You can use system recovery tools to fix most of your computer problems. However, there are times when you'll need to address such issues manually, for example, when your Windows computer won't boot. In these cases, you can use a tool named Bootrec.exe. It can help you troubleshoot and repair things like the EFI Bootloader, master boot record (MBR), the boot sector, or the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store. Here's how it works in all modern versions of Windows:
NOTE: This guide covers Windows 11, Windows 10, and Windows 7. However, the tools presented and the instructions apply to other Microsoft operating systems too, including Windows 8.1.
Boot from the recovery drive
If you are using Windows 11 or Windows 10, once your PC boots from the USB drive, you will be asked to choose the keyboard layout you want to use. When this happens, click or tap on the layout that matches your keyboard. On the next screen, you should click or tap on Troubleshoot (Reset your PC or see advanced options).
Choose Troubleshoot
Select Advanced options on the Troubleshoot screen.
Select Advanced options
On the Advanced options screen, click or tap on Command Prompt.
Open Command Prompt
If you are using Windows 7, the system repair disk will first scan for available Windows installations. Select the Windows 7 installation that you want to repair and click Next.
Select Windows 7
Then, when the list of available System Recovery Options is shown, click on Command Prompt.
Launch Command Prompt
Run diskpart in CMD
Type and run the next command to select the first drive on your computer:
Select the primary drive
Now run the next command to list all the volumes:
List the volumes on the drive
Identify the EFI system partition on your drive. It’s the one marked as Hidden and formatted using the FAT32 file system. Usually, its size is small: 100MB. Once you’ve found it in the list, run the next command replacing [number] with the actual number of your EFI system partition from the list:
Select the EFI system partition
Now it’s time to mount the EFI system partition. To do that, we need to assign it a letter, and the command for that is:
Assign a letter to the EFI partition
Next, exit diskpart by running the command:
Exit diskpart in CMD
TIP: If you want to learn more about diskpart, check this guide: How to use diskpart, chkdsk, defrag, and other disk-related commands.
Now, it’s time to repair the boot records. To do that, there are two commands you need to run. First, this one:
Navigate to the EFI system partition
Next, you’re going to have to rebuild the BCD store (Boot Configuration Data). The last command you should run to finish repairing your EFI Bootloader is this:
Repair the EFI Bootloader
And this is all. Now, you should reboot your computer and, hopefully, it will be able to start correctly again.
Fix the MBR
The second command you’ll want to run in Command Prompt is:
Fix the boot records
The /FixBoot parameter writes a new boot sector to the system partition that is compatible with your Windows version.
Then, you’ll need to rebuild the BCD (Boot Configuration Data). It contains a detailed list of what is supposed to load at startup. Microsoft indicates that a boot error can also be caused by missing or damaged files in the BCD. The /rebuildbcd parameter of the Bootrec command can be very useful when you must fix some errors by completely rebuilding the BCD. To completely rebuild the Boot Configuration Data, run this command:
Rebuild the Boot Configuration Data
If your computer has multiple operating systems installed, but not all of them are available, use the /ScanOS option like this:
Scan for additional operating systems
If the bootrec.exe /scanos command returns results, you will be able to continue the repair process. In the end, you will get the lost Windows installation back into the secure BCD table, thus making it bootable again. For that, clean the Master Boot Record (MBR) again using the bootrec /fixmbr command. Then, type and run the command:
Repair the boot issues on all drives
The /nt60 parameter applies the master boot code that is compatible with BOOTMGR. The /all argument updates the master boot code on all partitions. The /force parameter forcibly dismounts the volume(s) during the boot code update so that the Bootsect.exe tool does not gain exclusive volume access. Running all these commands will create a new MBR and tell it to use the correct Windows boot loader in order to load that specific installation from your drive.
TIP: For further (official) information, you might want to check Microsoft’s documentation here: Use Bootrec.exe in the Windows RE to troubleshoot startup issues.
Bcdboot & Bootrec - The ultimate repair tools for boot problems in Windows
It doesn’t matter what Windows version you have, whether your PC runs on BIOS or UEFI, or whether your system drive uses MBR (Master Boot Record) or GPT. If your operating system has trouble booting and Startup Repair can't fix the problem, it's worth trying the Bcdboot and Bootrec tools. With their help, you can repair your EFI Bootloader or Master Boot Record (MBR), write a new boot sector, rebuild the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) and add missing Windows installations to the boot configuration data. If you need to know what all these mean, here’s an explanation for each of them:- EFI Bootloader - represents special files stored on a dedicated EFI partition. UEFI uses this partition to load the bootloader (EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi), which in turn handles the booting of Windows. If this partition is damaged or if the files on it - the EFI Bootloader - are corrupted, your computer can’t start Windows. EFI Bootloader is found on devices that use UEFI and (usually) GPT-partitioned drives and is most common on Windows 11 and Windows 10 modern computers.
