Windows 10: Unable to boot; 0xc000000f error on start

Greetings! Bit of a long story here, I will try and keep it simple.

I recently upgraded the following components on my computer.

motherboard MSI 870a-g54 --> ASRock Z370 Killer SLI/ac
RAM: Corsair XMS 4gb + G.Skilll Ripjaw 8gb --> 16 gb Corsair Vengeance LPX
CPU: AMD Phenom II 965 --> Intel i5-8400

I did not take any measures with the operating system before swapping components, other than making sure to link my Windows 10 account with my Microsoft account.

After the change, the motherboard booted up, I was able to enter the BIOS without any trouble, but attempting to boot into Windows 10 I encountered a black screen with a 0xc000000f error.

All the drives connected (there are three) and the DVD drive are recognized in the BIOS. I have tried only leaving the boot drive connected, but with no change. I have a boot USB with the Windows 10 ISO file loaded onto it. I am able to load into Window Repair from the USB drive.

When I opened the Registry Key system via the Command Line, all three drives were listed and accessible in the file explorer (I didn't end up changing the registry keys at all, but it was a possible fix I had read about).

I also discovered that my old drives were all partitioned with MBR, not sure if that is causing problems or not, but my understanding is the enabling CSM compatibility in the BIOS should address that. Not sure.

Here are the things that I have tried:

Startup repair - said couldn't repair it.
Restoring to previous restore point - Appeared to succeed, butno improvement
Rebuild the BCD - this was attempted through the command prompt accessible via the Window Repair screen. During the process, the windows files were detected, but I couldn't change them because it said system could not be found(?).The only effect this had was to add "BCD Corrupted" to the black screen o' death. Not sure that was an improvement. During the process, the windows files were detected, but I couldn't change them because it said system could not be found(?).

Upgraded BIOS to latest version - no improvement
Made sure boot order listed SSD with OS on it first.
Made sure the CSM compatibility was enabled in the BIOS boot system. Tried reinstalling the old Motherboard/CPU/RAM combination in order to remove the files I wanted to save, or see if I could change anything to make it more likely to work, but I encountered the exact same error. Which is weird.


I could go for a new reinstall of Windows after reformatting the drive, but I'd like to avoid that if I could obviously. Anyone have anything else I could try. I've been going at it for four days now, with no success. Any help appreciated.

:)

 

0xc000000f

See:
https://neosmart.net/wiki/0xc000000f-error-read-boot-configuration-data/

 

Unable to Boot; 0xc000000f error

Greetings! Bit of a long story here, I will try and keep it simple.

I recently upgraded the following components on my computer.

motherboard MSI 870a-g54 --> ASRock Z370 Killer SLI/ac

RAM: Corsair XMS 4gb + G.Skilll Ripjaw 8gb --> 16 gb Corsair Vengeance LPX

CPU: AMD Phenom II 965 --> Intel i5-8400

I did not take any measures with the operating system before swapping components, other than making sure to link my Windows 10 account with my Microsoft account.

After the change, the motherboard booted up, I was able to enter the BIOS without any trouble, but attempting to boot into Windows 10 I encountered a black screen with a 0xc000000f error.

All the drives connected (there are three) and the DVD drive are recognized in the BIOS. I have tried only leaving the boot drive connected, but with no change. I have a boot USB with the Windows 10 ISO
file loaded onto it. I am able to load into Window Repair from the USB drive.

When I opened the Registry Key system via the Command Line, all three drives were listed and accessible in the file explorer (I didn't end up changing the registry keys at all, but it was a possible fix
I had read about).

I also discovered that my old drives were all partitioned with MBR, not sure if that is causing problems or not, but my understanding is the enabling CSM compatibility in the BIOS should address that. Not
sure.

Here are the things that I have tried:

Startup repair - said couldn't repair it.

Restoring to previous restore point - Appeared to succeed, but no improvement

Rebuild the BCD - this was attempted through the command prompt accessible via the Window Repair screen. During the process, the windows files were detected, but I couldn't change them because it said
system could not be found(?).The only effect this had was to add "BCD Corrupted" to the black screen o' death. Not sure that was an improvement. During the process, the windows files were detected,
but I couldn't change them because it said system could not be found(?). Also tried the advise found here (https://www.kapilarya.com/how-to-fi...led-because-a-required-device-is-inaccessible), but it did not work
(either not applicable in case of RAW vs NTSF formatting, and unworkable in the case of the second suggestion because of the error mentioned above, i.e. when attempting to "Add installation to boot list" it said system not found.)

