BCD recovery. Bootable BCD file from scratch using Bcdedit. Restoring a BCD storage from a backup
The BCD (Boot Configuratin Data) file is the successor to the boot.ini file starting with Windows Vista. It contains information about the operating system loaders and their options available on the computer. The BCD file is located in the active partition, in the boot folder. If it is removed, damaged or incorrectly configured, the operating system (OS) stops loading.
Editing a BCD File
At the user level, the BCD file is created and edited by the EasyBCD boot record manager. The program has an intuitive interface and a free, freely distributed license. The Russian version of EasyBCD downloads without problems from the Internet. The program is constantly updated, there is no point in posting it here.
After installing and launching EasyBCD, all that remains is to click one by one the “Add entry” and “Edit boot menu” buttons, and indicate the location of the disks of your operating systems, if there are several of them. The program will do the rest itself - create or edit a BCD file, in the best possible way. If the BCD OS is already “killed” and the system does not boot, then the portable version of EasyBCD is launched from a Live-CD with WinPE, or something like that. Regardless of where EasyBCD was launched from, it will create the correct BCD file and write it to its destination - the boot folder of the system partition (reserved by the system). The only thing you need to carefully monitor is the letter labels of the logical drives where the OS is located. Sometimes they don't match. Why? knows him... Apparently, it depends on the Windows build.
Note Sometimes, EasyBCD displays everything correctly, but the system does not boot. An alternative is to delete entries about operating systems in the BCD file and create new ones. The algorithm does not change: “Edit boot menu”, “Delete entry” button, then the “Add entry” button. All.
To restore or recreate a BCD file, boot from the Windows distribution, select the language and open the command line Shift+F10.
If we restore the BCD to RAID, then we go further in the OS installation procedure until the installer has the opportunity to transfer the RAID controller drivers. When the controller is defined and the RAID is recognized, the partitions will appear.
You can check the availability of disks and files on them by running notepad.exe and using it as a file manager via File - Open (Ctrl+O). By the way, at this stage you can copy important information from the damaged disk to a flash drive using folder navigation and the combination Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V.
Let's try to restore the BCD file automatically:
bootrec /RebuildBCD
If this does not help, then create the BCD file again using BCDEdit:
Create an empty file
add (import) it,
create an entry for the bootmgr boot manager (ntldr receiver before Windows Vista),
indicate that he will be responsible for loading
indicate the waiting time when selecting the OS
create an entry in the list of available operating systems
- bcdedit /createstore bcd
- bcdedit /import bcd
- bcdedit /create (bootmgr)
- bcdedit /set (bootmgr) device boot
- bcdedit /timeout 10
- bcdedit /create /d "Windows 2012" /application osloader
After executing the last command, the program will return a globally unique disk identifier (GUID), which we use to determine the default entry, i.e. the OS that will boot when the bootloader timeout expires.
bcdedit /default (
If we are not sure which volume our OS is on, then we look for the Windows folder by going through the drives: C:dir, D:dir, E:dir or by opening notepad.exe as described above. Typically, the system folder is called Windows and it is located on volume (disk) D. In a running OS, this volume is designated by the letter C, because The first partition, now identified as C, is usually hidden, marked as "System Reserved" and has no letter so as not to be accessible to the user.
Define the parameters of the created record
- bcdedit /set (default) device partition=d:
- bcdedit /set (default) path\windows\system32\boot\winload.exe
- bcdedit /set (default) osdevice partition=d:
- bcdedit /set (default) systemroot\Windows
- bcdedit /set (default) detecthal yes
Closing the OS list
bcdedit /displayorder (default) /addlast
That's all. Reboot the computer and boot into normal mode.
12/05/2011 Mark Minasi
When Bootmgr starts, it requires operating instructions that are obtained from a binary file called a boot configuration data (BCD) file. Typically this file is located in the\boot folder of the active partition. To configure the BCD file, use the Bcdedit command. Let's see how to use it to build a BCD boot file from scratch
The article “Restoring the system using Bootsect,” published in the previous issue, discussed how to restore a Windows 7/R2 system that has stopped booting. In particular, clarifications were given regarding the Windows 7/R2 boot record and the Bootmgr application. .
