Cumulative June Update Corrupted BCD on SSD. Any fix?

Hi all.

This is a lot of information and I apologize in advance for that but I feel like too much is better than too little.

I’ve been limping an old computer along for a while for budgetary reasons and the most recent Windows update appears to have bricked it. This is a custom I built years ago. Core i5 3570k and a gigabyte z77-d3h motherboard.

After I clicked “update and shut down,” the computer rebooted itself and gave me the error “Reboot and Select Proper Boot Device.”

I went into the BIOS and the boot order was wrong - the order started with my hard drive that only had music and movies on it, the SSD had been totally removed from the list, etc - so I set it to boot from the SSD as normal. I ran into the same error. I unplugged all other drives and peripherals and did it again. Same error. I reset the BIOS to factory settings. Same error. I found my Windows 10 install DVD and tried to boot from the disk after selecting “repair my computer” - this gave me a “disk read error.”

When I try to boot from the install disk, I only get the options to “troubleshoot” or “shut down.”

Here are my options in the “Troubleshoot” menu, the only one I have, and what happens when I click them.

1. System Restore: “To use System Restore, you must specify which Windows installation to restore. Restart this computer, select an operating system, and then select System Restore.”

2. Command Prompt: Opens the Command Prompt.

3. System Image Recovery: “Windows cannot find a system image on this computer. Attach the backup hard disk or insert the final dvd from a backup set and click Retry. Alternatively, close this dialog for more options.” I am pretty good about making new system images, I think I made one a few weeks ago before I moved, but it can’t find any of them, even if I plug the drives back in.

4. UEFI Firmware Settings: “Restart to change firmware settings.”

5. Startup Repair: Puts the computer into a reboot loop and gives me a “disk read error.”

6. Go back to the previous build: “we ran into a problem and won’t be able to take you back to the previous build. Try resetting your current build instead (Troubleshoot > Reset this PC).” I do not have a “reset this pc” option.

I have only been able to get into the command prompt. It is telling me I only have a windows installation on my F:/. This is my SSD, so that makes sense. When I go into DISKPART and type “list volume” the F:/ is labeled as an NFTS partition of “Volume 2” and has a status of “healthy.” and running /bootrec fixboot gives me “element not found.”

So that was all last night.

This morning, after leaving it alone for a night, I booted up the computer and was greeted with “an operating system wasn’t found.” I tried everything in this support article:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...9-336f3888906b

which didn’t fix the problem, but changed it - I started getting an error saying “File: Boot\BCD” was in status 0xc000000f, “the boot configuration data for your pc is incomplete or contains errors.”

I stumbled onto this thread and tried all this:

Bootrec /rebuildbcd gives "Element not found."

With no changes.

What should I try next? I am completely stumped.

I would rather not do a fresh install and lose everything as I was planning to build a new pc soon anyway, just, you know. Not RIGHT NOW.

Thanks in advance.

Alright. I’ve managed to make a USB Drive of the Windows 10 Recovery Media as per Microsoft Tech Support’s suggestion. No more disk read errors. However, “startup repair” now says it can’t repair my PC, “uninstall updates” doesn’t work, and “system restore” and “system image recovery” give me the same issues as above.

Command prompt? Or admit defeat?

Bah. I’ll yank the SSD, see if I can put it in a cage to yank the files off of or copy new boot configuration data on. If itÂ’s toast, I had been looking for an excuse to build a new PC after eleven years anyway. If it’s still good, I’ll pull what I can and do a clean install - I have all my photos, music, etc backed up to an external drive, but all my programs and games and game saves are on the SSD and losing those would be annoying.

Thank you for the help!

- - - Updated - - -

Hello - I fixed it. I mean, it sort of fixed itself. On a whim, I booted into the BIOS to select what to boot from again. This time, the USB drive showed as both a UEFI device and just a normal USB drive (no prefix, just "Sandisk Cruzer.") It had previously only been UEFI: Sandisk Cruzer. I booted from the non-UEFI cruzer and it took me into the recovery menu. I clicked "troubleshoot" - > "repair startup" and the computer went "diagnosing... attempting to fix..." and booted right up.

Your boot configuration held in the bcd store for the SSD was not being located due to the UEFI firmware attempting to boot in UEFI mode. You obviously have an MBR/BIOS boot machine so selecting the non-UEFI cruzer disk was enough to override the UEFI and once again boot MBR devices. Therefore your SSD once again became a valid boot device.

Yeah - I wish I could figure out what happened overnight that the USB Drive suddenly showed up as a non-UEFI device (pardon me if that's not the correct terminology) as I assure you that option was not present before this evening.

Your attachment of the USB drive did the trick as that device has both UEFI and non-UEFI boot loader files. This triggered the MBR boot to become available. My guess is the update should have restarted even though you selected update and shutdown because restart was required. Because that did not happen it left your PC boot applications in an unstable state and they defaulted to UEFI boot which resulted in your troubles.