How to fix Windows 7 or Vista Boot errors – problems.
Boot problems can be caused by several reasons, like power supply interruption, a damaged data cable, damaged boot device , wrong boot device order, virus attacks or after installing a new operating system. This tutorial will show you how to run and use the Windows “Startup Repair” (Repair Your Computer) option to fix these problems.
Keep in mind that this tutorial is mostly effective when your boot device (e.g. hard disk) is healthy, your data cables are OK and you have specified the proper boot device inside BIOS settings (see Step 1).
Boot errors (problems) & conditions that can fixed by using this tutorial:
Boot Error Condition No1:
“BOOTMGR is missing. Press Ctrl + Alt + Del to restart”
Boot Error Condition No2:
“File: \Boot\BCD
Status: 0xc0000034
Info: The Windows Boot Configuration Data file is missing required information”
Boot Error Condition No3:
"File: \boot\bcd
Status: 0xc000000f
Info: An error occurred while attempting to read the boot configuration data".
Boot Error Condition No4:
- After you have installed a new operating system on your computer, you cannot boot into Windows anymore.
Boot Error Condition No5:
- "No operating system found"
- "Element not found"
Boot Error Condition No6:
- You have accidentally deleted the active boot partition.
How to fix Boot problems in Windows 7, Vista.
In most cases, the boot problems occur because the system tries to boot from the wrong boot device. So before continuing to repair your system using this tutorial, check the boot order setting from Bios.
Step 1: Ensure that your computer starts from the proper boot device.
1. Enter the BIOS settings by pressing “DEL” or “F1” or “F2” or “F10”. *
* The way to enter into BIOS Settings depends on the computer manufacturer.
2. Inside Bios menu, find “Boot Order” setting. This setting is commonly found inside “Advanced settings”.
- Check if your system boots from the proper device: "Hard Disk". *
* If your computer has more than one hard disk, set the proper hard disk (the hard disk with the OS on it) as “First”.
3. Save and Exit Bios Setup.
4. See if your computer boots normally into Windows. If not, continue to Step 2.
Step 2: Change BIOS Boot order to boot from your CD/DVD device.
Before continuing to the instructions below, your must have one of the following DVD media in place:
- Windows 7 Installation DVD, OR
- Windows 7 System Repair Disk.
* The above media will be mentioned at the rest of this article as “Recovery Media” for brevity reasons.
1. Enter the BIOS settings by pressing “DEL” or “F1” or “F2” or “F10”. *
* The way to enter into BIOS Settings depends on the computer manufacturer.
2. In Bios menu, find “Boot Order” setting. This setting is commonly found inside “Advanced settings”.
3. Change the boot order to first boot from “CD/DVD Drive”.
3. Save and Exit Bios Setup.
Step 3. Boot your computer from the CD/DVD drive.
1. Place the “Recovery Media” (Windows 7 Installation DVD or the System Repair Disk) on your CD/DVD drive.
2. Press Any key to boot from CD or DVD, when the corresponding message appears on your screen.
How to fix your Windows 7 installation using Startup Repair.
Step 4. Repair your Windows 7 boot problems using Startup Repair.
1. Choose your preferred Language, Time and Keyboard settings and hit “Next”.
2. At the next screen choose the “Repair your Computer” option.
At this point Windows tries to find and repair Startup problems automatically. If so, then a message appears on your screen that informs you that:
“Windows found problems with your computer’s startup options. Do you want to apply repairs and restart your computer?”.
If the above message appears on your screen, then press the “Repair and restart your computer” button to apply changes and restart your computer.
{At this point eject the Windows Installation DVD (or the System Repair Disk) from the DVD drive}
Now check if the boot problems are fixed and you can boot to Windows normally.
If your computer doesn’t start again then put the “Recovery Media” into your CD/DVD drive, restart your computer (press “CTRL+ALT+DEL” or press the “Reset” button) and run “Startup Repair” manually. To do that:
3. At system recover options leave the “Use recovery tools that can help fix problems starting Windows…” checked and press “Next”.
4. Select the “Startup Repair” option.
Now let the “Startup Repair” to check your computer for problems.
At this point two things (cases) can happen:
Case No1: Windows can find problems and can repair them. If this happens:
- Remove the Recovery disk from the DVD drive.
- Press the “Repair and restart your computer” button.
- See if your computer can boot to Windows normally.
- Attention: You have to run “Startup Repair” option two more times, before continuing to the next step because “Startup Repair” in most cases must run three (3) times until it fixes all problems.