- Master Boot Record (MBR) - the first sector of your system drive. Its purpose is to tell the computer’s BIOS where to look for the operating system so that it can start it. Obviously, MBR is usually found on older computers using BIOS and older operating systems such as Windows 7.
- Boot sector - the region of the disk that contains the code to be loaded into the RAM memory, that is necessary to load the operating system. A boot sector must have a specific disk signature to be seen by BIOS as a boot sector. If this signature is corrupted or has been changed, the BIOS will not be able to find the boot sector and won't be able to load the necessary instructions for finding and starting the operating system. In Windows 7 and older versions of Windows, the boot sector loads the Windows Boot Manager, accesses the Boot Configuration Data, and uses this information to load the operating system. On newer computers running on UEFI and using newer versions of Windows such as Windows 11 or Windows 10, the UEFI firmware provides backward compatibility by reserving the first sector on the partition, but only uses it if you boot in legacy BIOS using CSM (Compatibility Support Module).
- Boot Configuration Data (BCD) - The BCD is a database of boot-time configuration data that is used by the Windows Boot Manager. The Boot Configuration Data is stored in a data file that has the same format as the Windows Registry found on the EFI system partition (on UEFI/GPT systems) or on the active partition (on legacy BIOS/MBR systems).
Step 1. Start the Command Prompt using a recovery drive
In order to be able to use Bootrec.exe and repair the EFI Bootloader or the MBR, you'll have to use Command Prompt. We’ve already covered how to access it here: How to open Command Prompt when Windows doesn't boot (3 ways). However, for the sake of being complete, here’s what you have to do, in short: Because you already have startup issues, it's obvious that you won't be able to simply run it from Windows. You need to use a system repair disc or a recovery drive that was created on a working Windows computer. Once you have the recovery drive/disc, boot from it. Plug it in and start your Windows computer or device. Immediately after it starts, press the boot device selection key on your keyboard. It’s usually the F12, F11, or the Escape key, but it could be another as well, depending on the manufacturer of your device’s mainboard. Doing that will make your computer display a boot priority selection menu. Use the arrow keys on the keyboard to select the recovery drive. Then, press Enter and, when asked to press any key to boot from that drive, do so.Step 2. Use Command Prompt to fix issues with your PC’s boot records
Once you’ve started Command Prompt on your problem computer, you can use some advanced tools in it to repair the boot records. Read the next section to see how to repair the EFI Bootloader on a computer with UEFI and GPT drives (Windows 11 and Windows 10), or the one after it to see how to fix your MBR on computers running on BIOS with MBR drives (Windows 7).2.1 How to repair the EFI Bootloader for Windows 11 & Windows 10 (UEFI systems with GPT-partitioned drives)
In order to repair your EFI Bootloader, you’ll first have to mount the EFI System Partition, the one that holds its files. The tool that lets you do that is diskpart so, in Command Prompt, run the following command:diskpart
select disk 0
list volume
select volume [number]
For example, in our case, that is:
select volume 2
assign letter=[drive letter]:
Use any letter that’s not already in use - you can see which ones are used in the list of volumes displayed earlier in Command Prompt. For example, we chose the letter Z:
assign letter=Z:
exit
cd /d [drive letter]:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\
Make sure you replace [drive letter] with the letter you’ve assigned to your EFI system partition. In our case, as we chose to use the letter Z: the command looks like this:
cd /d Z:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\
bcdboot C:\Windows /s [EFI system partition letter]: /f UEFI
Make sure you replace [EFI system partition letter] with the drive letter you’ve assigned to your EFI partition earlier. For example, in our case, that was the letter Z, so the command we’d have to run is:
bcdboot C:\Windows /s Z: /f UEFI
2.2 How to repair your MBR (UEFI CSM or BIOS systems with MBR-partitioned drives)
If you’re using a computer with BIOS or UEFI in legacy mode (CSM), and you’ve partitioned your system drive using MBR (Master Boot Record), here are the steps you need to make to repair its boot: After you’ve launched Command Prompt, type and run this command:bootrec /FixMbr
The /FixMbr parameter is the one that allows Bootrec to repair the corrupted or damaged Master Boot Record (MBR). Usually, you will use this parameter when you are faced with one of these error messages: “Operating System not found”, “Error loading operating system”, “Missing operating system,” or “Invalid partition table”.
