The file path in step 3g indicates that your Windows installation was done in UEFI mode, so any attempts to repair the BCD should be done in UEFI mode only. Step 5 indicates that you've configured bios to support both legacy and UEFI boot. You may want to change that to UEFI only to make sure you're booting into the recovery environment in UEFI mode and not legacy. If you'd rather leave legacy support enabled, then make sure you select the UEFI boot option each time you boot from the Windows installation media.

Boot from your Windows installation media in UEFI mode, select your language preferences if necessary and click next. This will take you to the Install Now screen with the Repair option at the bottom left. Do not click any of these options, instead press Shift and F10 to open a command prompt. Run:

BCDEDIT |FIND "OSDEVICE"

This will tell you the drive letter of the Windows partition. If it doesn't, you can use DiskPart to list the partitions or volumes present on the SSD and their respective letters. To do so, run the following lines in the command prompt:

DISKPART

LIST DISK

SELECT DISK 0

Assuming the SSD is listed as disk 0, otherwise replace 0 with the correct disk number.

DETAIL DISK

This will show details about the selected disk, including the volumes on it. The Windows volume is usually the largest one. Note its drive letter if it isn't C:. Also, note the volume number of the EFI System Partition (ESP). It is a FAT32 partition usually 100MB in size. This is the one containing the BCD store that needs repairing/rebuilding. Run the following lines to select the ESP and to assign it a drive letter:

SELECT VOLUME #

Where # is the volume number of the ESP as noted from the previous command.

ASSIGN LETTER=U

You can confirm that the ESP has been assigned letter U by running:

LIST VOLUME

You now have two volume letters for use in the next steps. Exit DiskPart by typing EXIT and pressing Enter. You will be returned to the command prompt. Change into the ESP by running:

CD /D U:

Or just type U: and press Enter. Remove hidden, system and read-only attributes from the EFI folder by running:

ATTRIB -S -H -R EFI /S /D

Next, rename the EFI folder to EFI.BAD as follows:

REN EFI EFI.BAD

Confirm that the folder is renamed by running

DIR

Now rebuild the BCD by running:

BCDBOOT C:\WINDOWS /S U: /F UEFI

This assumes the drive letter of the Windows partition is C:. If it's not C: then use the correct letter as noted in the diskpart commands above. U: is the drive letter of the ESP partition as assigned in the steps above. If BCDBOOT executed successfully, a new BCD store will be created in the USP. Check its contents by running:

BCDEDIT

It should return 2 entries, one for the Windows Boot Manager and one for the Windows 10 installation on the SSD. Exit Command Prompt and the Recovery Environment then reboot. See if Windows starts.

 

Thanks so much for the detailed response. I've followed your suggestions and noted the results below in red.

Run:

BCDEDIT |FIND "OSDEVICE"

This will tell you the drive letter of the Windows partition. Nothing happened - the line just went back to X:\Sources> If it doesn't, you can use DiskPart to list the partitions or volumes present on the SSD and their respective letters. To do so, run the following lines in the command prompt:

DISKPART
Ok

LIST DISK
Shows Disk 0 (my SSD), Disk 1 (my HDD), and Disk 2 (my bootable USB)

SELECT DISK 0

Assuming the SSD is listed as disk 0, otherwise replace 0 with the correct disk number.
Disk 0 is now the selected disk.

DETAIL DISK

This will show details about the selected disk, including the volumes on it. The Windows volume is usually the largest one. Note its drive letter if it isn't C:. Also, note the volume number of the EFI System Partition (ESP). It is a FAT32 partition usually 100MB in size. This is the one containing the BCD store that needs repairing/rebuilding. Run the following lines to select the ESP and to assign it a drive letter:
Volume 1: C, System Rese, NTFS, Partition, 500MB, Health
Volume 2: F, Sirius (this is what I named the PC), NTFS, Partition, 930GB, Healthy
Volume 5: G, (blank label), NTFS, Partition, 473 MB, Healthy, Hidden

This is all I've got. No ESP/FAT32 partition. Any suggestions on what to do next?

