Unable to boot, error 0xc0000428

[doughnut]

Hello all,

My computer (Dell Latitude D830, running Windows 7 Enterprise 32-bit) won't boot. The situation arose after a BSOD incident, but I have been trying for months to fix it and think I'm getting close. The auto-recovery tool on the install disc has not been able to fix anything. I have searched quite a bit on sevenforums for my error below but haven't found a solution that works for me.

Currently, upon booting I get error code 0xc0000428 for \Windows\system32\winload.exe. This screenshot is identical to mine:

I am unable to get past this screen, so tried using the command line on my installation disc to try and disable driver signature enforcement. I navigated to \Windows\System32 (where bcdedit.exe lives, not sure if that was necessary) and tried these commands:

bcdedit.exe -set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS
bcdedit.exe -set TESTSIGNING ON

both return the same:
"An error occurred while attempting to reference the specified entry.
The system cannot find the file specified."

I also tried
sfc /scannow

which returns
"There is a system repair pending which requires reboot to complete. Restart Windows and run sfc again."

Restarting of course just puts me back to square one.

I even tried to force the scan by using SFC /SCANNOW /OFFBOOTDIR=C:\ /OFFWINDIR=C:\Windows

which produces "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations." Does anyone have any tips on where to go from here?

 

[Layback Bear]

Have you reported this problem to your I.T. Department? They might be able to help you.

 

[Kaktussoft]

bcdedit.exe /store [B][COLOR=red]C[/COLOR][/B]:\boot\bcd  /set  loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS
bcdedit.exe /store [B][COLOR=red]C[/COLOR][/B]:\boot\bcd   /set  TESTSIGNING ON

replace C with your actual boot disk letter!

 

[Layback Bear]

Because you are using Windows 7 Enterprise I highly recommend contacting your IT Department before changing anything.

 

[doughnut]

Ah, thank you very much, Kaktussoft! I will try that later tonight when I'm home and see if that fixes the issue.

Layback Bear, I appreciate the input. Although I'm using Enterprise, it's actually a personal computer. I have the license to use it through my university. So I get to mess around with these fun things as much as I want!

 

[Kaktussoft]

Boot into http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/668-system-recovery-options.html and select "command prompt"
or http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/666-advanced-boot-options.html using F8 trcks (repair your computer->command prompt)

diskpart
list vol
exit

post output

 

[doughnut]

Attached to this post is a screenshot of my output for both your suggestions. My disk partitions appear healthy and the changes to the bcd commands didn't seem to change anything. Is my syntax correct for those? Or do I need to be in a different directory? The C: drive is definitely my booting partition.

 

[Kaktussoft]

diskpart
sel  vol  c
det  part

Is that partition active?

bcdedit/store  c:\boot\bcd  /enum  all

bcdedit/enum all

dir  c:\boot\bcd
dir /ahs  c:\boot\bcd

post output

 

[Kaktussoft]

In win7 recovery environment:

c:
attrib -h -s bootmgr
ren bootmgr bootmgr.old

If both commands succeed succesfully bootmgr file c:\bootmgr isn't there anymore. But it's there with name bootmgr.old (just to keep it)

Now reboot to recovery environment again and perform a startup repair. Your winload.exe and bootmgr are out of sync for some unknown reason. Startup repair puts a fresh copy of bootmgr on C. Try to boot normally afterwards

What did you do just prior to problem appeared? such problem can appear if you install win8

 

[doughnut]

diskpart
sel  vol  c
det  part

Is that partition active?

bcdedit/store  c:\boot\bcd  /enum  all

bcdedit/enum all

dir  c:\boot\bcd
dir /ahs  c:\boot\bcd

post output

Here are screenshots of the output. The partition is listed as active. I couldn't fit the actual commands for

bcdedit/store  c:\boot\bcd  /enum  all

bcdedit/enum all

on the screenshots of their output, but the attachments follow the order of your suggestions and they produce the same output anyway. I will respond to your most recent post about bootmgr as soon as I'm home again. Thank you so much!

 

[Kaktussoft]

dir /ahs c:\boot\bcd

output as well

Sorry i didn't see it!
dir c:\boot\bcd
gave output... file is there.

 

[Kaktussoft]

In win7 recovery environment:

c:
attrib -h -s bootmgr
ren bootmgr bootmgr.old

If both commands succeed succesfully bootmgr file c:\bootmgr isn't there anymore. But it's there with name bootmgr.old (just to keep it)

Now reboot to recovery environment again and perform a startup repair. Your winload.exe and bootmgr are out of sync for some unknown reason. Startup repair puts a fresh copy of bootmgr on C. Try to boot normally afterwards

What did you do just prior to problem appeared? such problem can appear if you install win8

You'r using a win7 install dvd or win7 system repair disk... correct? Did you rename bootmgr already?

 

[doughnut]

Yes, I am using a Windows 7 install disk. I just now renamed the bootmgr to bootmgr.old and tried the startup repair - it said it successfully repaired the bootmgr file. I'm still greeted with the same error (0xc0000428) for the same file (\Windows\system32\winload.exe).