Upgraded BIOS to latest version - no improvement

Made sure boot order listed SSD with OS on it first.

Made sure the CSM compatibility was enabled in the BIOS boot system.
Tried reinstalling the old Motherboard/CPU/RAM combination in order to remove the files I wanted to save, or see if I could change anything to make it more likely to work, but I encountered the exact
same error. Which is weird.

I could go for a new reinstall of Windows after reformatting the drive, but I'd like to avoid that if I could obviously. Anyone have anything else I could try? I've been going at it for four days now, with
no success. Any help appreciated.

 

Perform the following steps:
1) Find a flash drive that you can format ( > or = 8 GB)
2) Create a bootable Windows 10 iso:
Download Windows 10
3) Insert the Windows 10 iso into any USB port
4) Power on the computer and click the applicable keyboard key:
List of PC brands with their corresponding hot-keys
5) If it is a custom computer then open the BIOS and temporarily modify the BIOS boot menu so that the USB port is on top
6) Power on the computer and boot to the external USB hard drive
7) It may take 5 - 10 minutes for the iso to load while viewing the Microsoft Windows icon
8) Select language, time, currency, and keyboard, or click next
9) In the left lower corner click on repair your computer
10) Click troubleshoot
11) Click command prompt
12) This should open a box > Administrator: X:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe > X:\Sources>
13) Use a camera or smart phone camera to take pictures of these commands and results and post images into the thread for troubleshooting steps based upon the results of these commands.
14) C:
15) dir
16) D:
17) dir
18) bcdedit /enum
19) bcdedit | find "osdevice"
20) diskpart
21) list disk
22) list volume
23) select disk 0
24) list partition
25) select partition 1
26) detail partition
27) select partition 2
28) detail partition
29) select partition 3
30) detail partition
31) select partition 4
32) detail partition
33) (if there are more than 4 partitions please continue in the same fashion so that all partitions are displayed)
34) select disk 1
35) list partition
36) exit
37) chkdsk /r
(This may take many hours and in the Windows recovery environment typically displays ETA) Use the drive letter displayed in step #19 in the form chkdsk /r M: and replace M with the drive letter)
38) (reboot)
39) (View the results of step #19 for the partition drive letter and use this drive letter for the next set of steps)
40) sfc /scannow /offbootdir=M:\ /offwindir=M:\windows (change the drive letters M to the partition drive letter seen in the find osdevice command.) (there is a space between \ /) (This may take time to complete)
41) bootrec /fixmbr
42) bootrec /fixboot
43) bootrec /scanos
44) bootrec /rebuildbcd
45) (reboot)
46) If the repair is successful consider the repair fragile and make the following steps:
a) backup all files to another drive or to the cloud
b) make a backup image using Macrium, Acronis, Aeomi, Paragon, or similar software
Macrium Software | Macrium Reflect Free
c) make a brand new restore point
47) Please use a camera or smart phone camera to post images of the commands and results into the thread.
If the repair is not successful there are additional troubleshooting steps to fix the failure to boot.
If the repair is successful please reply in the thread so that it may be useful to others that are having similar problems.

 

Thanks so much for the quick response. I will try what you suggested and post the results, with screenshots later this evening.

 

Ok tried what you suggested. It did not have the desired result unfortunately. As you can see in the photos, I was unable to bootrec /fixboot resulted in an "Access denied" and trying to /rebuildbcd resulted in a "System not found" message.

The command to "find osdevice" also did not seem to return anything, which is also visible in the photos.

Also not sure why the red line appeared, but I'll worry about that later I guess. Still encountering 0xc000000f error on startup. Any other help still appreciated.

Photos can be found here: Troubleshoot — imgbb.com

 

Diskpart displayed the partitions with assigned drive letters.
What troubleshooting steps had already been done?

In the post the use of : next to letters sometimes creates *Smile
So the information in this post is displayed twice, once as the typical post and once using the code.

Please use a camera or smart phone camera to take pictures of the commands and results and post images into the thread.