 

3g. Use Another OS. Selected Windows 10. "Recovery: Your PC/Device needs to be repaired. File: \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD"

The path in bold, quoted above, points to the BCD store used for UEFI boot, but the list of volumes on your SSD shows no ESP. Instead, it shows a System Reserved NTFS partition with the drive letter C:, which is used for MBR-legacy boot. We must change the procedure accordingly.

First, you must boot from the Windows installation media in legacy mode (the option that has no "UEFI" on its label). You can change boot options in BIOS to disable UEFI entirely. I recommend doing that so that your system always boots in legacy mode since your Windows installation was done in legacy mode. All repair attempts must be made in legacy mode henceforth.

Once you're back to Command Prompt, run diskpart, list the volumes on the SSD just like before and take note of the drive letters of the System Reserved and the "Sirius" partition. Exit diskpart and proceed with changing the attributes of the Boot folder that is inside the System Reserved partition (simply referred to as the System partition). In essence:

Change into the System partition

CD /D C:

Remove attributes

ATTRIB -S -H -R Boot /S /D

Rename the Boot folder

REN Boot Boot.bad

Confirm its new name by listing the drive's contents

DIR

Now rebuild the BCD store as follows:

bcdboot F:\Windows /s C: /f BIOS

Assuming F: is still the drive letter of the "Sirius" partition. If it isn't, make sure to use the correct drive letter as displayed by diskpart.

 

First, you must boot from the Windows installation media in legacy mode (the option that has no "UEFI" on its label). You can change boot options in BIOS to disable UEFI entirely. I recommend doing that so that your system always boots in legacy mode since your Windows installation was done in legacy mode. All repair attempts must be made in legacy mode henceforth.

I seem to be having some trouble. I'm in the BIOS - under Advanced > Boot, the only options I see related to UEFI vs Legacy are below. I assume these are the options to disable UEFI that you mentioned. My updated settings are in red.

1) CSM (Compatibility Support Module)
a. Launch CSM - Auto/Enabled/Disabled
b. Boot Device Control - UEFI and Legacy OPROM/Legacy OPROM Only/UEFI Only
c. Boot From Network Devices - Ignore/Legacy Only/UEFI Driver First
d. Boot From Storage Devices - Ignore/Legacy Only/UEFI Driver First
e. Boot From PCI-E/PCI Expansion Devices - Legacy Only/UEFI Driver First

2) Secure Boot
a. OS Type - Windows UEFI Mode/Other OS

I've also altered the boot priority list (for now) so that only the non-UEFI SanDisk bootable USB is listed. However, when I attempt to boot to it, it simply goes to a black screen for about 2 seconds and then immediately back into the BIOS. Maybe I screwed something up?

 

Yes, those are the settings all right, and the values you set are ok. Make sure you save the changes and reset the system/exit BIOS setup before you attempt to boot from the flash drive.

 

Make sure you save the changes and reset the system/exit BIOS setup before you attempt to boot from the flash drive.

Right - that's what I've been doing and I can't seem to get past the BIOS screen any longer. I've clicked Save & Exit, and confirmed the settings stuck the next time the BIOS loaded. From there, I'm clicking on SanDisk from the Boot Menu in EZ Mode, or alternatively in Advanced Mode, clicking SanDisk from Boot > Boot Override. Lastly, I've tried just rebooting and letting it boot to the SanDisk on its own (which should work since I've set the boot order to only include the non-UEFI SanDisk). In all cases it just returns me to the BIOS screen.

 

In that case, you may have to recreate the bootable drive for CSM/Legacy boot. It's possible the Media Creation Tool formats the drive for UEFI-only boot, but that doesn't make sense because at step 5 you were able to boot in non-uefi mode from the same drive! Let's try repeating the same thing you did at step 5, that is, revert those boot settings to how they were and then boot from the drive by choosing the non-uefi option. I don't see why it would work the first time and not a second time IF nothing else has changed.

 

A mystery indeed! I'll try to see what's going on. Worst case scenario, I recreate the bootable USB. Thanks for all the help up to this point - I truly appreciate it! I'm going away until next week so I'll pick things back up in a little while. If you're in the U.S., have a great holiday!

