Solved \BOOT\BCD 0xc000000d unreadable boot configuration data

[LABDaddy]

I am running Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate on two PCs on my home network. I went to use one yesterday and was presented with a black screen. I rebooted the PC hoping that would solve my issue and was presented with the following error message while trying to reboot:

Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause.

File: \BOOT\BCD
Status: 0xc000000d
Info: An error occurred while attempting to read the boot configuration data

I checked my other PC and saw that it had been updated with several Windows patches yesterday. I'm guessing that the broken PC had an issue installing or rebooting from one of the patches.

I ran the repair utility on the windows 7 dvd as instructed by the error message. 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 tried the auto repair anyway, which appears to be working until the end when it gives me the "The file or directory C:\Boot\BCD is corrupt and unreadable please run Chkdsk utility" error again. Then it says it can't save the fixes and says it can't be repaired. When I check the details it says I need to "repair offline" and that it cannot find an OS installed.

In my searches for an answer, I read about rebuilding the BCD through the command prompt. I ran the following commands:

BOOTREC /FIXMBR - said it was successful
BOOTREC /FIXBOOT - said it was successful
BOOTREC /REBUILDBCD - failed saying The file or directory C:\Boot\BCD is corrupt and unreadable please run Chkdsk utility

I ran chkdsk and got no errors.

I only have one hard drive, but when I go to a command prompt (from the repair section on the Windows 7 Install disk) it defaults to D:. I checked C: and it appears to be making the reserved system space drive C:, which would explain why I can't find a windows install on it.

Is there a way to fix that?
If not, does anyone have any other suggestions?
Worst case, If I just go down the path of re-installing windows without formatting the drive, will it pickup my old settings?

Here is what system info I could get (from the BIOS startup diagnostics):
Main Processor: AMD Athalon 64x2 Dual Core Processor 3800+
Memory Testing: 2030592K +64M shared memory
Memory Information: DDR2 533 Dual Channel, 128 bit

CPU L2 cache size: 512K x 2

 

[theog]

Check your ram.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/715-memory-diagnostics-tool.html?ltr=M
Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html
Check with a hard drive diagnostic tools.
http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

 

[SIW2]

Drive letters in WinPe will probably be different from what you see in windows - that is normal.

I would delete the bcd store and run the commands again. Yes you should be pointing them at the reserved system partition .

Otherwise, at cmd prompt, type:

diskpart

lis vol

( Look to see the drive letter for your main windows partition - if it is D then type as below, otherwise replace D with the letter diskpart gives for the main windows partition)

sel vol d

act

exi

bcdboot d:\windows /s d:

bootsect /nt60 all /mbr

restart the pc - you're good.

 

[LABDaddy]

That worked, thanks for your help!

 

[SIW2]

You're welcome, glad it worked for you.

 

[toxicm]

Tnx from me too, you just saved me from reinstalling

 

[SIW2]

Glad it worked for you.

 

[launched]

Thanks

This thread also prompted me to do a chkdsk on the C drive instead of the one that had the windows files on it. That fixed the same problem everyone else had without having to erase the BCD folder.

Thank you for your help.

 

[bayhuntr]

This fixed my Win7 problem. Thank you, I've been working on this all night.

 

[SIW2]

You're welcome - glad it worked for you.

 

[bayhuntr]

it's back

I spoke too soon. After I got it booted with your instructions, I needed to shut down and move my sata cables around. This is what sata ports are on the Asus P8P67 Deluxe MB:

4 x 3GB (Native Intel)
2 x 6GB (Native Intel)
2 x 6GB (Mavell?)

I have 1 120GB SSD and 1 2TB HD on the Marvell ports. I have 2 x 1TB running RAID 1 on the Intel 6GB ports.

After moving the cables I got a boot error and repeated the steps I had taken last time:

Booted to my repair disk, when it tried to repair and restart it immediately returned
"Failed to save startup options"

I then went to the command prompt and:

bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /rebuildbcd - this successfully found 1 windows install, but when I "Add installation to boot list?" “YES”, I get "The requested system device cannot be found"

I then continued on to your instructions:

diskpart

lis vol (mine is C)

sel vol c

act

exi

bcdboot c:\windows /s c:

bootsect /nt60 all /mbr

Restart and get the same thing:

File: \Boot\BCD
Status: 0xc000000f
Info: An error occurred while attempting to read the boot configuration data.




Any help is appreciated!

