I don't know if it's realy a ntfs partition

Code:

 
sudo  ntfsfix  /dev/sda2

But sda3 is a ntfs partition.

Code:

 
sudo  ntfsfix  /dev/sda3