- Oct 17, 2011
- 3,166
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- 27,115
So....
Last week, my mother-in-law had dropped off her laptop for me to take a look at (getting pop-up ads on every site in Firefox). With a little digging, I found that it was apparently an "Ace Race" add-on that had grafted onto Firefox. However, while I was working on her laptop, I noticed my Windows Update popup said tehre were updates ready to download & install. I did so, told it to shut down so that it wasn't running all night, & thought everything was fine.
...until Friday night, when I turned on my PC. At first, it looked like it was running some of the updates, but then it rebooted & said WIndows hadn't shut down properly. I selected the "Safe Mode with Networking"...but after some of the files loaded it froze up on me. I tried rebooting again... and get the "Error Code: 0xc000000f" and "File:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD" error codes.
Now, I did some digging...and it doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense that this would be happening, as the primary reason for this error to occur is if you mess something up when trying to install a dual-boot OS setup. I only have WIndows 7 Professional installed -- no XP, no Vista, no Linux, nothing but pure Windows -- so I'm not 100% sure if this was something in the Windows Update, a problem with the drive itsef (see signature for my build details), or something else.
The biggest problem seems to be that the normal repair options (run your Install/Recovery Disk, use the "Bootrec" commands to rebuild the boot files, etc.) aren't working. Part of it may be that the normal repairs assume your disk is formatted under MBR (i.e. legacy BIOS style with a master boot record), but even though mine is using UEFI the suggested "/s" flag didn't work either. The other problem is that, after some of these attempts, I now get the message with the Recovery Disks that I have the wrong type of Windows. I could maybe understand that with the fresh disc I made from my mother-in-law's laptop; although she also has 64-bit Windows, it's Home not Professional. But my Windows 7 Professional 64-bit is the original OEM disc I purchased from Micro Center, so it should have zero problems.
So, luckily I have 2 hard drives in my PC, plus a Linux Mint DVD I can use to access them, so I'm transferring important files from the WD Black to the WD Green drive. My concern, however, is whether or not the WD Black can be reused for a fresh Windows install, or should I worry about replacing it? The only other option I have without going through the install would be to try restoring the BIOS (GA990FXA-UD3 has dual BIOS) just in case it's a BIOS error.
Any thoughts?
EDIT: Hmmm...no responses yet? No suggestions?
Last week, my mother-in-law had dropped off her laptop for me to take a look at (getting pop-up ads on every site in Firefox). With a little digging, I found that it was apparently an "Ace Race" add-on that had grafted onto Firefox. However, while I was working on her laptop, I noticed my Windows Update popup said tehre were updates ready to download & install. I did so, told it to shut down so that it wasn't running all night, & thought everything was fine.
...until Friday night, when I turned on my PC. At first, it looked like it was running some of the updates, but then it rebooted & said WIndows hadn't shut down properly. I selected the "Safe Mode with Networking"...but after some of the files loaded it froze up on me. I tried rebooting again... and get the "Error Code: 0xc000000f" and "File:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD" error codes.
Now, I did some digging...and it doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense that this would be happening, as the primary reason for this error to occur is if you mess something up when trying to install a dual-boot OS setup. I only have WIndows 7 Professional installed -- no XP, no Vista, no Linux, nothing but pure Windows -- so I'm not 100% sure if this was something in the Windows Update, a problem with the drive itsef (see signature for my build details), or something else.
The biggest problem seems to be that the normal repair options (run your Install/Recovery Disk, use the "Bootrec" commands to rebuild the boot files, etc.) aren't working. Part of it may be that the normal repairs assume your disk is formatted under MBR (i.e. legacy BIOS style with a master boot record), but even though mine is using UEFI the suggested "/s" flag didn't work either. The other problem is that, after some of these attempts, I now get the message with the Recovery Disks that I have the wrong type of Windows. I could maybe understand that with the fresh disc I made from my mother-in-law's laptop; although she also has 64-bit Windows, it's Home not Professional. But my Windows 7 Professional 64-bit is the original OEM disc I purchased from Micro Center, so it should have zero problems.
So, luckily I have 2 hard drives in my PC, plus a Linux Mint DVD I can use to access them, so I'm transferring important files from the WD Black to the WD Green drive. My concern, however, is whether or not the WD Black can be reused for a fresh Windows install, or should I worry about replacing it? The only other option I have without going through the install would be to try restoring the BIOS (GA990FXA-UD3 has dual BIOS) just in case it's a BIOS error.
Any thoughts?
EDIT: Hmmm...no responses yet? No suggestions?
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