______________________

Update. I started thinking maybe the 2 non Intel sata ports were the problem, maybe defective or just diffrent. So I moved all drives onto to Intel ports and rebooted. This time my repair disk was able to fix the start up, and Windows loaded. Cool, right?
I rebooted and opened the Bios to change the sata mode from AHCI or RAID. As it booted i saw a flash of words about "no physical disk" and back to the same problem. Don't know if it was just coincidence so I immediately went in that changes the sata mode back to AHCI, but no change.

Again loaded the repair disk and was able to repair and restart. Window loads, but not before "Check file system on D:"

Attempted a restart from Windows and went right back toe the Window Boot Manger error:
File: \Boot\BCD
Status: 0xc0000225
Info: An error occurred while attempting to read the boot configuration data

I'm heading in the right direction, at lease I can get it to run from the repair disk, Now I need to get it to run without the repair disk. I will try running through the BOOTREC options now.

Same thing after BOTTREC /fixmbr /fixboot /rebuildbcd

____________________________

After reading and trying so many thinks I lost track, including pulling out the SSD system drive and checking in in a different PC, it was fine. I even formatted it and loaded a backup image I had made a week before when the computer was working, but still same problems!? I don't get that.

I finally decided to reload Windows, but not expecting it to work. It did.

So if a backed up image is not reliable, what is the point? Fortunately I also run all my data on a diffrent disks (Raid1), so that is not an issue. Just a lot of time reloading software (after a long weekend of trying to fix)

Any idea what might have happened? Needless to say, I don't like the idea of this happening again.



Mike
San Francisco

 

[sarathmedia]

It worked!

Drive letters in WinPe will probably be different from what you see in windows - that is normal.

I would delete the bcd store and run the commands again. Yes you should be pointing them at the reserved system partition .

Otherwise, at cmd prompt, type:

diskpart

lis vol

( Look to see the drive letter for your main windows partition - if it is D then type as below, otherwise replace D with the letter diskpart gives for the main windows partition)

sel vol d

act

exi

bcdboot d:\windows /s d:

bootsect /nt60 all /mbr

restart the pc - you're good.

This worked perfect!

Thank you very much, just registered to say thanks to you...

 

[SIW2]

Glad it worked for you - thanks for letting us know.

 

[groner]

Hi, i did what SIW2, but when i type act, after sel vol d, it is shown this message:

"Virtual Disk Service error:
The specified partition type is not valid for this operation."

Can someone help me ?? Im stuck at this part and i dont have any idea of what to do.

 

[SIW2]

That is probably telling you it is not a Primary partition. Only Primaries can be marked active.

You had better download partition wiz free boot disk.

Then you can see what you are doing.

Partition Wizard Bootable CD allows user to manage partition directly with partition manager bootable CD.

 

[itssarwar]

Don't know how I can thank you. Most I could do is to register this forum to thank you... You saved a lot of my time and hassle...
Thaaaaankkkksss a lot........

 

[SIW2]

Glad to be of help.

 

[neohet]

0xc000000d generic error

Hi all, Went through this thread to attempt solving this issue for my system which has both Win 7 Ultimate x64 and 32bit editions.
Few days back had installed Acronis boot loader to ensure I could add another Linux partition, however after running successfully for 3 days, the 4th day the system crashed.
Tried all the steps and managed to recover only the 32-bit version of Win 7, but for 64-bit I still get the 0xc000000d error.

I have the following: System reserved Partition (about 500MB), Win7 32-bit (about 500GB) and Win7 64-bit (about 500GB).
I also installed the MiniTool PartitionWizard and detected 4 error blocks in the partition of the 64-bit OS.
Any suggestions or help appreciated!

 

[orcus tubbsar]

this still works!

saved me from reinstall or even throwing my laptop through the window...

some commands had to be adapted ("sel c:" became "select c:"), but it worked perfectly.

thanks a lot.

 

[kapiljakhar]

Hi,

I found this old thread. I am having this problem.

Laptop - Dell
Wins 7
My laptop had battery problem, but it was still working with power chord.

Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. It installed a software update and when I restarted it I got a black screen with this error.

File: \BOOT\BCD
Status: 0xc000000d
Info: An error occurred while attempting to read the boot configuration data

The problem I am facing is that nothing is happening even if I press F1 to F9 keys. When I press Esc it again brings back me to the same screen. I am not able to go to cmd prompt. I do not have any DVD or CD. Please help me what are my options. I have a lot of data in my computer.

Thanks
Kapil