A BCD work file usually includes at least two objects. First, there is the boot manager, which contains all the boot information, such as which operating system boot list entry should be used as the default and the time to wait for the user to select if there are multiple operating system boot list entries. Secondly, the file contains at least one element of loading operating systems. The procedure for creating these objects is described below.
Let's start by deleting all existing BCD files and creating a new empty file. According to a strange property of Bcdedit, you must first create a new BCD file in some place, and then “import” it, that is, copy all its contents to the “official” BCD file in the \boot folder of the active volume. This can be done using two commands entered in an elevated Command Prompt window:
Bcdedit/createstore bcd bcdedit/import bcd
These commands work regardless of whether the \boot\bcd folder exists in the correct location or whether there are no BCD files in the boot volume. After completing the steps above, the newly created BCD file is no longer needed and can be deleted.
Now let's create a download manager for the BCD file using the following command:
bcdedit/create(bootmgr)
Note the /create parameter in this version of the command instead of the previously used /create store. This option allows you to create different kinds of BCD objects. Using this parameter in combination with the identifier (bootmgr) a boot manager is created. I'm omitting the description of using the command with the /d option, which is contained in any example I could find on the Internet. This information is not needed when creating a boot manager.
The download manager does not require complex configuration. You only need to specify the boot volume and the time it takes to wait for the user to select an item in the operating system boot list:
Bcdedit/set (bootmgr) device boot bcdedit/timeout 30
Let's move on to creating an operating system boot list item that will instruct the boot manager to boot Windows from files in the \Windows folder of one of the system volumes. Typically this volume is drive C, but if booting from Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE), you will need to check which drive the \Windows folder is on, as it may be called D or E in WinPE.
Let's create an element of the operating system loading list:
Bcdedit/create/d "Windows 7"/application osloader
The /create (no ID) and /application osloader options indicate that the operating system boot list item is created for Vista and later Windows. The /d parameter contains a label that the boot manager specifies to suggest suggestions for operating system boot list items. After running the command, the system returns a new globally unique identifier (GUID), which must be inserted into the following command:
Bcdedit/default ( )
At this point we have a bare object that needs to be set with some values using the Bcdedit /set command discussed in previous Bcdedit episodes. What values should I set? The answer is simple. We take the Bcdedit output from a healthy copy of Windows and use it as a model. In my case, the \Windows folder is on drive D, so I enter the following:
Bcdedit/set (default) device partition=d: bcdedit/set (default) path\windows\system32\boot\winload.exe bcdedit/set (default) osdevice partition=d: bcdedit/set (default) systemroot\Windows bcdedit/ set (default) detecthal yes
Finally, we enter the following command so that Windows “sees” the operating system boot list item properly:
Bcdedit/displayorder (default)/addlast
Try this on a test system and you'll solve boot problems very quickly.
Mark Minasi (www.minasi.com/gethelp) - Senior Editor of Windows IT Pro Magazine, Certified Systems Engineer for Microsoft Products
Need good advice on how to produce Windows 7 Boot Loader Recovery, if restoring the startup using the 7 installation disk did not help. I’ll briefly explain what’s going on: Windows 7 was first installed on the computer, then the second system needed Windows XP, after installation it naturally started alone, to boot two operating systems I used the EasyBCD program. Later, XP was no longer needed and I formatted the partition on which it was located from Windows 7. Now, when loading, there is nothing except a black screen. What can be done in this case? More details if possible. Sergey.
Restoring the Windows 7 bootloader
Hello friends! The most important thing is not to worry, your problem is not complicated and, in principle, the simple “Windows 7 Startup Recovery” tool described in our article should help, but! If this article does not help you, then two others should help:
These articles describe several more good ways to restore the boot of your operating system, besides them there is one more, so try it and don’t just give up.
Let me remind you that you cannot install an older operating system after a younger one; Windows 7 will under no circumstances boot after installing Windows XP on a computer, since the latter overwrites the master boot record (MBR) during installation. Therefore, you installed an additional boot manager, which is used to configure the boot of several operating systems and, in turn, has its own bootloader.