The chkdsk displayed that it made repairs although the detail of the repairs was not seen in the report.
sfc displayed no integrity violations
bootrec /fixboot displayed access denied
bootrec /rebuildbcd displayed the BCD store could not be opened and the required system device could not found
The drive is MBR

Open command prompt > administrator: X:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe > X:\Sources> type:
1) diskpart
2) list disk
3) select disk 0
4) list volume
(select the active system partition and assign letter=v*Smile
5) select volume 1
(volume 1 is the selected volume)

6) assign letter=v:
(diskpart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point)

7) exit
(leaving diskpart)
(x:sources>)

8) v:
(v:\>)

9) md \efi\microsoft\boot
(v:\>)

10) cd /d v:\efi\microsoft\boot
(v:\efi\microsoft\boot)

11) bootrec /fixboot
(The operation completed successfully)
(v:\efi\microsoft\boot)

12) bcdboot c:\windows /L en-us /s v: /f all
(The operation completed successfully)
(v:\efi\microsoft\boot)

13) exit

14) (reboot the computer and reopen command prompt > administrator: x:\windows\system32\cmd.exe > x:sources> type*Smile

15) bootred /fixmbr
(The operation completed successfully)

16) bootrec /fixboot
(The operation completed successfully)

17) bootrec /scanos
(Scanning all disks for Windows installations
Please wait since this may take a while
Successfully scanned Windows installations
Total identified Windows installations (it may now display: 2)
The operation completed successfully)

18) bootrec /rebuildbcd
(Scanning all disks for Windows installations
Please wait since this may take a while
Successfully scanned Windows installations
Total identified Windows installations (it may now display: 1)
The operation completed successfully
Add installation to boot list? Yes(Y)/No(N)/All(A)*Smile

19) A
(The operation completed successfully)
(x:\sources>)

20) exit

21) reboot

Please use a camera or smart phone camera to take pictures of the commands and results and post images into the thread.

Code: Diskpart displayed the partitions with assigned drive letters.What troubleshooting steps had already been done? Please use a camera or smart phone camera to take pictures of the commands and results and post images into the thread. The chkdsk displayed that it made repairs although the detail of the repairs was not seen in the report. sfc displayed no integrity violations bootrec /fixboot displayed access denied bootrec /rebuildbcd displayed the BCD store could not be opened and the required system device could not found The drive is MBR Open command prompt > administrator: X:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe > X:\Sources> type: 1) diskpart 2) list disk 3) select disk 0 4) list volume (select the active system partition and assign letter=v 5) select volume 1 (volume 1 is the selected volume) 6) assign letter=v: (diskpart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point) 7) exit (leaving diskpart) (x:sources>) 8) v: (v:\>) 9) md \efi\microsoft\boot (v:\>) 10) cd /d v:\efi\microsoft\boot (v:\efi\microsoft\boot) 11) bootrec /fixboot (The operation completed successfully) (v:\efi\microsoft\boot) 12) bcdboot c:\windows /L en-us /s v: /f all (The operation completed successfully) (v:\efi\microsoft\boot) 13) exit 14) (reboot the computer and reopen command prompt > administrator: x:\windows\system32\cmd.exe > x:sources> type 15) bootred /fixmbr (The operation completed successfully) 16) bootrec /fixboot (The operation completed successfully) 17) bootrec /scanos (Scanning all disks for Windows installations Please wait since this may take a while Successfully scanned Windows installations Total identified Windows installations (it may now display: 2) The operation completed successfully) 18) bootrec /rebuildbcd (Scanning all disks for Windows installations Please wait since this may take a while Successfully scanned Windows installations Total identified Windows installations (it may now display: 1) The operation completed successfully Add installation to boot list? Yes(Y)/No(N)/All(A) 19) A (The operation completed successfully) (x:\sources>) 20) exit 21) reboot Please use a camera or smart phone camera to take pictures of the commands and results and post images into the thread.[/quote]

 

Hi martel,

Before you ran the BCD commands, was there any file mentioned with the 0xc000000f error code?

 

@axe0 - No, there was no file mentioned, although the error code remained the same. After I used the bootsec.exe /nt60 command the File: boot/bcd line appeared, which can be seen in the photos.
@zbook - I'll try what you have suggested and post the results. As for the assigned drive letters, no I don't know why they already have assigned letters. As far as I can recall, those were in fact the drive letters they were assigned when the computer was working, but I didn't reassign them during the troubleshooting process. The steps I had already taken are listed in the original post. I had tried to rebuild the BCD previously, but with the same results (i.e. didn't have access, system not found etc.)

 

And here are the results for round 2. Access still denied, system still not found.

Photos here: Troubleshoot Attempt 2 — imgbb.com

 

When was bootsec.exe /nt60 used? Was that the complete command? What was the result?
What other commands had been used and what were the results?