bootrec /FixBoot
bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd
bootrec /ScanOS
Using this parameter on Bootrec.exe will launch a scan on all disks for any Windows installations that are not currently included in the Boot Configuration Data (BCD). In the screenshot below, you can see how this scan process might look.
bootsect.exe /nt60 all /force
Discussion (115)
Thank you so much ! these have been the most clear and concise explanation of the steps required.I have Win10 on a MBR disk, but couldn’t update to Windows 11. I didn’t dare do anything on the original disk, wanting to save my existing setup and all apps intact, I did a clean install on a separate hard drive and then cloned the original O/S & Data partitions layout to the new disk which would not boot. After 2 days of issues and trying other methods I found online,yours got me back in to my system, with the cloned partition layout intact and ready for the Windows 11 upgrade.
The first method of using the command prompts to fix my BCD issues was still relevant and helped out a lot! Thank you!
Hi, someone has remote access to my desktop running windows 10. At one time the person who has remote access to my computer did have physical access and apparently turned my computer into an Microsoft enterprise. Now I no longer have administrative permissions and am unable to reinstall windows or connect to the internet. I have Ben using hotspot from my cell phone.
I went into safe mode and attempted fixing the master boot with your directions listed. Unfortunately the response back was access denied. What should I do?
I’m at a loss for words since this is my new computer and this has been ongoing issue since 2020.
I appreciate you taking your time to help.
Says could not open the volume root directory: the parameter is incorrect after doing all of that.
my system cannot find the path specified now what can I do
I did all of these steps but the end wasn’t very clear to me. Can someone explain please?
One of awesome articles on Windows .. straightforward.. clear.. and truly helpful.
very useful
thanks
problem boot Win7. Performed all steps (scanos, fixmbr, rebuildbcd, bootsect, checkdsk), all pass but NO BOOT. I don’t have a copy of Win7 64-bit. Other options to attempt a repair?
problem started after a power outage, if that helps. Boot takes me the startup repair. I have a bootable W10 USB from another computer, also attempted a repair from there but no luck. One option would be install/upgrade to W10 but I would prefer to keep W7 on this machine, if at all possible. I appreciate your thoughts.
Awesome tutorial. It works; and gives clear, concise instructions regarding fixing the Master Boot Record.
I did all repair but my windows 7 on the screen is Failure configuring Windows updates. reverting changes. Do not turn off your computer. This sign is on for hours. Pls help
thanks a lot for the information !
big thanks, used and fully recovered my win boot.. very helpful
What does it mean when you use bootrec.exe /fixboot and it says “Access is denied.”?
You have no idea how much time you saved me with this article. Thank you!
Thanks, saved my day 🙂
This is a good article, but it is not clear in this article or in Microsoft’s article on bootrec.exe which drive the bootrec commands apply to. I have two drives in my Win 7 system – clones – with Win 7 loaded on them. (I’m trying to swap an HDD for an SSD.) Which drive do the bootrec commands apply to? – Thx
Thank you!
I Was about to format the entire disk with new Win 7 Installation.
Your TIP Solve my problem!
Happy… Thank you!
None of the bootrec.exe commands worked because it always stated The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely manner.
OK did as u said and it came back on D: could not open the volume root directory the parameter is incorrect what do I do
I’m trying this but when I type bootrec or bootrec.exe it doesn’t give me any options
Hi Ciprian
I am very happy to your instructions. I was able to correct all booting problem on my son computer. Thanks again.
Happy to help.
I solved my laptop’s Win10 booting issue with these instruction successfully.. Thank you!
Will trying any of these delete my personal files
Beat computer with biggest available hammer….buy a new one.
Wonderful website. A lot of useful information here. I am sending it to a few friends to share the delicious Ans. And of course, thanks for your sweat!
IT Support Services
Wonderful website. A lot of useful information here. I am sending it to a few friends to share the delicious Ans. And of course, thanks for your sweat!
