[SOLVED] MSCONFIG problem

xilolee · Feb 26, 2023

Reboot.
Press F8 repeatedly while the computer reboots.

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Microsoft says:

The Advanced Boot Options screen lets you start Windows in advanced troubleshooting modes. You can access the menu by turning on your computer and pressing the F8 key before Windows starts.

Click to expand...
When advanced boot options appears, click (or choose it with arrows and enter) Repair Your Computer.

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Microsoft says:

Repair Your Computer shows a list of system recovery tools you can use to repair startup problems, run diagnostics, or restore your system. This option is available only if the tools are installed on your computer's hard disk. If you have a Windows installation disc, the system recovery tools are located on that disc.

Click to expand...

It will ask something, like the keyboard input, maybe date & time, and so forth...
In the System recovery options window that should appear, click Command prompt.
Using diskpart, locate the (usual) ESP in disk 1 (if it is still disk 1...) and assign it a letter:
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Code:

diskpart select disk 1 list volume select volume [insert the current ESP volume number] assign letter=Z exit
Note down your windows installation letter (from the previous "list volume" command in diskpart): it could be different than C: in this environment.
Create a backup of the current BCD file:
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Code:

cd /d Z:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\ ren BCD BCD.old
Re-create the ESP.
In the following command, you must change X: with your current windows letter (remember? Point 6!):
Code:
```
bcdboot x:\windows /s Z: /f UEFI /v
```
Post here its output...
Type exit and press enter.
It should bring you again in the System recovery options window.
Click restart

billp · Feb 26, 2023

Hmm... F8 doesn't work.
With this BIOS, I can hit F2 or F12 and it catches that for BIOS setup.

I tried to reboot 3 times... tapping F8, then 2nd time rapidly hitting F8, and 3rd time holding F8.
Each time it just booted normally. Strange.

plodr · Feb 27, 2023

Perhaps you are tapping F8 too early?

The Advanced Boot Options menu is accessed by pressing F8 as the Windows splash screen begins to load.

Source: Here's How to Access the Advanced Boot Options in Windows

xilolee · Feb 27, 2023

F8 should work in all windows versions (can't remember if it existed with win95 and win98)...

This guy presses f9, then he's able to press f8:

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Another one says he tried all Fn keys and F3 was his magic key...

billp · Mar 1, 2023

This is crazy. I've rebooted over 15 times now and cannot get it via either F8 or F9. I'll try F3 next, but I'm wondering if some
kind of keyboard driver is delayed or something equally strange.

plodr · Mar 1, 2023

I had a keyboard that would not let me get into the BIOS. I swapped out the keyboard and had no problem getting into the BIOS with another keyboard. Needless to say, I e-cycled that keyboard!
So it might not hurt to try a different keyboard.

satrow · Mar 1, 2023

billp said:
I use ZA as a means of detecting who is reaching
out to the internet and allowing or not allowing it on an app by app basis (firewall only, no anti-virus).

I have the Windows Firewall disabled, but MSE is active.

Late to the party, not sure how far you've got with regaining the internet access.

Many times I've had to restart/re-enable the Windows firewall because it's silently blocking an app/game from starting - no popup from the firewall to allow on Private and/or Public = no internet.

Some 3rd party firewalls can work as the front end for the enabled Windows firewall, some can't, so enabling the built-in firewall and rebooting is needed for the 'simple' cases, disabling/uninstalling the 3rd party alternative and enabling the built-in and rebooting is required for the tricky cases.

If some 3rd party 'tweaker/utility' is also involved then it becomes even more complicated.

I can't classify ZA but Free Firewall (Free Firewall) runs okay (at least with W7, still testing on 10), Malwarebytes Windows Firewall Control (Windows Firewall Control) might be okay (I had access issues for 4+ hours yesterday on W10, killed MF today and I have internet again).

xilolee · Mar 1, 2023

billp said:
This is crazy. I've rebooted over 15 times now and cannot get it via either F8 or F9. I'll try F3 next, but I'm wondering if some
kind of keyboard driver is delayed or something equally strange.

If you still can't reach the advanced boot options, you need the Windows 7 installation CD or the Windows 7 system repair disc.
Given that you don't have the installation CD, you can try to create the system repair disc: Create a system repair disc - Microsoft Support

billp · Mar 2, 2023

I might have the repair CD - I'll check.

As far as the F8 issue, I noticed that I couldn't F2/F12 into BIOS when plugged into the front USB ports (?). I plugged into the rear
port and could get into BIOS. However, the F8 (and tried F9) still didn't work. I'm going to try with another keyboard if the repair CD
doesn't work.

billp · Mar 4, 2023

There are 2 USB ports on the front of the machine and 6 on the back. As it turns out, two of the 6 on the back allow
F8 to be hit at boot. They're not labeled differently than the others, but <shrug> that's what it was.

I was ready to run the original steps provided previously, but ran into two issues; first when selecting "Repair Computer"
and "recovery options", it moves into an AlienWare recovery screen that wants to walk through automatic repair steps.

I rebooted, used F8 and went into "safe mode with cmd prompt". I figured this would get me to the same place where
I could use DISKPART. However, the steps said to assign a letter to the ESP volume and there are two:

Given this list, is the best step to select Volume 3 or 6? I assumed 6 (if that's the volume on the SSD C:), but want to verify before I continue.

Thanks!

xilolee · Mar 4, 2023

For the F8 part: good job!

I'm not sure those steps will work from "safe mode with command prompt".

