New
#1
Error Code 0cX000000f; Missing/Damaged ESP System Partition
Seeking thoughts on an apparent mystery volume "DiskPart" is showing after a Windows 10 Creators Update failure forced a hard shutdown. Windows 10 major updates failing with blank frozen screens are routine for my formerly Windows 7 powered ACER all-in-one. But from version 1507 "Threshold 1" forward the previous OS restored or -- very rarely -- the update completed. But the last failure brought a restart/booting loop. The Blue Screen was one for the 0xC000000f error code:
Your PC/Device needs to be repaired.
The boot configuration data for your PC is missing or contains errors.
File: EFI/Microsoft/Boot/BCD
Error code: 0xC000000f
You'll need to use recovery tools. If you don't have any installation media (like a disk or USB device), contact your PC administrator or PC/device manufacturer.
Obviously Booting Configuration Data (BCD) was busted or lost so without checking volumes via DiskPart I tried:
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /scanOs
bootrec /rebuildbcd
The fix seemed to be working as one Windows installation was located. But when I tried to add the installation to the boot list, I received: "The requested system device cannot be found."
So then I tried:
bootrec /rebuildbcd
bcdedit /export c:\bcdbackup
attrib c:\boot\bcd -h -r -s
ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old
bootrec /rebuildbcd
Again the fix seemed smooth until ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old warned: "A duplicate file name exists, or the file cannot be found." So it was time to do what I should have done first. Check DiskPart. And what I saw, shown here, seemed impossible.
Attachment 148677
What is that "Healthy" 100 MB partition in Volume 1 listed as "C" System? It seems it would be the EFI System Partition (ESP). Yet it is in NTFS rather than the required FAT32 format. So again I ask, what is "DiskPart" showing? I don't dare reformat Volume 1 to FAT32 without being sure it is the ESP containing the boot loaders or kernel images for all installed operating systems. In a fairly extensive search of Windows help sites, I found only one other individual suspecting an ESP somehow reverted to NTFS format. And the assertion met with incredulity.
Sincere thanks for reviewing this BCD issue and I close here with DSKCHK results.
Attachment 148678
Last edited by WJB2; 13 Aug 2017 at 13:43.