IT Support Dallas
Please specify what are the next steps to follow after running all the commands
I followed your instructions but when I did FixBoot … It says the following commands are supported, it lists FixBoot but it doesn’t fix it
I went through your guided instrucrions and at the end during the final phase to add a new MBR i got a messsage ” DeviceHarddiskVolume
Could not open the volume root. directory: The parameter is incorrect”
My guess is volume 3 on the hard disk is corrupted causing a massive booting error. Any instructions on how to resolve?
Great Info,
can the same test and fix be done if you can boot up and don’t have the os cd?
You left me hanging so many times doing this my computer never said or done half the things u
You said it would 1. I typed bootrec.exe I kept getting all the ways that I could use every time I typed anything I got the commands are supported or can’t find.
2. I got to this point after I put in booties.exe /fixmbr this was when I got operations completed successful. Then nothing else.
3. Then I put in bootsect.exe/nt60all/force
I got bootsect help:/nt60:nt52 sys: all drive letter force mbr
Boot sector restoration tool
Then it state that I could switch between bootmgr and ntldr and this is were you left me I don’t know what to do next
I have done these steps correctly several times, it finds the OS says it’s all fixed but still wont boot and comes up with the same message at the start, this is a brand new drive and was working fine until I plugged my old drive back in to try and fix that using this technique and it killed the partition on my freshly installed OS on the new drive, any idea’s? and I did disconnect the original drive that 1st came up with this problem, I never made a system backup disc.
Thank you so much. I executed fixmbr, fixboot,rebuildbcd and scanos and my windows10 machine rebooted perfectly. The bcd file missing error BSOD was no longer seen.
thank you for your help and a great article! You are making a difference in lives and its your passion! Blessings to you!
followed full instructions but still getting windows installation o , instead of 1 which operation do i have to repeat to attain windows installation 1 ?
Your write up has been very helpful.I would like to know if any of the above listed parameters are useful for fixing high power consumption of my system.Thank you
This is great guide. Note that it’s worth check that your “lost” OS is on a disk marked “Active”. You can make it Active on the right click menu in Disk Management. Bootrec can’t find it it’s not Active.
I had accidentally magnetized my screwdrivers and unscrewed my hard drive for my laptop, for awhile it was acting up and would sometimes not show my hard drive, now it does not recognize it at all, is there any way to fix this? i have no access to the OS on it at all, which was windows 7 ultimate 32 bit. I do have a bootable USB with win 7 ultimate on it again and have access to the X: command prompt, but i have no clue what to do to fix it. I know my data is lost and thats ok but i really need to get my hard drive working again for it is 650GB and one of the biggest hard drives i have. Thank you in advanced if anyone can help me.
I would take it to a specialized repair shop, that knows how to deal with faulty hard drives.
I dont want to have to spend a lot of money considering im only 14, so do you think theres any other way? If not then i understand and thanks for replying so quickly.
The problem you are experiencing is at a hardware level. You won't find help on online forums. You need to take it to a hardware specialist.
Alright, thanks anyways.
Hi, having just installed Windows 10 and worked thru a number of issues I decided to defrag and optimise my c: drive. Since then, I cannot boot from this drive as usual.
I have booted the system up using a USB drive and can access Cmd prompt. I have followed the various instructions on the use of Diskpart, Bootrec and Bootsect but am still having problems.
When I typed “Bootrec /fixboot” I got “Element not found”
When I followed up with “Bootsect /nt60 sys” the error message was “The system partition was not found: The requested system device cannot be found”
The drive is a 2 TB Segate drive and was set up to be C: with a small recovery partition D: The drive is visible in the BIOS and also as Disk 0 in Diskpart> list disk. However it does not appear as a volume in Diskpart> list volume.
Any suggestions as to where to next to try and fix this problem? I a resigned to re-loading Windows 10 once the drive is going again and restoring my system from backups, but first I need to get the old C: drive bootable so I can do this.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Hi I was trying to force my dell laptop into safe mode using command prompt because I had just downloaded Windows 10 and it wasn’t working. To try to get safe mode, in the command prompt, I typed “bcdedit /set {default} safeboot Minimal”
And to delete it, I typed “bcdedit /deletevalue {default} safeboot”
It will not boot correctly now; can you help me?
Hi – after the last step, my results came back that /device/harddiskvolume 3 could not open the volume root directory: the parameter is incorrect. Can someone assist?
These steps outlined have been very helpful.