I think the other option, i e. "Repair your computer" - "command prompt", should create a special environment where you can use the other commands without issues.

By the way, you can always try it.
Yes, the same volume 6 like always.
If you check under the info column, system is written near volume 6.
Moreover, it's near C:.
Near the other ESP, it's written hidden.

billp · Mar 4, 2023

There are so many stumbling blocks here, I'm not sure this is worth your time...

If I select "repair your computer", it starts an AlienWare repair/recovery application. One of the selections is
"return to Microsoft repair" (or something to that effect). However, selecting that simply shuts the computer off!
I decided to continue in Safe Mode - Cmd Prompt, however when I got down to "ren bcd bcd.old", I got an error
"cannot access file, it is in use by another process".
Even COPYing the bcd gave the same error.

It feels like I should have a backup copy of BCD, but I'm not sure how. FWIW:

There are two folders that have boot stuff in them:
EFI\boot
EFI\Microsoft\boot

EFI\boot has a single file, bootx64.efi

EFI\Microsoft\boot has a bunch of language folders and this:
36,864 BCD
737,512 bootmgfw.efi
733,928 bootmgr.efi
675,048 memtest.efi
36,864 BCD.Backup.0001

Since BCD and BCD.Backup.0001 are the same size, I tried to "fc" them, but that fails the same way
that COPY does. It might be a duplicate... or it might be older (dated 2 years ago).

xilolee · Mar 4, 2023

I would try the system repair disc path.
If you can find it, it's better.
Otherwise you can try to create it (see post 88).

billp · Mar 4, 2023

I found the AlienWare "resource CD" (booting from it basically provided DOS tools) and the Windows install CD (booting from it brings you to
the expected Windows installation dialog.

I retraced previous steps and decided to be bold and forego making a BCD backup copy. However, the bcdboot cmd line caused problems:

bcdboot x:\windows /s Z: /f UEFI /v

Doing bcdboot/? shows a list of options and /f isn't among them (which is what it said when I tried it).

I didn't want to try it without UEFI as I'm guessing that's quite important.

xilolee · Mar 5, 2023

I would add a step before the bcdboot command line: chkdsk Z:

I'm not sure this will work, but you can download these bcdedit files (I've taken them from my W10 pc) and put them in an USB stick (AKA "usb drive", "flash drive", "pen drive", "thumb drive", "jump drive", "memory stick" and so forth).
When you reach the bcdboot step with the repair your computer - command prompt, try to use the bcdboot.exe file on your usb stick (it will have a volume letter that you can find in the list volume command).

billp · Mar 5, 2023

I'll do the CHKDSK Z: and see about using the tools you provided... first I figured I'd make a repair disk...

That didn't go well... even more very cryptic Micro$oft errors:

The CD/DVD writer is working, so it's not an issue of a bad drive or media.

xilolee · Mar 5, 2023

billp said:
I'll do the CHKDSK Z: and see about using the tools you provided... first I figured I'd make a repair disk...

That didn't go well... even more very cryptic Micro$oft errors:

View attachment 84671

The CD/DVD writer is working, so it's not an issue of a bad drive or media.

This could also be related to your msconfig issue...
Maybe both are searching the old directory/files in your previous configuration, before you cloned them to the SSD.

billp · Mar 7, 2023

I wish I had good news...

The bcdboot.exe in the zip also doesn't understand the "/f UEFI" option either.

I accidentally ran the command (read: not thinking) by backing off the "/f UEFI" intending to do a screen capture but hit enter.

I was in safe mode (w/prompt) so I didn't screen capture, but it did scroll a bunch of messages (they looked favorable, not failures).

When I exited safe mode, it continued with the windows boot. Interestingly, MSCONFIG did NOT report the original "can't find path"
error. When I changed from "selective boot" to "normal boot", it seemed to "stick".

However, when I rebooted, it booted to the HDD (old, as-delivered) Windows, not the SSD one.

I tried intercepting the boot at the BIOS level and telling it to boot from the SSD, but it now always boots to the old volume.

I don't know how to recover my SSD boot.

In trying different things, I did notice that when I exited DISKPART (still in safe mode cmd prompt) after assigning the Z: letter, that
the SSD and HDD letters are swapped. When I "dir C:", I'm seeing the HDD and "dir D:" shows the SSD.

In bcdboot, I said to boot to C:\windows (as C: should be my SSD) but if I can get bcdboot to work again (now it fails each time)
I can try to use D:\windows.

I'm a little scared that I can't yet recover my normal boot.

billp · Mar 7, 2023

Update...
I couldn't repeat the bcdboot with "/s z:" (with disk 1, volume 6, letter z); it gave a 1-line error (that I will need to record and post here).

However, I did do "bcdboot d:\windows" and it "worked" in that it didn't give a failure message.

On my next boot, Windows brought up a prompt asking which O/S I wanted to boot:
Windows7
Windows7

The first selection will indeed boot my "good" image from the SSD. The 2nd selection will boot the "old image" from the HDD.
So I'm at least recovered that much.

I tried MSCONFIG and the settings "stuck"... I'm going to reboot again and see if it lasts during a reboot.

billp · Mar 7, 2023

Rebooted. Still asks which Windows image I want to boot into, so I'd appreciate some help in getting that fixed.

Regarding MSCONFIG... the settings indeed "stuck" after reboot. It used to always be stuck on "selective startup" and now I have this:

The "Boot" tab now shows two boot images:

[SOLVED] MSCONFIG problem

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