- I also want to say that file system errors are often to blame for unsuccessful loading of Windows 7; they can be corrected even if the operating system does not boot; all the details are in our other article." "
- Friends, in this article we will work with the Windows 7 recovery environment, or more precisely with the recovery environment command line. I will give you the necessary commands, but if it is difficult for you to remember them, you can. This will make your work much easier.
- The master boot record (MBR) is the first sector on the hard drive, which contains a partition table and a small bootloader program that reads from this table the data from which partition of the hard drive to boot the OS, and then the information is transferred to the partition with the installed operating system, to download it. If the master boot record contains incorrect information about the location of the system, then we will receive various errors during boot, here is one of them “BOOTMGR is missing press CTR-Alt-Del for restart” or we will see a black screen. The problem is being fixed restoring the Windows 7 boot loader.
When you uninstalled old XP along with EasyBCD, you left your computer to the mercy of fate with an incomprehensible boot record, and as a token of gratitude it gives you a black screen. To rectify the situation, we will carry out boot recovery Windows 7, namely, we will overwrite the master boot record using the Bootrec.exe utility located on the recovery disk or on the Windows 7 installation disk (friends, if you have a netbook and you want to use the recovery environment located on a flash drive, then read the comments first). We will also use this utility to record a new boot sector, understandable to Windows 7.
Recovering Windows 7 bootloader automatically
We boot from a recovery disk or installation disk with Windows 7, in the initial phase of booting the computer, when prompted to boot from the disk “Press any key to boot from CD...”, press any key on the keyboard for 5 seconds, otherwise you will not boot from the disk
There is a short search for installed Windows systems and analysis of problems that prevent them from loading
Usually problems are quickly found and the recovery environment offers to fix them automatically. Click on the "Fix and restart" button, after which the computer will restart and boot Windows 7 will be restored.
If problems with loading the system continue or you are not prompted to fix the problems automatically, then in this window you need to select the operating system that you need to restore, you most likely have one and Next.
First of all, choose a productStartup recovery, it can also solve Windows 7 boot problems
Restoring the Windows 7 bootloader manually
If this remedy does not help, choose a remedy Command line
Enter the commands:
diskpart
lis vol (we display a list of hard drive partitions and see that “Volume 1” is a hidden System Reserved partition, volume 100 MB, it should contain Windows 7 boot files and it is this that needs to be made active). We also see a partition with Windows 7 installed, it has the letter D:, the volume is 60 GB.
sel vol 1 (select Volume 1)
activ (make it active)
exit (exit diskpart)
bcdboot D:\Windows (where D: the partition with Windows 7 installed), this command restores the Windows 7 boot files (bootmgr file and boot storage configuration files (BCD))!
"Download files created successfully"
Restoring the Windows 7 bootloader manually (method No. 2)
In the command line window, enter the command Bootrec and Enter
full information about the capabilities of the utility is displayed. Select the master boot record entry Bootrec.exe /FixMbr.
The operation was completed successfully. A new boot record is written to the first sector of the boot partition.
The second command, Bootrec.exe /FixBoot, writes a new boot sector.
The operation was completed successfully. Exit.
Next, we try to load our Windows 7.
Friends, if the Bootrec.exe /FixMbr and Bootrec.exe /Fixboot commands do not help you, do not despair, there is another remedy.
Method No. 3 Enter the command Bootrec/ScanOs , it will scan all your hard drives and partitions for operating systems and if any are found, a corresponding warning will be issued. Then you need to enter the command Bootrec.exe /RebuildBcd
, this utility will offer to add the found Windows to the boot menu, we agree and enter Y and press Enter, all the found Windows are added to the boot menu.
In my case, two operating systems were found. Everything can be seen on the screenshot.
In addition to the above method, there is another one, enter bootsect /NT60 SYS on the command line, the main boot code, it will also be updated.