I have a Toshiba Satellite S75. I was running windows 8.1, I did that stupid update to windows 10 and I’ve had problems ever since. Now I keep getting a BSOD telling me that a critical process died and my laptop cycles from the Toshiba start logo to the BSOD. I can’t restore it back to factory settings, the automatic repair option doesn’t work, I’ve run of ideas. That’s why I’m here, to ask for help form some people that know more about this crap than I do.
I tried using the bootrec to start the computer but it’s telling me all the stuffs are not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file. Please what can I do?
hi, after the first pickture you put up of cmd, Total identified windows installations:0.
what do you do then,
you showed if it identified windows.
so i did the Bootsect nt60 anyway all it say is boot sector restoration tool.
Please can you help.
Please help me I’ve been trying to fix my PC for a day. It boots and displays the mobo logo. Then it takes me to the startup repair screen. When I proceed with repair, it “diagnoses my PC”. It then shays that start-up repair couldn’t repair my PC. After it tells me to look through advanced options or shut down my PC. Lastly it shows me “Log file: C:WINDOWSSystem32LogfilesSrtSrtTrail.txt”. Please help me as I have tried as many solutions as I can find but none have proved to cause my system to boot normally. I appreciate the help,
Angelo
Check this: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-update/help-ive-encountered-the-srttrailtxt-problem/82c06748-855f-41cf-9cf8-6fe5724381e7?page=2
Sir I have done dis procedure
When I restarted my computer it showed NTLDR missing Pls help
what to doafter thers actions??the last step?
Bear with me while I provide the system and background info.
System info:
I have a Dell Inspiron running windows 8.1.
From BIOS, the Fixed HDD is “WDC WD10JPVT-75A1YT0 (100GB);
SATA ODD is HL-DT-ST DVD+-RW GT80N.
No SSD or other drives.
From DISKPART:
List disk
Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
Disk 0 Online 931 GB 0 B *
List Volume:
Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
———- — ———– —– ———– ———— ————– ——–
Volume 0 D DVD-ROM 0 B No Media
Volume 1 C OS NTFS Partition 918 GB Healthy
Volume 2 J ESP FAT32 Partition 500 MB Healthy Hidden
Volume 3 G WINRETOOLS NTFS Partition 490 MB Healthy Hidden
Volume 4 F NTFS Partition 450 MB Healthy Hidden
Volume 5 E PBR Image NTFS Partition 11 GB Healthy Hidden
Volume 6 I Diags FAT32 Partition 40 MB Healthy Hidden
select disk 0
list partition
Partition ### Type Size Offset
————- —————— ——– ———
Partition 1 System 500 MB 1024 KB
Partition 2 OEM 40 MB 501 MB
Partition 3 Reserved 120 MB 541 MB
Partition 4 Recovery 490 MB 669 MB
Partition 5 Primary 918 GB 1159 MB
Partition 6 Recovery 450 MB 919 GB
Partition 7 Recovery 11 GB 919 GB
I have multiple partitions, but only two OSs installed – one partition with Windows 8.1 and one with an old version of Linux that I haven’t booted to in over a year. I stay current on all windows updates. Yesterday, I did a ‘shutdown and install updates’. I don’t know which updates were scheduled to be installed, but it should have been the most recent available. When I powered on computer later, I got the frown face and “your pc ran into a problem and needs to restart”. I had to video the screen to see that the lower message also says “If you want to know more….you can search for INACCESSIBLE BOOT DEVICE”, since it would disappear so quickly. I have read the other posts on this subject but have had no luck in any of the following…
On the automatic repair screen, I chose restart – no change in symptoms.
I then chose ‘advanced options’ , ‘continue to windows 8.1’ – no change
I then chose ‘advanced options’, ‘troubleshoot’, ‘advanced options’…
… booted to command prompt – can access x: drive and all files appear intact
… did startup repair – no change
… did system restore (tried two different restore points) – no change
— did startup settings, safe mode – no change (and tried all other options)
From command prompt
I ran:
bootrec /FixMbr
bootrec /Fixboot
bootrec /scanos
bootrec /rebuildbcd
bootsect /nt60 all /force
Both the scanos and rebuildbcd show 0 (zero) Windows installations
I also created a recovery USB drive from another 8.1 installation on my desktop machine, but I am not sure if the laptop with the issue actually booted from it or the hard drive.
So after all of the above I start looking at bios boot options (by pressing F12).
