System registry file is missing or corrupt 0xC0000225

[Reknez]

Hello everyone,

I have seemingly managed to corrupt my system registry file due to unstable RAM.
I already created a bootable USB drive and tried to fix the error, but I seemingly cannot get DISM nor SFC to work.
I might be doing things wrong with DISM, but SFC /scannow just says that it "cannot perform the requested operation". SFC /verifyonly says that it found corrupted files though.
Is there any way to get it working to see if it resolves my issue? Or is there anyone here that could manually fix the file if everything else fails, as I read that that might even be an option as well?
I can provide the DISM.log and CBS.log files if necessary, along with the problematic system registry file. It is just too late to do so now where I live, sorry.
I am also not sure if the BSOD exe that creates the zipped file works in the recovery environment, but I could also provide that if it does work in there. Another BSOD other than the one error code I mentioned was "INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE".

Thank you!

 

[ubuysa]

Hello, and welcome to the forum.

Some more details on why you think that you have bad RAM would help. If your RAM is bad then nothing you do within Windows will make any difference. It would help us (and you) considerably if you would please follow the BSOD Posting Instructions.

 

[Reknez]

Hello, and welcome to the forum.

Some more details on why you think that you have bad RAM would help. If your RAM is bad then nothing you do within Windows will make any difference. It would help us (and you) considerably if you would please follow the BSOD Posting Instructions.

Hello and thank you for the welcome,

Well, let me just say that I was on an unstable RAM overclock and it corrupted something when I shut my PC down. I reverted it immediately after that.
As I said, I am not sure if the BSOD program works from the recovery environment?
Does it? If so, then I can provide it later today.
Would the DISM and CBS logs be of any help to you?

Thank you!

 

[ubuysa]

Ah, so your PC won't start at all? My mistake.

Is your boot drive an M.2 drive?You could try removing and reseating that. Sometimes that helps.

You might also checkout the link below, especially the steps to rebuild the BCD.

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/fix-error-code-0xc0000225-windows-10/[turl]

 

[Reknez]

Ah, so your PC won't start at all? My mistake.

Is your boot drive an M.2 drive?You could try removing and reseating that. Sometimes that helps.

You might also checkout the link below, especially the steps to rebuild the BCD.

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/fix-error-code-0xc0000225-windows-10/[turl]

Yes, it cannot boot into Windows, I can only reach the recovery environment.
And yes, it is an M.2 drive, but I did not try reseating it yet.
I am going to comment each step in the link you sent:
1. Startup Repair cannot identify the issue.
2. SFC /scannow now runs to 100 %, albeit a bit fast, and then shows that "it cannot perform the requested operation". Chkdsk says that my hard drive does not have any errors.
3. Bootrec /scanos does not find any Windows installation. Bootrec /fixmbr completes successfully. Bootrec /fixboot returns "Access denied.". Bootrec /rebuildbcd does not find any Windows installations.
4. Setting an active partition does not work because the drive is not MBR but GPT.
5. There should be no faulty hardware, as the RAM was only unstable because of the overclock, which I reverted.
6. Unfortunately I do not have any System Restore Point.

 

[Reknez]

Yes, it cannot boot into Windows, I can only reach the recovery environment.
And yes, it is an M.2 drive, but I did not try reseating it yet.
I am going to comment each step in the link you sent:
1. Startup Repair cannot identify the issue.
2. SFC /scannow now runs to 100 %, albeit a bit fast, and then shows that "it cannot perform the requested operation". Chkdsk says that my hard drive does not have any errors.
3. Bootrec /scanos does not find any Windows installation. Bootrec /fixmbr completes successfully. Bootrec /fixboot returns "Access denied.". Bootrec /rebuildbcd does not find any Windows installations.
4. Setting an active partition does not work because the drive is not MBR but GPT.
5. There should be no faulty hardware, as the RAM was only unstable because of the overclock, which I reverted.
6. Unfortunately I do not have any System Restore Point.

Apparently I forgot to rename some registry files back to normal after an unsuccessful attempt to fix it, so it is now back to the original "INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE" BSOD before the Windows loading screen. Bootrec /scanos still does not find any Windows installation though.

 

[ubuysa]

That rather sounds like the system drive may be damaged. If you go into Command Prompt in the WinRE environment can you access your system drive and can you see the files and folders on there? Note: The drive letter of your system drive may not be C:, the WinRE environment often enumerates the drives differently to the real Windows.

 

[Reknez]

That rather sounds like the system drive may be damaged. If you go into Command Prompt in the WinRE environment can you access your system drive and can you see the files and folders on there? Note: The drive letter of your system drive may not be C:, the WinRE environment often enumerates the drives differently to the real Windows.

Yes, I can access everything on it normally, as I said, the problems started after shutting down with an unstable RAM overclock.
I do not think that the drive is damaged. It just does not seem to find the Windows installation for some reason.

 

[x BlueRobot]

It just does not seem to find the Windows installation for some reason.

Have you checked your BCD store to make sure that there is any boot loader listed there? You may have to completely delete the BCD and then rebuild it because that bootrec /rebuildbcd command doesn't always work.

