[SOLVED] Win 10 Not Booting After Update to 1903 - BCD Error 0xc0000098

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OnceAndFuture

Member
Joined
Jan 10, 2019
Posts
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Windows update failed on me once again, and once again, the Windows Recovery Environment messed things up worse than before.

I updated my PC to 1903. After leaving the PC alone for hours to finish the updating, I was unable to get to the login screen. Keyboard lights were on, but no display (seems to have been an issue with Windows 10 and NVidia drivers, which apparently has been reported by users since early 2015).

I managed to get to recovery console and, after trying to uninstall Nvidia drivers without success (seems you can't uninstall video drivers in safe mode), I entered the recovery environment again and selected "uninstall recent updates". Windows immediately said it was unable to do so for some reason, and I restarted again. This time however, the PC immediately boots to an error screen which states
Your PC/Device needs to be repaired The boot configuration data file doesn't contain valid information for an operating system
Click to expand...
File: \BCD
Click to expand...
Error code: 0xc0000098
Click to expand...
Interesting, because the BCD was perfectly fine until Windows attempted its "fix". Before it tried to rollback the updates, I was able to get into safe mode without issue.

It tells me to insert recovery media and at the bottom it lists two options- F1 to enter recovery environment or Esc for UEFI Firmware Settings. Pressing either Esc or F1 does nothing at all.

After about a minute the PC resets and the process starts over.

Please assist in helping me figure out what specifically I need to do in order to begin using my PC again. Should I use the 1903 Media Creation Tool to create a recovery USB? What options should I select when in the Recovery Environment? From an 1809 recovery USB I was able to run sfc /scannow on the drive in question, but no "integrity violations" were found.


System Details:


· OS - Windows 10 x64
· Original installed OS - Windows 8 Retail
· Age of system - ~5 years
· Age of (most recent) OS installation - Dec 2017ish(?)

· CPU - Intel i7-6800K
· Video Card - EVGA GTX 770
· MotherBoard - Asus x99-Pro
· Power Supply - PowerCooler 750watt

· Custom-built desktop
 
Hi!

I have moved your thread from Windows Update to Windows 10 Forum as this is not a case of WU troubleshooting, but of getting your Windows 10 to boot up properly.

Based on your error code, it appears that your boot configuration data might by corrupt.

Please try rebuilding your BCD by following these steps:
 
softwaremaniac said:
Hi!

I have moved your thread from Windows Update to Windows 10 Forum as this is not a case of WU troubleshooting, but of getting your Windows 10 to boot up properly.

Based on your error code, it appears that your boot configuration data might by corrupt.
Click to expand...

Thank you for putting the thread in the correct place and for the helpful response.

Running "bcdedit /export" will ensure that any changes it makes can be reserved, correct? I'm just wary as this has all happened to me once before, about a year ago, and I lost everything following instructions that were given to me directly over the phone by a Microsoft employee.

Honestly Windows couldn't have done THAT MUCH to put the system in the state that it's in now. When I hit "Rollback Windows Updates" (or however the option is worded, I forget now) it was seriously only like half a second before Windows immediately said "Windows was unable to preform the action requested", and prior to me selecting that option I was able to boot into safe mode just fine. I just need to figure out what change was made when I pressed that option. It seems that Windows might've attempted to recover from the newly created recovery partition instead of the original(?). I'm showing over 4 different partitions on this disk currently.
 
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When entering "c:\boot\bcd -h -r -s" Windows returns "Path not found". Which, I guess, is the main issue at hand right now. Windows somehow deleted the boot path? Is there any way for me to manually recreate this?

Edit- however there *is* a boot directory in C:\Windows. It shows the "EFI" and "PCAT" directories having been modified today.
 
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Ok, am currently attempting that.

A user on another forum mentioned that the boot directory isn't located on the root on UEFI-based systems, and instead in C:Windows\Boot\EFI.

I ran "bootrec /rebuildbcd". It found two Windows installations on disk- one in C:\WIndows and one in C:\Windows.old\WINDOWS. The modified dates on the directories inside "C:\Windows.old\WINDOWS" are from when I began the update process, so it seems that's the original. Regardless, after adding the installation to the boot list when prompted, "bootrec /rebuildbcd" returns "The system cannot find the path specified".
 
Ok.

After selecting "Fix Boot Problems" in the Macrium Rescue Media environment and restarting my PC booted up to a black screen, just like it did right after I first installed the updates.

After rebooting again, I encounter another blue error screen, this time with error 0xc00000001 "Your PC couldn't turn off properly".

I'm given the following options this time, although like before, pressing any of the buttons does nothing.

Enter to try again
F1 to enter Recovery Environment
F8 for startup settings
Esc for UEFI firmware settings
 
I'm actually having a bit of trouble getting that to run. It keeps booting to a "Tiny Core" Linux distro and none of the SSD CLI commands are recognized.

But, in all honesty, I really don't think a faulty drive is the issue. I had this *exact same* issue nearly a year ago. I'm beginning to suspect it has something to do with the Secure Boot setting in my BIOS. I had CSM enabled, which I guess is essentially a mixed environment mode(?) in order to have UEFI (with Secure Boot) enabled on the OS disk but the USB storage to run in legacy. I don't even remember why I had it set like this. Anyway, I changed the CSM mode to "Auto" and interestingly enough the Windows recovery environment *almost* appears to work properly. For example, startup Repair actually runs, although I still get the error on next boot. Also, rather than instantly spiting out an error, it now provides an option for a system image restore, although unfortunately the timestamp is from earlier today, well after the update failed. Regardless, I attempted the System Restore, which completed successfully, but obviously only restored back to the exact same state.
 

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