Windows 7 update failed and laptop won't boot. Startup repair failed

[TrueDis]

I installed the latest round of Windows updates for my Win7 x64 install and it never completed (ran for about 24 hours) so I powered off the machine. Upon restarting, it said:

"Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause" and has instructions for using system repair, then at the bottom:

File: \Boot\BCD
Status: Oxc000000f
Info: An error occurred while attempting to read the boot configuration data

So I booted off a Windows recovery disk and figured Startup Repair would fix it. Alas, after it says "Windows found problems with your computer's startup options" and asks me if I want to repair, I click "repair and restart" and it says "Failed to save startup options".

The "repair details" are:
Name: {bootmgr}
Identifier: {...}

The following options will be added:
Name: Windows Recovery Environment (recovered)
Path: Recovery\...\Winre.wim
Windows Device: Partition=D:

I've tried running Startup Repair from the manual options screen and it says it cannot repair automatically. I have two partitions, the 100MB windows System partition, which Recovery Console mounts as C:\ and my main windows partition, which it mounts as D: and I can see all of my files on it.

Running "bootrec /repairbcd" gives me "Total identified Windows Installations: 0"

I'm not sure if there might be something fishy with the way it's detecting my partition table. I just have a single drive and a single installation of Win7 on it. When I run diskpart in recovery and do list vol I get:

Volume # Ltr Label  FS   Type      Size  Status Info
Volume 0 C   System NTFS Partition 100MB Healthy
Volume 1 D          NTFS Partition 119GB Healthy

It seems that it's detecting the 100MB recovery partition (or whatever that is) as C. I'm not sure if one of these is supposed to be active or how Windows updates would even screw that up, but something is weird because it won't detect my windows install.

This sucks! Help!

 

[usasma]

Have you run bootrec /fixmbr and bootrec /fixboot?
Then, if it doesn't boot, run bootrec /RebuildBcd (from this KB article: How to use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment to troubleshoot and repair startup issues in Windows )

c0000005 is

STATUS_NO_SUCH_FILE - which means it can't find ​

File: \Boot\BCD

 

[TrueDis]

Thanks for the info. The first two commands run without an error but don't seem to do anything to fix the problem, and I tried /RebuildBCD afterward and it says it can't detect a Windows installation.

Running "bootrec /repairbcd" gives me "Total identified Windows Installations: 0"

 

[usasma]

I'd try these:

H/W Diagnostics:
Please start by running these bootable hardware diagnostics:
Memory Diagnostics (read the details at the link)
HD Diagnostic (read the details at the link)

Also, please run one of these free, independent online malware scans to ensure that your current protection hasn't been compromised: Free Online AntiMalware Scanners (read the details at the link)

 

[seavixen32]

Completely rebuilding the BCD should sort things out for you.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ool-how-use-windows-recovery-environment.html

 

[TrueDis]

I can only get into the Recovery Environment, not boot into Windows or Safe Mode since the boot manager is broken. bootrec /RebuildBcd fails because it says there are no Windows installations detected. I seriously just got this laptop 2 weeks ago so I highly doubt it's malware considering the Windows Update that timed out.

 

[seavixen32]

The 100MB System partition is where your boot record sits and it should be your active partition.

If any other partition is marked as active they will need to be deactivated.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com.../thread/af3a1e24-214f-4e0e-b917-9530a27534de/

 

[TrueDis]

More progress: I ran bcdedit /set {default} recoveryenabled No and now I'm getting:

"Windows failed to load because the system registry file is missing, or corrupt"

I think this might be the final nail in the coffin, but maybe someone knows a solution...

 

[usasma]

The boot stuff can't find the system hive to load - which means (most likely) that something in the BCD store is pointing to the wrong drive.

I'd run Startup Repair at least 3 times to see if it can "automagically" fix itself. If not, then it's back to rebuilding the BCD store.

 

[richnrockville]

Welcome Truedis to the windows 7 forums..
FWIW:

Another good reason to make the recovery disks when you first turn on your new laptop. Most of the vendors put a reminder in the startup folder to prompt you to make the recovery disks and emergency boot disk.

This happend to me on a new laptop from HP and it really saved my bananas when the updates went to hell in a handbasket..

Rich