If you cannot read the commands properly, here goes (to be entered in the command prompt from the Recovery Environment):

diskpart - Opens the Disk Partitionning tool
select disk 0 - Will select your first hard drive (the one with the Windows partition on it)
list volume - Note the number of the partition that have no drive letter assigned to it, is of 260MB of size and have "FAT32" listed under the "FS" column
select volume X - X will be the number of your partition with a size of 260MB, the EFI System Partition one that you identified in the last command
assign letter=Z: - It'll assign the Z: letter to the EFI System Partition
exit - To exit the diskpart utility

Now you'll be back in the command prompt, enter the following commands:

cd /d Z:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot - Goes to the "Boot" directory in the Z: partition
attrib Z:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD -h -r -s - Removes the hidden, read-only and system attributes from the BCD folder
ren Z:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD BCD.old - Renamed the BCD folder to BCD.old
bootrec /rebuildbcd - This command will rebuild the BCD.

When it asks you Add the installation to boot list?, press on y followed by Enter and if it succeed, you'll have a The operation completed successfully message. Once you're done, close the command prompt, restart your computer and try to upgrade again.

The ESP partition may vary in size between different installations so its best to check the GUID for the suspected partition first, it should be: C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B.

 

[Reknez]

Have you checked your BCD store to make sure that there is any boot loader listed there? You may have to completely delete the BCD and then rebuild it because that bootrec /rebuildbcd command doesn't always work.


The ESP partition may vary in size between different installations so its best to check the GUID for the suspected partition first, it should be: C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B.

All commands complete successfully, but I unfortunately still get the "INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE" BSOD after them.

 

[x BlueRobot]

Could you please open command prompt and then enter the following command:

reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM2\ControlSet#\Control\Class\{4d36e967-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}

You'll need to replace # with the number of your current control set.

Since you're in the recovery environment, you're going to have load your actual SYSTEM beforehand using:

reg load HKLM\SYSTEM2 %systemroot%\System32\config\SYSTEM

I'm not sure if %systemroot% will work in RE so you might have to use C:\Windows instead.

There's more detailed steps on how to do the above in this tutorial: Disable Driver Verifier Outside Windows (Vista / 7 / 8 / 10 / 11)

 

[Reknez]

Could you please open command prompt and then enter the following command:

reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM2\ControlSet#\Control\Class\{4d36e967-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}

You'll need to replace # with the number of your current control set.

Since you're in the recovery environment, you're going to have load your actual SYSTEM beforehand using:

reg load HKLM\SYSTEM2 %systemroot%\System32\config\SYSTEM

I'm not sure if %systemroot% will work in RE so you might have to use C:\Windows instead.

There's more detailed steps on how to do the above in this tutorial: Disable Driver Verifier Outside Windows (Vista / 7 / 8 / 10 / 11)

The query returns an error that says that the registry key or value has not been found.

 

[x BlueRobot]

Did you ensure that you've loaded the SYSTEM hive beforehand using an alias of SYSTEM2?

 

[Reknez]

Did you ensure that you've loaded the SYSTEM hive beforehand using an alias of SYSTEM2?

Yes, I did as you told, which was to make sure to first load the registry file and to then query it.

 

[x BlueRobot]

Okay, use the following command from command prompt against the SYSTEM hive which is part of Windows RE:

reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e967-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}

We'll use that information to rebuild the missing subkey from your actual SYSTEM hive, as noted here: Debugging Stop 0x7B - INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE

 

[Reknez]

Okay, use the following command from command prompt against the SYSTEM hive which is part of Windows RE:

reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e967-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}

We'll use that information to rebuild the missing subkey from your actual SYSTEM hive, as noted here: Debugging Stop 0x7B - INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE

The output that I get when using that command is in the attached picture. Please tell me how to proceed from there.

Thank you!

 

[x BlueRobot]

reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM2\ControlSet#\Control\Class\{4d36e967-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318} /v UpperFilters /t REG_MULTI_SZ /d partmgr\0 /f
reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM2\ControlSet#\Control\Class\{4d36e967-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318} /v LowerFilters /t REG_MULTI_SZ /d EhStorClass\0 /f

You'll need to load your actual SYSTEM hive using the same instructions as before, once completed, then check that the keys have been added successfully using reg query. If so, then try and boot Windows normally again.

 

[Reknez]

reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM2\ControlSet#\Control\Class\{4d36e967-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318} /v UpperFilters /t REG_MULTI_SZ /d partmgr\0 /f
reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM2\ControlSet#\Control\Class\{4d36e967-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318} /v LowerFilters /t REG_MULTI_SZ /d EhStorClass\0 /f

You'll need to load your actual SYSTEM hive using the same instructions as before, once completed, then check that the keys have been added successfully using reg query. If so, then try and boot Windows normally again.

I have done that, but I still get the "INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE" BSOD on boot.

 

[x BlueRobot]

If you do the following:

reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM2\ControlSet#\Control\Class

Do you have a number of subkeys returned?

I would check that following services exist as well:

reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM2\ControlSet#\Services\partmgr
reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM2\ControlSet#\Services\EhStorClass

 

[Reknez]

If you do the following:

reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM2\ControlSet#\Control\Class

Do you have a number of subkeys returned?

I would check that following services exist as well:

reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM2\ControlSet#\Services\partmgr
reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM2\ControlSet#\Services\EhStorClass

Yes, the outputs are in the attached pictures.

Thank you for your help so far!