WinRE Loop - /fixmbr - access denied

I'm running Windows 10, I don't know the build but I'm pretty good keeping up with the updates. The machine is a Dell Precision M6800 there are 2 physical drives in the machine, an SSD for C & a magnetic for D with 16GB of memory.

Windows crashed due to a H/W error, was doing a WinRE & crashed again. Now it's in the infinite WinRE loop. I know my C: drive (Volume 2 currently assigned D:) is intact, the Windows & Windows\System directory looks ok.

I've tried scannow, the analysis runs but I get "Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation"

I've done a chkdsk which runs fine.

I know the SAM is good because I'm prompted with the 2 administrator ID, I select one of them & successfully authenticate

After reading various forums and trying different things I somehow got to the point where WinRE reassigns drive letters which I've read in some cases this is normal:

After WinRE tells me it can't continue I can get to a command prompt, do a diskpart and see (combination of list volume & list partition) :

Volume 0 G:, is my DVD

Volume Ltr Label FS Size Status Info Part Type Size Offset

Volume 1 C Recovery NTFS 499mb Healthy <none> 1 Recovery 499mb 1024kb

Volume 2 D <blank> NTFS 475GB Healthy <none> 4 Primary 475gb 616mb

Volume 3 E <blank> NTFS 553mb Healthy <none> 5 Recovery 553mb 476gb

Volume 4 <blank> FAT32 100mb Healthy Hidden 2 System 100mb 500mb

Volume 5 F <blank> NTFS 931GB Healthy ***** Not on Disk 0 this is D in real life **

** Partition 3 is not a volume *** 3 Reserved 16mb 476GB


What I am pretty sure happened is that the original WinREs caused by the hardware problem some how wasted the EFI partition. I attempted to use bootrec to fix it, /rebuildbcd worked, then /fixmbr & I got an access denied.


After digging it looks like I need to rebuild the EFI partition which should correct the /fixmbr access denied error. Up until now I haven't destroyed anything. I'm not sure which is my EFI partition, I think it's the one formatted FAT32. I'm a tad bit nervous about formatting something I am not 100% confident is what I want to format. I'm a bit concerned about WinRE relabeling the volumes after everything is fixed.

Can someone help outline the steps I need to follow to get the machine to run my current installation of windows again? I know how to get to an X: prompt from WinRE, I have a bootable USB & know how to disable EFI, boot from it & get to an X: prompt, I also have a windows 10 DVD.

Do I need to go into diskpart & fix the volume labels after the the /fixmbr issue is resolved?

Should I disable WinRE after performing the above steps? If so please let me know how to do that

Does anyone know what partitions 3, 4 & 5 are?

Thanks folks

Go to the X:> prompt and type:
diskpart
sel disk 0
list par
sel disk 1
list par
exit
bcdedit

post result
and no more fixmbr and other nonsense!

Thanks Pentagon, I appreciate your help.

Since I can't sit still I took a look at partition 5 & noticed a file called $winre_backup_partition.marker. I'm thinking that the recovery directory that WinRE is currently using is C:. Since nothing on this PC in terms of partitions, drives, drive letters ... in years I copied $winre_backup_partition.marker to the C: drive & rebooted, hoping that the letter assignment would be fixed - as you probably already know, it didn't work.

Disk 0 PAR result:

Partition 1 Recovery 499mb 1024kb
Partition 2 System 100mb 500mb
Partition 3 Reserved 16mb 600mb
Partition 4 Primary 475gb 616mb
Partition 5 Recovery 553mb 476gb

Disk1 PAR result:

Partition 1 Reserved 15mb 17kb
Partition 2 Primary 931gb 16mb


Here is the result of BCDEdit:

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=H:
path \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
default {default}
displayorder {default}
timeout 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {default}
device partition=D:
path \Windows\system32\winload.efi
description Windows 10 Pro
locale en-US
recoverysequence {current}
recoveryenabled Yes
osdevice partition=D:
systemroot \Windows
nx OptIn
bootmenupolicy Standard

Boot into Recovery and run
X:\Windows\System32>sfc /scannow /offbootdir=D:\ /offwindir=D:\Windows /offlogfile=D:\sfc.txt

Pentagon, I'm getting 'Windows Resource Protection Could Not Start The Repair Service'

When I went to Advanced I was prompted to log in as one of the administrator IDs which I successfully did

1st time I ran sfc from the x:\windows\system32 prompt

I then tried running sfc from d:\windows\system32 with the same result

I tried to net stop & start trustedinsraller which I was able to do but it didn't help.

I then turned secure boot off and booted to a usb. Got the same message

Interestingly enough trustedinstaller was not running when booted off of the usb. Thought i might get a little love. Started it, tried sfc and same message

While booted off the usb I did run diskpart & verify D: was the windows drive

I also tried sfc /verifyonly /offbootdir=D:\ /offwindir=D:\windows /offlogfile=D:\sfc.txt and got the same result.

I did run an sfc /scannow with no parameters from the d:\windows\system32 directory while booted off of the usb. The verify step worked. I got the same message when it went to fix whatever it found. I'm curious, was it looking at the install on the usb?

I really do appreciate your time.

- - - Updated - - -

Freebooter - there isn't a specific error message. WinRE runs, the machine reboots & displays a screen informing me that Windows Recovery could not fix the problem. I can reboot & try again or go into advanced troubleshooting. My suspicion is that the efi partition is corrupted. There is a utility called bootrec which rebuilds the efi partition but when I execute one of the steps I'm getting an error message. Sorry if you already know all this stuff, up until last Wednesday I thought windows still used C:\boot to load the O/S

Pentagon said:

PE doesn't support WiFi and as long as you are working without LAN, you will not have success

I don't understand what that means or is in reference to?

I don't understand how running sfc from the instance that's trying to be fixed is a dumb idea. When life is normal isn't that the way it's executed?

I also don't understand what harm restarting a service can cause if you do nothing between the time you stop & start the service.

I'm glad BCD ok, I misrepresented what I wanted to say. My suspicion is that the problem is not that BCD itself is corrupt, it's how the boot process gets there.

Please don't take my questions above as being disrespectful, I ask to understand. Understand why not to do something helps me avoid doing it in the future & helps me pass the knowledge along.

Chkdsk of C did not run:

The type of file system is NTFS
The specified object was not found

A snapshot error occurred while scanning this drive. Run offline scan and fix.
Failed to transfer logged messages to the event log with status 6

Just an fyi - volume C is the recovery partition. Which I believe is what WinRE boots from. If you really want a chkdsk of C I can boot off usb and do the chldsk