Windows 10 0xc000000e - Booting from recovery USB stuck loading (spinning circles)

[Chaguy]

I recently ran into some trouble with my PC and had it return the Windows 10 0xc000000e error.

(Documented here: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3795546/windows-0xc000000e-bios-single-boot-option.html)

I am now trying to repair windows from the install USB (I have a LICENSED copy, so this should work fine) however it is stuck loading. I left it for 12 hours and still loading.

Could anyone help?

Thanks

 

[Colif]

Sure its not ignoring USB and trying to load the boot drive? Has it let you do anything with the USB yet? shown any menus?

what are specs of PC? What model Asrock motherboard?

could be you need to change settings in BIOS to let it boot off a USB, as 12 hours is way too long.

re other error, did bios list something called Windows Boot Manager in the boot listing?

 

[Chaguy]

Sure its not ignoring USB and trying to load the boot drive? Has it let you do anything with the USB yet? shown any menus?

what are specs of PC? What model Asrock motherboard?

could be you need to change settings in BIOS to let it boot off a USB, as 12 hours is way too long.

re other error, did bios list something called Windows Boot Manager in the boot listing?

Definitely not ignoring USB.

By default it boots to the corrupted windows on my main drive.
I open BIOS boot settings and choose boot from USB (my windows media creation tool USB). It reboots with the windows logo, black background and loading circle. It gets stuck on this screen, not frozen, just infinitely loading.

Asrock BIOS

I'm at a loss :/

 

[Colif]

it should create a RAM disk and boot windows from there. The duration is way too long. Should be pretty much instant.

Where did you get USB from? I mean, did you make the installer yourself? Has it worked before in same PC?

 

[Chaguy]

it should create a RAM disk and boot windows from there. The duration is way too long. Should be pretty much instant.

Where did you get USB from? I mean, did you make the installer yourself? Has it worked before in same PC?

I borrowed my friends laptop, downloaded and used Microsofts official windows 10 tool located here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/Windows10 to create the USB installer.

This exact same method (from the exact same laptop) is what I used to originally load windows onto the PC after it was built.

 

[Colif]

USB should be okay, is it same USB you used last time?

What is showing in the boot order? is anything in it? might help to add SSD even if you are booting off USB to fix it.

is there something called Windows Boot Manager with the name of your boot drive in brackets behind it?

The Windows Boot Manager (Samsung SSD 960 EVO 250GB) entry is the UEFI booting entry for your OS installation. That means it uses the Windows EFI boot loader.

The Samsung SSD 960 EVO 250GB entry is the Legacy/MBR entry for your OS installation. It's using the non-UEFI legacy Windows MBR boot loader. You may find your 960 EVO is GPT partitioned, but it still has a hidden MBR system/boot partition. Did that entry have a prefix of "AHCI:"?

As an advocate of actually using the UEFI firmware in our boards (CSM set to Disabled), and of UEFI booting, I only use the Windows Boot Manager entry on all of my PCs.

Legacy booting with CSM set to Enabled (the default) causes our board's firmware to run in emulated BIOS mode, using 16bit addressing and 1MB (yes, MegaByte) of our memory during the POST process. That's the BIOS firmware standard from 1998.

http://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=6024&title=boot-options-explained

've read that if the power supply is somehow altered or interrupted and the motherboard power supply drops below what is required, the BIOS can reset and you simply need to re-assign your boot drive.

Did you unplug PC while messing with fans? Win 10 isn't off when you turn PC off, its in a hibernate mode. So the simple act of unplugging it can sometimes corrupt the boot config data. It shouldn't however make PC load a USB for 12 hours,

 

[Chaguy]

USB should be okay, is it same USB you used last time?

What is showing in the boot order? is anything in it? might help to add SSD even if you are booting off USB to fix it.

is there something called Windows Boot Manager with the name of your boot drive in brackets behind it?

The Windows Boot Manager (Samsung SSD 960 EVO 250GB) entry is the UEFI booting entry for your OS installation. That means it uses the Windows EFI boot loader.

The Samsung SSD 960 EVO 250GB entry is the Legacy/MBR entry for your OS installation. It's using the non-UEFI legacy Windows MBR boot loader. You may find your 960 EVO is GPT partitioned, but it still has a hidden MBR system/boot partition. Did that entry have a prefix of "AHCI:"?

As an advocate of actually using the UEFI firmware in our boards (CSM set to Disabled), and of UEFI booting, I only use the Windows Boot Manager entry on all of my PCs.

Legacy booting with CSM set to Enabled (the default) causes our board's firmware to run in emulated BIOS mode, using 16bit addressing and 1MB (yes, MegaByte) of our memory during the POST process. That's the BIOS firmware standard from 1998.

http://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=6024&title=boot-options-explained

've read that if the power supply is somehow altered or interrupted and the motherboard power supply drops below what is required, the BIOS can reset and you simply need to re-assign your boot drive.

Did you unplug PC while messing with fans? Win 10 isn't off when you turn PC off, its in a hibernate mode. So the simple act of unplugging it can sometimes corrupt the boot config data. It shouldn't however make PC load a USB for 12 hours,

I have 1 HDD and 1SSD but neither of them show in the boot manager? Which is why i thought it was a BIOS problem, but how could my BIOS display a windows 10 error code?

When the USB is not plugged in I only get 1 boot option ("AHTI 4" or something similar), when I plug the USB in it adds two additional boot options, both the USB, but one is labeled USB and one is labeled UFEI.

Initially I thought my BIOS was not detecting any of my drives but I was told it must be if a windows error is appearing? How can I test my SATA connections and drives?

And Yes my mistake was definitely that the computer was not fully switched off, I could almost hear it reset just before the error screen popped up.