Windows 10: Canonical method to find and fix corrupt boot files on unbootable PC?

Discus and support Canonical method to find and fix corrupt boot files on unbootable PC? in Windows 10 Performance & Maintenance to solve the problem; Hi all, I am having a repeat problem: my unstable PC BSODed while I wasn't doing anything, rebooted and then BSODed again on boot (0xc000021a),... Discussion in 'Windows 10 Performance & Maintenance' started by FishFace, Aug 12, 2016.

  1. FishFace Win User

    Canonical method to find and fix corrupt boot files on unbootable PC?


    Hi all,

    I am having a repeat problem: my unstable PC BSODed while I wasn't doing anything, rebooted and then BSODed again on boot (0xc000021a), rebooted to the repair environment, which failed to fix it: my machine is unbootable. As before, booting to safe mode is impossible.

    I am fairly sure that physical damage to my hardware has rendered something seriously screwy and I will replace the thing soon. Until that time I would like to get my PC back up and running so I have something to use, take backups and so on.

    Now, the logfiles the diagnostics leave in Windows\System32\LogFiles\Srt\ are not very helpful. Yesterday it said that a critical boot file was corrupt but did not say which one(s). Today it says that "a patch is preventing the system from starting" but that the repair action, "System files integrity check and repair" failed with error code 0x57.

    My understanding is that the correct course of action would now be to run SFC on the offending system. So I booted to the recovery environment, clicked through to the command prompt, and tried it. However, SFC fails; running Code: sfc /scannow[/quote] performs the verification stage and spits out:

    Code: Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation.[/quote] Now in spite of the frequent recommendation to run this command, my limited understanding is that this is useless anyway, as it is checking the files of the recovery environment. However, running Code: sfc /scannow /offbootdir=f: /offwindir=f:\windows[/quote] (F:\ is my boot drive when in the recovery environment) gives the same error but doesn't leave a log file to work out what might have gone wrong. Replacing /scannow with /verifyonly doesn't help.

    This error message seems completely general and of no use in working out what's preventing SFC from doing its job. The same occurs if I boot from installation media and run the commands from the command prompt in its own repair environment. I want to avoid having to nuke all the installed stuff (again) because even though I can keep my data, setting everything up for the billionth time gets tiring, and I will just have to do it again when I replace this machine.

    So my question is: how can I replace these corrupted files? It seems like, certainly when running this stuff from installation media, it should not have any problems running SFC (I can imagine that the repair environment on the PC itself might also be boned). I have heard that DISM is a useful tool in this situation but I don't understand what it could be useful for since I'm not dealing with image files. Or am I taking it too literally, and does an installed version of windows count as an "unpacked" image? I don't know, it seemed to be exclusively for either altering a windows image file, or for altering an online (which I took to mean "booted") version of windows.

    When I do try to use DISM I think it should be something like this:

    Code: dism /image:f:\ /cleanup-image /restorehealth[/quote] But this gives the following error (after completing the progress bar):

    Code: Error: 87 An error occurred while processing the command. Ensure that the command-line arguments are valid. For more information, review the log file.[/quote] The logfile contains a bunch of errors. The first errors are about XML parsing, but (of course) it does not say what XML file. They look like "CBS Wrong XML DECL [HRESULT = 0x800f0900 - CBS_E_XML_PARSER_FAILURE" (and some other iterations - I can type them up if it would help) and continue for quite a while. After those errors come some from CSI about mismatched hashes, which I fully expect to see. They are for files under f:\Windows\WinSxS. The summary says that 31 instances of CBS manifest corruption were found, and nothing else.

    Just before the corrupted packages are enumerated, the following errors appear:

    Code: CSI 00000014 (F) STATUS_INVALID_PARAMETER #174# from CCSDirect_IRtlComponentStore::EnumStoreCorruptions(...)[gle=0xd000000d] CSI 00000015 (F) E_INVALIDARG #173# from Windows::COM::CStorePendingStoreRepairTxn_IStorePendingStoreRepairTransaction:Canonical method to find and fix corrupt boot files on unbootable PC? :Detect(Flags = 5, cancelEvt = 3bc (""), disp = 0)[gle=0x80070057] CBS Rept: Failed to call CSI detect. [HRESULT = 0x80070057 - E_INVALIDARG][/quote] The E_INVALIDARG error is then repeated in a few other places, but not with any new info that I can see.

    Thanks for any help you can offer.

    :)
     
    FishFace, Aug 12, 2016
    #1

  2. Reinstalling Windows 10 over a corrupted, unbootable version of Windows 10

    None of those fixed my PC. Please help. How do I clean slate my corrupt/unbootable PC?
     
    IslandSilverWolf, Aug 12, 2016
    #2
  3. Windows 10 Stuck on Invalid Pin on first startup.

    Hi,

    Based on your description, this issue might be caused by a corrupted user profile or corrupted system files. We recommend that you follow the methods below to identify and fix the problem:

    Method 1: Run the System File Checker.

    Click this link on how to use the System File Checker tool to repair missing or corrupted
    system files
    .

    If there are no errors found using System File Checker, proceed to Method 2.

    Method 2: Perform a clean boot.

    Check this article on how to perform a clean boot in Windows.

    Update us with the outcome so we can provide further assistance.
     
    Gerard Qui, Aug 12, 2016
    #3
  4. Canonical method to find and fix corrupt boot files on unbootable PC?

    For the 0xc000021a error:

    You forgot the backslash in the offbootdir parameter, although it might not make a difference

    sfc /scannow /offbootdir=f: /offwindir=f:\windowsshould be:
    sfc /scannow /offbootdir=f:\ /offwindir=f:\windows
    If that doesn't help try removing any recent hardware (or any non-essential hardware - leave the mouse, keybd, and monitor)

    Today it says that "a patch is preventing the system from starting" but that the repair action, "System files integrity check and repair" failed with error code 0x57.

    Indicates that you can boot. Try uninstalling the most recent update in Windows Update, disconnect from the internet and restart.

    You should also run Windows Defender Offline

    Settings > Update and Security > Defender > Windows Defender Offline ... press the scan offline button
     
    Slartybart, Aug 12, 2016
    #4
  5. FishFace Win User
    I tried this but the result was the same.


    No recent hardware additions. The history of the machine leaves me fairly confident that the hardware is damaged and doing this at random.

    Nevertheless I cannot. Rebooting results in the same BSOD (or a trip to the recovery environment - it alternates, of course)
     
    FishFace, Aug 12, 2016
    #5
  6. Slartybart, Aug 12, 2016
    #6
  7. FishFace Win User
    Nope, safe mode BSODs with the same message.
     
    FishFace, Aug 12, 2016
    #7
  8. Canonical method to find and fix corrupt boot files on unbootable PC?

    Thought of some other things - might work ...

    Remove your memory - place one stick in the first slot and try a restart
    place the same stick in each of the other slots - trying a restart between each change

    Then if there is more than one RAM stick involved, try the same procedure with the other RAM stick(s)

    This tests each RAM stick independently of any other RAM and it test the slots as well

    Tools that are good to have in your toolbox (to effectively use the Fix boot features you should know the disk structure - that's where Partition Wizard comes into play)

    Read up on the utilities and ask questions before you attempt a repair.

     
    Slartybart, Apr 4, 2018
    #8
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Canonical method to find and fix corrupt boot files on unbootable PC?

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