My bios has:
Boot mode is set to UEF. Secure boot: ON
UEFI Boot:
Windows boot Manager (WDC WD10JPVT-75A1YT0) (this entry is highlighted)
BIOS Setup (pressing F2) shows
SATA Operation : AHCI (other options are ATA and “Intel Smart Response Technology”)
Under BOOT options:
Secure Boot: Enabled
Boot List Option : UEFI
If I set SECUREBOOT to Disabled then I can select ‘Legacy’ for the boot list option.
My question is what are the next logical steps to try (bios changes?) to repair the boot process?
Hi Codrut
Firstly many thanks for putting this article. It made lot of sense and got me out of lot of trouble.
My issue was Windows 7 hanging after trying to apply a windows update I think.
I typed in bootrec.exe /fixmbr and it says The device is not ready
OMG! You guys are a God send! This page is VERY VAULABLE to those, like myself, that got their boot config all messed up! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!
I type in bootrec.exerebuild it says its an invalid directory. Im windows 8 Asus x750l . It won’t do a system restore best thing i can get. Im trying to put windows on using a usbbut it won’t read my portable hard drive . Please help. Thanks
Hi Brittany looking at your path you typed I think you made an error if its saying invalid directory. You typed a back slash instead of forward / example below:
Wrong——–bootrec.exerebuild
Correct——-bootrec.exe/rebuild
hope that helps,thanks…
Hi can you help my pc was showing Missing operating system on startup then I did all the above from the tutorial running cmd.exe. from Win 7 OS disk boot, Here is what I got:
/fixmbr – operation completed successfully
/fixboot – Elements not found
/rebuildbcd – Total identified Win installation : 0
/scanos – Total identified Win Installation : 0
Is there any hope or it’s the end of the road please help I’m really stuck..
Regards
You could try these commands:
DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK X – X is your Windows drive
LIST PARTITION
SELECT PARTITION X – X is your Windows partition
ACTIVE
EXIT
After each command, press Enter and, after you ran all the commands, try a system repair.
Hi thanks for the response, trying the above here is what I get below:
DISK PART –
Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
Disk 0 Online 931gb 0 B
Disk 1 Online 931gb 931gb
SELECT DISK I choose “0” since it shows free 0
Disk 0 is now selected
LIST PARTITION
Partition ###. Type. Size. Offset
*Partiton 1. Primary. 931gb. 0 B
SELECT PARTION 1
There is no Partiton selected.
DISKPART>
After typing select partition 1 it returned “There is no partition selected” , I’m not sure if I’m on the correct path…
Regards
Lloyd
This is something I find myself having to do from time to time but always forget the process.
Not had to do it in windows 7 so nice to see the updated version using boot rec.exe
Thank you it was frustrating me lol
even after fixing the the mbr. The window 7 loads and waits on the display page until any key is pressed or it doesn’t load, that too within minutes after turning on it should be done else the have to restart it again. what should i do?
Hi everyone . I was wondering of a clever person here can help . When I turned on my acer, It used to just stay on Microsoft corporation screen and not change . Now it always goes into ‘ loading memory files and does a start up repair where it says start up repair cants repair this computer automatically . When I open problem details it says problem signature 01 – 10. Signature 06 says corruptbootconfigdata. Signature 09 says fix partition table.
Can anyone please be generous with their time and try to help me get back to my desktop screen? I’m very naive when it comes to all this
On start up repair it says root cause found – boot configuration is corrupt . Repair action – partition table repair.
Result- failed .error code -0x490
Thanks again .
First, thank you for the straight forward instructions. I got my Lenovo win 8.1 back working and it is doing some auto Hardware scan right now./No/All:’
After the ‘bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd’, I got
‘Total identified Windows installations: 1 [1]
(thats my recovery disk, which I couldn’t get to reboot Windows)
X:windowssystem32>Windows Add installation to boot list? Yes
I typed ‘y’ (without the quotation mark).
Exit’ed command prompt and rebooted computer.
I didn’t do the /nt60 or /force steps. So far so good 🙂
Thank you!!
Please just took my hp laptop to where it was formatted and a new windows installed. However, i wanted to install some games and now, the laptop can no longer boot. please what shall i do?
hi.i have the same problem with my Ubuntu . i installed that alongside my windows 8.1 , and now when the selection page( Ubuntu or windows) come up ,
my windows successfully boot but my Ubuntu don’t boot and i face with an error that say :
windows failed to start ,a recent hardware or software change might be the cause.
