[SOLVED] 0xc000000e system 32 file couldn't be found

[TheJJBman11]

Hiya,

My friend and I tried to replace his motherboard and CPU/Cooler. We made the mistake of taking out his old motherboard before trying to put together his new one and found out that we couldn't fit the cooler to the motherboard! When we tried to put the old one back in we struggled to remember where all the cables were supposed to be plugged in despite taking multiple photos.

Once we got it booted we saw the BIOS screen as normal but was then faced with a BSOD saying that the PC needed to be repaired and that the file System32 could not be found? It gave us the options of retrying or going to some boot settings by pressing F8 but neither of these things did anything.

Could it potentially be that we put the SATA cables in the wrong order for the boot loading? He had 3 plugged in and initially the HDD was in slot 1, we then moved the HDD to slot 2 and the SSD to slot 1. I believe the third slot was for his CD drive or something?

We are planning on just taking it to a PC repair shop and seeing if they can install the new components and sorting out this issue for us but I thought I'd check on here first

Thanks for all your answers!

 

[USAFRet]

My friend and I tried to replace his motherboard and CPU/Cooler.

Changing the motherboard often requires a full wipe and reinstall of the OS.

 

[TheJJBman11]

Changing the motherboard often requires a full wipe and reinstall of the OS.

Even if we took out the old one and put it back?

I realise my post was a bit poorly written but essentially we took his current one out with the intention of swapping it with the newer one but realised the cooler wouldn't fit so we put the old one back in

 

[USAFRet]

Even if we took out the old one and put it back?

I realise my post was a bit poorly written but essentially we took his current one out with the intention of swapping it with the newer one but realised the cooler wouldn't fit so we put the old one back in

What led you to do the swap in the first place?

"system32" being missing has little to do with changing the motherboard. Or moving back to the original.

 

[TheJJBman11]

What led you to do the swap in the first place?

"system32" being missing has little to do with changing the motherboard. Or moving back to the original.

Yeah that's what confused me too, doesn't make any sense to me.

He wanted to upgrade his CPU but his current motherboard didn't support it.

 

[USAFRet]

Yeah that's what confused me too, doesn't make any sense to me.

He wanted to upgrade his CPU but his current motherboard didn't support it.

Sometimes, the process of the OS trying to make itself work with a new motherboard fails, but also changing things enough so that it also no longer works with the original motherboard.

Time for a full wipe and reinstall.

 

[TheJJBman11]

Sometimes, the process of the OS trying to make itself work with a new motherboard fails, but also changing things enough so that it also no longer works with the original motherboard.

Time for a full wipe and reinstall.

Aaah okay that makes sense, damn that's a shame but at least we didn't do any serious damage..

The main question I have is whether or not the HDD will be wiped from this? He says he's sure windows is on his SSD which makes sense so will that likely be the only drive affected? He has very important files on his HDD.

 

[USAFRet]

Aaah okay that makes sense, damn that's a shame but at least we didn't do any serious damage..

The main question I have is whether or not the HDD will be wiped from this? He says he's sure windows is on his SSD which makes sense so will that likely be the only drive affected? He has very important files on his HDD.

For the new install, you have ONLY the desired drive connected, the SSD.
Reconnect the HDD later.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

Also...
For the OS activation, read and do this before you change any parts:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530/windows-10-reactivating-after-hardware-change
(probably too late for this)


But this brings up a second point..."very important files" need to exist on more than one storage device. A true backup.
If a good backup plan does not already exist, that needs to be looked into.

Data that lives on only one device can be said to not exist at all.

 

[TheJJBman11]

For the new install, you have ONLY the desired drive connected, the SSD.
Reconnect the HDD later.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

Also...
For the OS activation, read and do this before you change any parts:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530/windows-10-reactivating-after-hardware-change
(probably too late for this)


But this brings up a second point..."very important files" need to exist on more than one storage device. A true backup.
If a good backup plan does not already exist, that needs to be looked into.

Data that lives on only one device can be said to not exist at all.

Thank you very much for your help! I've reinstalled windows once before using the disc but unfortunately we're now at university and don't have anything with us :/

And yes you're completely correct hopefully if everything works out fine after this he will make back backups haha!