Windows 10 “automatic repair” loop

FreeBooter said:

Let see if Windows 10 detects SSD execute Dir D:\ command and post the output of the command.

Please replace partition letter D: with Windows installed partition letter. When computer boots into Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) environment the drive letter assign to Windows partition may not be C: drive letter because Windows 7, 8 , 8.1 and 10 creates a separate system partition when it's installed from scratch. The system partition contains boot files WinRE assigns the system partition the C: drive letter and the Windows installed partition will be assign any other drive letter usually D: drive letter is assign to Windows installed partition. The Bcdedit /enum | find "osdevice" command can be use to find out the drive letter of the Windows installed partition the output of the Bcdedit command is similar to this osdevice partition=D:. The drive letter after partition= is the drive letter of the Windows partition.

It detects it without any errors.

Did you have problem with executing Boootrec /rebuildbcd command?

FreeBooter said:

Did you have problem with executing Bootrec /rebuildbcd command?

Only when attempting to run it from the PC, not the disk.

After typing Y (Yes) from recovery it gave me a “The system cannot find the file specified”.

On the disk, it told me that there were no Windows installations, but clicking another option (such as System Restore) told me to choose my OS (Windows 10).

Since the BCD store exists and lists a Windows installation, you'll first have to "remove" it manually and then try to rebuild it again.

At the Command Prompt, type below command as shown and then press Enter:

Code:

C:

At the Command Prompt, type below command as shown and then press Enter:

Code:

bcdedit /export C:\bcdbackup

The bcdedit command is used here to export the BCD store as a file: bcdbackup. There's no need to specify a file extension.

The command should return the following on screen:
The operation completed successfully.

Meaning the BCD export worked as expected.


At this point, you need to adjust several file attributes for the BCD store so you can manipulate it. At the prompt, execute the attrib commands exactly like this:

Code:

attrib c:\boot\bcd -h -r -s

What you just did with the attrib command was remove the hidden, read-only, and system attributes from the file bcd. Those attributes restricted the actions you could take on the file. Now that they're gone, you can manipulate the file more freely - specifically, rename it.

To rename the BCD store, execute the ren command as shown:

Code:

ren C:\boot\bcd   bcd.old

Now that the BCD store is renamed, you should now be able to successfully rebuild it.

Try rebuilding the BCD again by executing the following, followed by Enter:

Code:

bootrec /scanos
bootrec /rebuildbcd

Restart your computer after rebuilding the BCD store.

FreeBooter said:

Since the BCD store exists and lists a Windows installation, you'll first have to "remove" it manually and then try to rebuild it again.

At the Command Prompt, type below command as shown and then press Enter:

Code:

C:

At the Command Prompt, type below command as shown and then press Enter:

Code:

bcdedit /export C:\bcdbackup

The bcdedit command is used here to export the BCD store as a file: bcdbackup. There's no need to specify a file extension.

The command should return the following on screen:
The operation completed successfully.

Meaning the BCD export worked as expected.


At this point, you need to adjust several file attributes for the BCD store so you can manipulate it. At the prompt, execute the attrib commands exactly like this:

Code:

attrib c:\boot\bcd -h -r -s

What you just did with the attrib command was remove the hidden, read-only, and system attributes from the file bcd. Those attributes restricted the actions you could take on the file. Now that they're gone, you can manipulate the file more freely - specifically, rename it.

To rename the BCD store, execute the ren command as shown:

Code:

ren C:\boot\bcd   bcd.old

Now that the BCD store is renamed, you should now be able to successfully rebuild it.

Try rebuilding the BCD again by executing the following, followed by Enter:

Code:

bootrec /scanos
bootrec /rebuildbcd

Restart your computer after rebuilding the BCD store.

Should I run this from the installation disk or the PC?

If you can boot into Windows 10 then you don't need to run these commands if you can't boot Windows 10 then run these commands from installation disk.

On the attrib command, it returns a “Path not found - C:\boot”

Execute Dir /a C:\boot command to find out if boot folder exist at C: partition.

FreeBooter said:

Execute Dir /a C:\boot command to find out if boot folder exist at C: partition.

Code:

Volume in drive C is Local Disk

Directory of C:\

File Not Found

Execute following commands to list all mounted partitions drive letters:

Code:

Diskpart

list volume

exit

Execute Dir command for each drive letters that is displayed to find out where Boot folder exist then replace C: drive letter with Boot folder located drive letter.