Info : the application or operating system couldn’t be loaded because a required file is missing or contains errors
in addition i used of Easybcd and made new entry for my Linux,
please help me to solve my problem .
my Acer 8730 laptop windows 8.1pro OS dual core is stuck on “automatic repair” “diagnostic” loop on attempted start up of system. I am desperately trying to avoid loosing my data on my drive. Currently all checks I have run reflect files are still detectable when using chkdsk /c: lastly I ran /fixmbr successfully then /scanos result was 0 installations. PLEASE advise me easiest and safest next step to follow to fix my boot error ?!! (at your mercy now ) PS. I don’t have original cd windows 8 installation disc*
I followed it and now it’s worse actually..
whem i restart it’s not recognizing any windows installation.
how can i undo what you explained here?
Hi, thanks for the info, I learned quite a bit. Just one question… do all disks have a MBR and BCD or only disks that are a boot disk? In other words, do USB portable hard drives also have them?
I just noticed that you mentioned that above so I’m trying it. I tried it on c: and found nothing as it is calling my c: system reserved, I’m now running it on d: local drive. I will inform on the outcome. Thank you! Let’s hope this helps, it’s actually running something so that alone gives me hope.
I am having a similar problem except my computer won’t boot, bootmgr missing. I have a windows 7 install disk and can get to command prompt but it says bootrec is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file. Please help, have tried following all tutorials with no luck.
Did you try running bootrec.exe from the DVD?
In the Command Prompt you should’ve entered “X:: for example. Then, you can copy bootrec.exe to your Windows drive.
Yes I have run bootrec several times with no luck. It says operation completed successfully every time but nothing changes. It is unable to find OS.
You should also try to check the drive for bad sectors. Run a “chkdisk /r c:”.
I ran the chkdsk /r on the c: and the d: both say… Windows has checked the file system and found no problems. Any suggestions on what next?
Maybe your volume letters are not correct.
Try this:
X:sources> diskpart
DISKPART> list volume
DISKPART> select volume 1
DISKPART> active
DISKPART> assign letter=A
DISKPART> select volume 2
DISKPART> assign letter=C
DISKPART> exit
X:sources> bootrec /rebuildbcd
OK, did that and for the first time it actually worked but still says same thing…successfully scanned windows installations. Total identified windows installations: 0 . the operation completed successfully. And back at x:sources. Gladly accept more advice/options. I’ve done some of these before perhaps just not in the right order?
Check the last part from this article: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/927392
I followed the instructions to the T. Now instead of x:sources> I have C:Boot> Maybe we are getting somewhere!?
I am having the same problem as Joet Dzvetero the the device not functioning plz advise
I ran the cmd’s /fixmbr and /fixboot But at both times recieved the message “A device attached to the system file is not functioning”
For /scanos there were no windows installations available.
My main problem is everytime I start my computer it goes to a blue screen that reads “auto fix couldnt repair your computer”
I cant do a factory reset because i dont have a windows installation disk.
If you get this error, it’s very probable that your drive is damaged and needs to be replaced.
You could try to run a “chkdsk /r c:” to scan for and repair bad sectors. If it works it will take quite a while.
Hi, you’ve just saved my computer! I’ve tried so many tools and rescue disks without any result, just the infinite loop. Now after this simple fix my system is back. Thank you so much from Brazil!
Good morning everyone,
I have a problem with error ‘Invalid Partition Table’.
Will I lose my Documents (unfortunately I did not make any backups) when I use all these repair tools ? Thank you in advance for Help !
I’m still showing 0 windows detected even though I can see them on the disk.. What else can I do?
I’m having the same issue.
I don’t know what to try first. My mp3 player caused some sort of problem, startup repair doesn’t work, and my system recovery points are ‘missing’.
I AM MAKING AN ACCOUNT JUST TO SAY THANK YOU! YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH YOU SAVED ME! I LOVE YOU! I had searched through literally hundreds of websites and all of them didn’t have information that was relevant to me, but this…this made everything work.
Truly, THANK YOU! <3
Hi.Thanks for the guide.
I can’t access cmd anymore.Not with safe mode-not with windows startup repair and not a CD also
The only way I can access my computer files is a kali Linux live cd.Anyway I do things you said through it?