Now, though, hitting Enter to continue past the error screen will at least take me to the Windows Boot Manager (screenshot attached). But hitting either Enter or F8 at this screen takes me back to the error page.

Here's the backstory of how the computer crashed in the first place:

I was moving a file from the C: drive to an external hard drive when it originally blue-screened. Unfortunately, I didn't note the exact error here. But upon restarting,
I was presented with error 0xc0000225 and still unable to boot. I got my installation disk and tried the automatic repair tool,
but it didn't find any issues. I followed some tips in this thread:
http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/178280-error-0xc0000225-boot.html

and decided to try these instructions posted in it for repairing the BCD.
Use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment to troubleshoot and repair startup issues in Windows

I believe I successfully rebuilt the BCD store, based on this article and my interactions with the command line:
How To Rebuild the BCD in Windows

At this point, I had reached the 0xc0000428 error page and have been unable to get past it.
​

 

[Kaktussoft]

"I was moving a file from the C: drive to an external hard drive when it originally blue-screened. Unfortunately, I didn't note the exact error here."=>just a for win7 unimportant file? So not a dll or exe?

chkdsk/f c:
[B][COLOR=red]No errors? if errors and repaired.. run it again. No errors now?[/COLOR][/B]

bootsect /nt60  C: /force
bootsect /nt60 C: /force /mbr
[B][COLOR=#ff0000]Now you have a fresh mbr and a fresh volume boot record. Commands succeed succefully?[/COLOR][/B]

attrib -h -s  c:\bootmgr
del  c:\bootmgr
attrib -h -s  c:\boot\bcd
del  c:\boot\bcd
[B][COLOR=red]Now bootmenu and bootmgr are gone. All commands work?[/COLOR][/B]

Now reboot form the dvd and do http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html
do it 3 times with boots in between!

Tip
Sometimes it may take running a startup repair (3) separate times with restarting the computer after each time before it fully fixes the startup issue.

 

[Kaktussoft]

Did you move C-partition with any partition tools?

File: \Boot\BCD
Status: 0xc0000225

Means normally that it can't find the partition with the operation system. Reason can be:
-you changed th disk signature (very unlikely)
-you moved the OS-partition. (The start-point of the partition changed)

Did Status: 0xc0000225 also say it was referring to \boot\bcd?

 

[doughnut]

Hey Kaktussoft,

I was out of town these last few days, I will be trying out your most recent suggestions later tonight. I will update this post with results. Thank you very much for all your help!

 

[doughnut]

Hey Kaktussoft,

I apologize for the huge delay in updating this thread, I really hope you're still available to take a look at the issues.

So I ran all the commands from your last set of suggestions (post #14):

chkdsk/f c:
[B][COLOR=red]No errors? if errors and repaired.. run it again. No errors now?[/COLOR][/B]

bootsect /nt60  C: /force
bootsect /nt60 C: /force /mbr
[B][COLOR=#ff0000]Now you have a fresh mbr and a fresh volume boot record. Commands succeed succefully?[/COLOR][/B]

attrib -h -s  c:\bootmgr
del  c:\bootmgr
attrib -h -s  c:\boot\bcd
del  c:\boot\bcd
[B][COLOR=red]Now bootmenu and bootmgr are gone. All commands work?[/COLOR][/B]

And yes, all the commands worked. I then ran Startup Repair from the DVD three times with a complete reboot in between. The auto-repair found an issue the first time, then nothing the second and third.

So now, my computer boots into the Win7 System Recovery Options dialog - even without the recovery DVD inserted (I'm definitely booting from my HDD). Startup Repair finds no issues here, but I am stuck booting into the Recovery Options. In the "choose a recovery tool" menu, it does at least say:

"Operating system: Windows 7 Enterprise (recovered) on (C: ) Local Disk"

To answer your questions from post #15 -

Did you move C-partition with any partition tools?

File: \Boot\BCD
Status: 0xc0000225

Means normally that it can't find the partition with the operation system. Reason can be:
-you changed th disk signature (very unlikely)
-you moved the OS-partition. (The start-point of the partition changed)

Did Status: 0xc0000225 also say it was referring to \boot\bcd?

I have not moved the C-partition in several years. And unfortunately I am not sure if my original error code, Status: 0xc0000225 said it was referring to \boot\bcd. I neglected to record that but am hoping it's insignificant since that error code has long passed.

Do you have any further suggestions? Thanks again!

 

[Kaktussoft]

It boots to recovery environment form disk. Quite normal if it finds an error on boot. Do following commands as well

bcdedit/enum all

Post screenshot. Most likely a few

 

[doughnut]

Here's the output from

bcdedit/enum all

I don't see any error messages in it, but I could easily be missing something? Anyway, there are two screenshots to capture the full output.

 

[Kaktussoft]

Here's the output from

bcdedit/enum all

I don't see any error messages in it, but I could easily be missing something? Anyway, there are two screenshots to capture the full output.

bcdedit output is fine. System tries to boot to "win7 enterprise". That fails so it recovers to windows recovery environment.

What error message if you boot normally? Force a normal boot