- If the problem persists put your “Recovery Media” on the CD/DVD drive again and continue to the next Step.
Case No2: Startup Repair could not detect a problem. If this happens, then:
- Choose the”View Advanced options for system recovery and support” link and
- Continue to the next Step.
How to fix Master Boot Record from command prompt (bootrec):
Step 5. Fix the master boot record using “bootrec” command.
(With your “Recovery Media” placed on the CD/DVD drive boot to “Command Prompt”).
1. At the following screen, select “Command Prompt”.
2a. First repair the Master Boot Record. Inside the command prompt window, type the following command and press “Enter”:
- bootrec /fixmbr
(The System should return the following message that informs you that “The operation completed successfully”.)
2b. Next fix the System Partition Boot Sector and the boot configuration data. To do that, type the following command and press “Enter”.
- bootrec /fixboot
Note*: The above commands is also used to fix the following boot error/problem:
“BOOTMGR is missing.
Press Ctrl + Alt + Del to restart”
(The System should return the following message that informs you that “The operation completed successfully”.)
3. Remove the “Recovery Media” from the CD/DVD drive and restart your computer.
If your computer fails to start, continue to Step 6.
How to fix Boot Configuration Data information.
Step 6: Fix (ReBuild) the corrupted Boot Configuration Data (BCD) folder.
1. Scan your system for compatible Windows 7 installations and add them to boot configuration data (BCD) folder.
To do that, you must boot with the “recovery Media” inside command prompt window, so type the following command and press “Enter”.
- bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd
The System should return one of the following two messages:
A. Message No1:
“Scanning all disk for Windows Installations.
Please wait, since this may take a while…
Successfully scanned Windows Installations.
Total identified Windows installations: 0
The operation completed successfully…”
Action: If you see the above message, then you have to backup the boot configuration data (BCD) folder and create (rebuild) a new one. To do that, type the following commands in order:
- bcdedit /export C:\bcdbackup
- c:
- cd boot
- attrib bcd -s -h -r
- ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old
- bootrec /rebuildbcd
The system should return the follow message:
“…….
Total identified Windows installations: 1
[1] D:\Windows
Add installation to boot list? Yes<Y>/ No<N> /All<A>”
Type “Y” (Yes)
Close “command prompt” window, remove the “Recovery Media” from CD/DVD drive and restart your computer,
B. Message No2:
“Scanning all disk 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<Y>/ No<N> /All<A>”
Action: Type “Y” (Yes), remove the repair disk, close “command prompt” window and restart your computer,
Normally your system should load Windows without problems.
Additional Info/Action: If you have installed Windows XP on the same computer where you have previously installed Windows 7 and you cannot boot anymore into Windows 7 OS, then you must type this command to fix the Windows 7 bootloader:
- bootsect /nt60 all
How to change Active partition in Windows 7, Vista.
Step 7: Change Active Partition
(With your “Recovery Media” placed on the CD/DVD drive boot to “Command Prompt”).
1. In the command prompt window type:
- diskpart
2. In “DISKPART” prompt type:
- list disk
3. Now type the following command and then press “Enter”.:
- select disk X (Where “X “means the number of disk that contains the Operating System – e.g. “0”).
4. Then type the following command and press “Enter”.
- list partition
5. From the available partitions, select the partition that you want to make active (e.g. “partition 1”).
Type the following command and then press “Enter”.
- select partition 1
6. Finally type the following command and press “Enter” to make your partition active.
- active
At this point, the system should return with the following message:
“DiskPart marked the current partition as active.”
7. Close “command prompt” window, remove the “Recovery Media” from CD/DVD drive and restart your computer.
8. If your computer fails to start, boot from the “Recovery Media” again and run the “Startup Repair” (Step 4) and let Windows fix Startup problems.
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Anup
October 15, 2016 @ 6:47 pm
Hello,
I'm facing same problem and the biggest problem is that my keywords are not working… So, i'm unable to go in bios as well. I tried esc, Enter as well to skip this but none of them are working..
Configuration is I3 6th gen and Gigabyte.
Please suggest..
lakonst
October 16, 2016 @ 9:12 am
@Anup: What is the model of your Gigabyte motherboard?
BJ
July 11, 2015 @ 10:52 pm
Thank you so much, great step by step tutorial.
J. Manuel Cuevas
June 16, 2015 @ 6:10 am
Hey tanks, i can fix my computer whit your info. This site is cool. :D
sufian
January 22, 2015 @ 12:19 pm
U r awesome…….