Hi,
I’m using two operating systems(Win7 & Ubuntu12.04) in my computer. During the installation of MATLAB in win7, it hung . So I restarted the computer by switching off the power. After this, I found a problem related to automatic startup repair and tried to repair by bootrec /fixmbr and bootrec /fixboot commands without any win7 cd or dvd (which was showing successful in command prompt), but the same problem occurred when I restarted again. Also I’m not able to run ubuntu also in my computer after this issue. I have some important data in it. Please help so that I should not loose my data.
Thank you in advance for your help.
I have a dual boot windows 8.1 system on my lappy at the moment. Would following these steps allow me to remove the slower boot option from start up?
Thanks. I was on a dual boot system and I removed the Linux partition and was using grub only. I used EASUS Partition Manager to merge two partitions and it had to reboot to finish the task. When it rebooted, grub wouldn’t start and was in Rescue Mode (grub rescue). My Windows partitions were locked down because they were awaiting EASUS to finish merging the partitions. So repair from the Windows 8 Install Disc was not an option. I tried everything, then found this post, booted from the W8 Install Disc, selected CMD option, ran all these steps to “/scanos”, typed ” exit” into the CMD Prompt, rebooted, and everything was fine. And my grub was completely gone (which was what I was trying to do in the first place and why I was messing with the partitions) because I just wanted the regular Windows Boot. You saved me hours. Thanks.
when i go to scanos steps, it again stucks for half an hour.
plz help
With this tutorial, I was able to do what the Geek Squad couldn’t do. I had to create a Win 7 boot CD from another Win 7 computer then boot the defective computer from the created boot CD in safe mode w/ command prompt. I couldn’t access the C: until after I ran “chkdsk C: [Option]” from X: (relocate and repair options for chkdsk were used). It found bad files and sectors, but that was not enough. I had to reboot and access C: after having to run another chkdsk C:, then I had to implement your “Rebuild Process” from C:. Trying to remove bad windows updates with pkgmgr did not work from C: prompt. It was after a windows update my issue occurred. Thank you for posting!!! V/R, Jeff
What about when it refuses to recognize your keyboards (any of them, wired & wireless) so you can’t type anything in the command prompt? This is where I’m stuck & I’m going to try hirens boot cd next, but I’m starting to feel like I’m going to have to do a fresh install of Windows AGAIN, after only doing so about 4 months ago. :'(
bootrec.exe /nt60 all /force
not recognized as a command, then lists commands?
If you try to run bootrec.exe directly from Windows, it won’t work.
In this guide we mention the following: boot from your Windows Setup DVD or a System Repair Disc and launch Command Prompt.
bootrec.exe is included only on the System Repair disc.
Really a great guide, I was able to fix my 4 hours PC problem with the above code execution!!!
i did scan process bootrec.exe /scanos but i didn’t find any operating system installation. what i can do now.
pls help me.
After many trials, this really fixed our pc. Thanks!!! 😀 It was my first time using cmd other than the dir and sfc commands.
Glad we could help.
I never knew how easy it really was to fix boot problems until I accidentally discovered the fixboot.
“First of all you have to clean Master Boot Record (MBR) by using bootrec /fixmbr as in an earlier section. Next, type bootsect.exe /nt60 all /force and press Enter. The /nt60 parameter applies the master boot code that is compatible with BOOTMGR”
Does anyone knows the code for switching back to XP bootmenu?
Remember I’ve seen this nt60 been mentioned somewhere before and it was for get Vista/Win7 bootmenu on screen.
Thanks for a nice tutorial!
try this command to restore Windows XP boot menu:
bcdedit /create {ntldr} -d windows xp
or a slight variation of this command:
bcdedit /create {ntldr} /d “Windows XP”
The “d” stands for the drive that the windows xp is actually installed. If it is in drive c, then replace the ‘d’ with a ‘c’.
to my knowledge, easy bcd does offer a backup of that BCD thing, but easy bcd only allows for a disc restore. i don’t think you can restore only the BCD.
Easy BCD
https://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1
i guess easy bcd only allows for a disc restore.
i don’t think you can restore only the BCD.
RE: software to backup BCD
my machine comes with an OEM windows 7 installation so i don’t have an installation disc right at my finger tips.
i am looking for a software to backup the boot elements (that BCD thing) and to restore the boot archive before windows 7 is being launched.
any suggestions?
thankyou
William,
Hongkong
2-12-2010
Yes, a great sheet of commands. I never knew how easy it really was to fix boot problems until I accidentally discovered the fixboot, etc. commands. A great sheet to print or have on a second computer.