These are abridged commands:
bcdedit /export c:\bcdbackup
attrib c:\boot\bcd -h -r -s
ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old
bootrec /rebuildbcd

Please use a camera or smart phone camera to take pictures and post images into the thread.
There are more commands after these steps.



These are unabridged commands:
a) type: bootrec /rebuildbcd
(This searches for windows installations not included in the BCD and then asks if you would like to add to it)
(It will display that it successfully scanned all installations and the identified installations will be 0 or 1)
If 0 it displays: Total identified windows installations: 0 The operation completed successfully.
If 1 it displays: Total identified windows installations: 1 [1] D:\windows Add installation to boot list? Yes/No/All:
b) for option total identified installations 0 the BCD store exists and first needs to be removed manually and then rebuilt.
c) type: bcdedit /export c:\bcdbackup
(This will export the BCD store as a file: bcdbackup (a file extension is not needed)
(It should display: The operation completed successfully.)
d) type: attrib c:\boot\bcd -h -r -s
(This removes the hidden, read only and system attributes from the file BCD)
(The attributes had restricted the actions on the file and now it can be renamed)
e) type: ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old
(now that it is renamed it should be able to be rebuilt)
f) type: bootrec /rebuildbcd
It should display:
Scanning all disks for Windows installations.
Please wait, since this may take a while...
Successfully scanned Windows installations.
Total identified Windows installations: 1
[1] D:\Windows
Add installation to boot list? Yes/No/All:
g) type: Y
then enter key
It should display :
The operationi completed successfully. (The BCD rebuild is complete.)
h) reboot

Please use a camera or smart phone camera to take pictures and post images into the thread.
There are more commands after these steps.

If the above results work you are set. If they fail then perform the next group of steps:

This is the registry backup method:
For each step you must see sizeable file sizes for this to work.
If you see zeros the method will fail.
The command: dir
will be used each step to make sure you are in the proper location and check the size of the files
10) type: C:
11) dir
12) type: D:
13) dir
Choose the C: or the D: drive to proceed. It should be the windows drive and not the USB drive.
14) type: bcdedit | find "osdevice"
This should display the location of the partition and in most cases is the location of the affected drive.
For this post I will use C: however you should pick the drive letter that you found that has the windows files on your computer. The prior results did not display a result however the active partition is C:
The proper drive will display: perflogs, program files, program files (x86), users, windows, etc
15) type or copy and paste: cd \windows\system32\config
It should display: C:\windows\system32\config>
16) type: dir
It should display: bbi, bcd-template, components, default, drivers, elam, sam, security, software, system, vsmidk, journal, regback, systemprofile txr, etc.
All of the file sizes should be sizeable. If it displays zeros then abort.
Make a new directory and name it backup or something similar.
17) type: MD backup
Copy all of the files into this new directory.
18) type or copy and paste: copy *.* backup
It should now display: bbi, bcd-template, components, default, drivers, elam, sam, security, software, system, vsmidk indicating the files were copied.
Change the directory to regback
19) type: cd regback
It should now display: c:\windows\system32\config\regback>
20)type: dir
It should display: default, sam, security, software, system etc
All of these files must be sizeable. If it displays zeros then abort.
21) type or copy and paste: copy *.* ..
It should now display:
DEFAULT
Overwrite ..\default? (yes/no/all):
22) type: a
It should now display: sam, security, software, system and that the files were copied.
23) type: exit
24) click turn off your PC
Remove the USB flash drive if you had changed your boot order. Otherwise you can leave it and power on your computer

 

Thanks zbook. The bootsec.exe /nt60 was used after I had already tried to rebuild, but before I posted on here. It appeared to work, but didn't have any effect on the error, other than to add a "File: BOOT/BCD" as I noted above. Other than that command, I have only tried variations on the bcd rebuild that you had me try, with the same results "access denied", "system not found" etc.

I also tried what you suggested, and it seemed to work alright (i.e. i was able to copy the files etc), but had the same error. I was able to boot up with a live copy of Linux on a USB and backup the files I wanted, so I am just going to do a clean install of Windows after reformatting the drive. Thanks for all the help though, I really appreciate it.

 

Glad you have the file backed up.
You are welcome.
The bootsec.exe /nt60 for a mbr drive is bootsec.exe /nt60 /mbr.
It is a command that I have rarely used.
The bootsec.exe /nt60 may be used for GPT.
Whether that was a source of the problem I would have to look up.
Again I'm glad you got the files backed up as you can now clean install.
Clean Install Windows 10 Windows 10 Tutorials
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