Exit So, the error is that on both hard drives the first hidden System Reserved partitions should be marked with a red flag. On Windows 7, the volume of such a partition is 100 MB, and on Windows 8, 350 MB, these sections have the attributes: System. Active
and it is on these partitions that the boot store configuration files (BCD) and the system boot manager file (bootmgr file) are located. And it turns out that these attributes are carried by other sections. Because of this, Windows 7 and Windows 8 will not boot.
Select the first hard drive 1, right-click on the first System Reserved partition and select “Mark as active”
The System Reserved volume will be marked as active. Click OK.
We do the same with Disk 2. Acronis Disk Director works in pending operation mode; for the changes to take effect, click the “Apply pending operations” button
Continue.
As you can see, after our changes, those sections that were needed became active.
We exit the program and reboot. The result of the work is positive - both operating systems are loaded one by one.
How to fix error 0xc000000f on Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10? It's quite simple. Read the article and repeat these steps on your computer.
What messages does it give?Recovery
Your PC needs to be repaired
The Boot Configuration Data for our PC is missing or contains errors.
File:Boot/BCD
Error code: 0xc000000f
In Russian:
Recovery
Your computer needs to be restored
File: Boot/BCD
Error code: 0xc000000f
Or
Windows failed to start.
Status: 0xc000000f
Details: The boot menu failed because the required device is not available.
Error 0xc000000f - what's wrong with the computer
Causes
- The system boot settings in the BIOS have automatically reset.
- The controller drivers have crashed.
- The system disk is damaged.
- System files are damaged.
- The \Boot\BCD or winload exe file has been deleted or damaged.
How to fix error 0xc000000f
Method No. 1. Checking the cable connections to the hard drive
If you climbed into the system unit or simply moved it before the error appeared, the hard drive connection cable may have come loose. Open the system unit and check the cable connections to the hard drive.Method No. 2. Restoring disk boot settings in BIOS
If you have multiple hard drives, the BIOS boot priority may have changed. Go to BIOS.To login, use one of these keys (keys may vary depending on the developer): Del, F1, F2, Esc, combination Ctrl+Alt+Del, combination Ctrl+Alt+Ins, F10, combination Ctrl+Alt+Esc.
In the BIOS Advanced Setup or Boot section (depending on the developer) we find the Hard Disk Drive Priorities item. Let's see which disk has boot priority. It should be the one on which Windows is installed. If you don't know which one is called, swap them.
If the error does not disappear, return everything as it was and proceed to method No. 3.
Attention!
Methods 3 and 4 will require a boot disk or flash drive, if there are none and they cannot be made, then we immediately move on to method No. 3.Method No. 3. Recovery
Find a boot disk with Windows or create a bootable USB flash drive. To create the latter, we use a special utility for creating a bootable flash drive.For Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10
In the black command line window that opens, write chkdsk c: /f/r
Click Enter.
A disk check will start, which will find all errors and fix them.
For Windows 7
On Windows 7, a disk check will run, which will find all errors and fix them.
The error code 0xc000000f should disappear. If it doesn’t disappear, try another method.
Method No. 4. Using the built-in Bootrec utility
This method also requires a bootable DVD/USB device connected to the computer. The main goal here: recovering the Boot Configuration Data (BCD), the file that controls Windows startup.We repeat all the steps described above, but on the command line we enter:
bootrec.exe
As you can see, there are 4 options that we all use in this order:
Bootrec.exe /FixMbr
Bootrec.exe /Fixboot
Bootrec/ScanOs
Bootrec.exe /RebuildBcd
Method No. 5. Recovering Windows boot using third-party programs
You can use third-party programs for recovery. Among the most effective and easy to use, we can name: Acronis True Image, EasyRecovery or Paragon HARD DISK Manager.| Download Acronis True Image (via direct link) | Download EasyRecovery (via direct link) | Download Paragon HARD DISK Manager (via direct link) |
Download any of these programs. We write it to a disk or flash drive (whatever you have). We insert the DVD into the drive and the flash drive into the USB port. Reboot the computer. We enter the BIOS, change the startup parameter to DVD or USB, respectively. We save the changes and reload. The program should launch automatically. Next, follow the recommendations of the Recovery Wizard.
We hope that all of the above helped you fix error 0xc000000f on Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and 10.