 

Hey there,

I'm back at home after the holiday and have been trying again to solve the issue. I reformatted my bootable USB and carefully recreated it with Rufus, this time being certain to do so in Legacy mode. Booting from the USB again, I received a black screen that simply read: "Press any key to boot from USB..." Doing so took me to another blue screen error:

Recovery
Your PC couldn't start properly
After multiple tries, the OS on your PC failed to start, so it needs to be repaired.
Error code: 0xc0000001
You'll need to use recovery tools. If you don't have any installation media, contact your PC admin or PC/Device manufacturer.

Press Enter to try again
Press F8 for Startup Settings

Pressing enter took me back into the blue screen loop. I tried once more, this time pressing F8 to enter Startup Settings, and chose Safe Mode. The PC rebooted again, this time landing on the purple Windows Setup screen.

Tried the steps in your post on 7/2 again. With the command REN Boot Boot.bad I receive this message: "A duplicate file name exists, or the file cannot be found."

I continued to bcdboot F:\Windows /s C: /f BIOS and it stated "Boot files successfully created." I then tried running BCDEDIT, though this command returned the following lines, which don't sound good: "The boot configuration data store could not be opened." "The requested system device cannot be found".

Rebooting took me back to the same blue screen described at the beginning of this response =(

I'm considering at this point that I may simply need to reinstall the OS from scratch, unless you have any other thoughts?

 

You could try rebuilding the BCD store, but this time format the System Reserved volume instead of renaming the Boot folder inside it. Formatting will erase everything from it, then BCDBOOT will recreate its contents afresh. So, boot from the Windows installation flash drive, launch Command Prompt (Shift + F10), run DiskPart and list the volumes to find out which drive letters have been assigned to the System Reserved and Sirius (Windows) volumes. This is necessary each time you boot into the Windows Recovery Environment because drive letter assignments work differently in WinRE. A volume that was assigned letter F: in one session may get assigned a different letter the next time you reboot into WinRE.

Select the System Reserved volume:

SELECT VOLUME 1

Format it and exit DiskPart:

FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK

EXIT

Rebuild BCD using BCDBOOT:

BCDBOOT F:\Windows /S C: /F BIOS

Where F: is the drive letter of the Windows volume as listed by DiskPart. Adjust accordingly. C: is the drive letter of the System Reserved volume that was just formatted. Adjust the drive letters accordingly.

Update the MBR:

BOOTSECT /NT60 C: /MBR

Check the BCD store:

BCDEDIT

 

Sadly this didn't work either. I didn't see anything that would indicate trouble with the commands (they all executed successfully and all the drive letters were where they should be), but after all was done and I rebooted it still takes me to the Bad System Config blue screen.

I think I'm going to try my luck at reinstalling the OS from scratch. If you don't mind, I'd like to keep this thread open for a little while longer to ask your further advice if things go bottom up on the install.

 

If you're no longer getting the "The Boot Configuration Data for your PC is missing or contains errors" message, and BCDEDIT displayed contents of the newly rebuilt BCD store, then BCD data is not the cause of the persisting "bad system config" error. Registry hive file(s) are probably corrupt. You can manually restore them from a backup as described at number 3 here https://www.thewindowsclub.com/bad_system_config_info

If that doesn't fix it then a fresh installation is in order.

 

Thanks a lot. I had some time last night so I did go ahead and start a fresh installation. So far everything seems to have gone perfectly smoothly, so at least my SSD doesn't appear to be in need of replacement.

I want to say thank you for all the help here - you really stuck it out with me, and I'm very grateful.

 

You are most welcome. Use your SSD's management software to monitor its health. Once your fresh installation is configured the way you like, with all drivers and desired programs installed, create a system image backup on a separate physical drive (your 8TB HDD will suffice) for getting out of a sticky situation such as this one. A system image backup is more reliable for recovery than System Restore. Windows already has a built-in backup utility called Backup and Restore. There are detailed tutorials on the web regarding how to create a system image backup, just do a Google search to find and use them.

 

Sage advice - my heart sank when I realized I had no actual system restore that I could fall back on (though thankfully I at least had my individual files backed up). Thank you!