Windows 8 loads to black screen; winload.efi missing.

What happened:

I left to go to the store, so I shut down some programs through the icon panels (right-click Skype, "quit," etc.). After trying to close Steam, I got the 'ol "Please close game X before shutting down Steam." So I left it on that message, left my laptop on and left the apartment.

I came back to see a back-lit black screen. Tried shaking the mouse, nothing happened. Pressed space bar, waited, nothing happened. So I held down the power button and restarted it. Loaded to a black screen again, with no cursor, again.

Removed the battery, placed it back in and restarted it. Then I got the following message:

A required device isn't connected or can't be accessed.

Error code: 0xc0000225

You'll need to use the recovery tools on your installation media. If you don't have any...

Press Enter to try again
Press F8 for Startup Settings
Press Esc for UEFI Firmware Settings
Press F9 to use a different operating system

Click to expand...

After pressing Enter:

The application or operating system couldn't be loaded because a required file is missing or contains errors.

File: \Windows\system32\winload.efi
Error code: 0xc0000225

You'll need to use the recovery tool on your installation media. if you don't have any...

Press Enter to try again
Press F8 for Startup Settings
Press Esc for UEFI Firmware Settings
Press F9 to use a different operating system

Click to expand...

Googled the issue, was told to use Windows repair. So I downloaded a Windows 8 .ISO file, slapped it onto a bootable flashdrive and tried auto repair:

There was a problem

Restart your PC to try again

It looks like something didn't load correctly. Restarting might fix the problem. If this happens more than oce, you might also be able to find help by searching online for a specific error code:

Error code: 80070490

[Restart now]

Click to expand...

Restarting leads to a black screen. Sometimes the ASUS logo with the loading animation; but still goes to a black screen with no input available.

Googling the error code leads to unrelated issues.

----

Research into missing winload.efi led to a video where I used the console via installation media. Which had me do the following:

diskpart

list volume
Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size System Info
Volume 0 H none none DVD-ROM 0 b No Media none
Volume 1 C OS Partition NTFS 186 GB Healthy none
Volume 2 D Data Partition NTFS 2858 GB Healhty none
Volume 3 - SYSTEM Partition FAT32 300 MB Healthy Hidden
Volume 4 F Recovery Partition NTFS 601 MB Healhy Hidden
Volume 5 G Restore Partition NTFS 19 GB Healthy Hidden
Volume 6 E HRM_CCSA_X6 Removable NTFS 14 GB Healthy none

select volume=3 (guide said to choose the FAT32 volume)

assign letter=W (guide said to choose a letter that wasn't being used)

exit

bcdboot C:\Windows /s W: /f UEFI
"Boot files successfully created."

Restart to check if it worked.

Click to expand...

ASUS logo goes through. Get a screen asking me to choose an OS (for some reason there's a Windows 8 on Volume 4, but I didn't install it). I choose the one not on Volume 4, which leads to the "Your PC needs to be repaired" screen at the top of this post.

Alright, so I go back to the boot sequence and set the installation media again, to use the console for another guide:

you might want to run diskpart.exe as a adminand see if your disk or partition has been marked as read only.


start cmd.exe as a admin
diskpart.exe
list disk
select disk 0 <----------- from the output of the previous command
attributes disk <-------- displays the attributes of that drive


see if it is marked as readonly
here is what mine shows:
DISKPART> attributes disk
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only : No
Boot Disk : No
Pagefile Disk : No
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : No
Clustered Disk : No


if it is not marked readonly i would check the partition tables attrbutes


list volume
seclect volume 2 <-------- this is my windows drive
attributes volume <---------this will dump your volume info


here is what mine looks like:


DISKPART> attributes volume
Read-only : No
Hidden : No
No Default Drive Letter: No
Shadow Copy : No


again you are looking for it being marked as readonly.


if they are marked readonly you can clear the attribute


all else fails you can run repair commands to fix the boot record


with bootrec.exe


bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec.exe /fixboot
bootrec.exe /RebuildBcd


sorry if this seems complex, it is just a shame to have to wipe a drive for this problem

Click to expand...

I follow the bootrec commands, /fixmbr worked, as did /fixboot; however, when it came to /RebuildBcd I had some problems:

Scanning all disks for windows installations.
Please wait, since this may take a while. . .

Successfully scanned Windows installations.
Total identified Windows installations: 1
[1] C:\Windows
Add installation to boot list? Yes(Y)/No(N)/All(A): [guide told me to type Y)
The requested system device cannot be found.

Click to expand...

Another guide led me to a line saying "Drive where Windows is installed is locked." So I used the guide above to determine what was wrong, however both disk and volume attributes said Read-only was "NO."

---

Please help, I can't figure out what's wrong!

I really, really don't want to do a system restore, I have way too many important files on there. I am building a gaming PC soon, though. So, if I can't get this fixed, is there a way to access the contents of my laptop's HDD so I can extract the files I need?

Any help is very much appreciated, as I have no idea why this happened or how to fix it.

How to use the BCDboot command in Windows 7/8/10. -> link

Paladynne said:

So, if I can't get this fixed, is there a way to access the contents of my laptop's HDD so I can extract the files I need?

Click to expand...

How to download and clean install Windows 8.1 if you have an OEM computer with UEFI firmware (BIOS) embedded Windows 8/8.1 product key. -> link

Do not delete the partitions on your hard drive, if you have important files on your hard drive and you will not be able to backup your important files.

- Select the partition on which Windows is installed (see screenshot below).
- Click on the "Next" button.



- You will receive the following message (see screenshot below): If the partition you've chosen contains files from a previous Windows installation, these files and folders will be moved to a folder named Windows.old. You'll be able to access Windows.old, but you won't be able to use your previous version of Windows.

- Click on the "OK" button.
- The installation of Windows will begin.

Click to expand...

You have been messing with your Boot manager all this time and that is not your issue..

File: \Windows\system32\winload.efi

Click to expand...

The issue is a File located on C:\

Try doing a system refresh --

To gain access to your stuff - you can use PE media in sig below

genet said:

How to use the BCDboot command in Windows 7/8/10. -> link

Paladynne said:

So, if I can't get this fixed, is there a way to access the contents of my laptop's HDD so I can extract the files I need?

Click to expand...

How to download and clean install Windows 8.1 if you have an OEM computer with UEFI firmware (BIOS) embedded Windows 8/8.1 product key. -> link

Click to expand...

[/QUOTE]

I think that's a good solution, thanks! But I have a question: Windows 8 came pre-installed on my laptop, so I don't have any product key. Would I need one still? (I had to download an .ISO from the internet to try the repairs, because my laptop didn't come with any disc.)

I'm heading off to work right now, so I don't have the time to research that. Not saying I'd rather you research it, but just asking if you know; otherwise I can research it on my own.

Thanks for the help, guys. I'll mark it as solved when I get home and try the Windows 8.1 installation.

KYHI said:

You have been messing with your Boot manager all this time and that is not your issue..

File: \Windows\system32\winload.efi

Click to expand...

The issue is a File located on C:\

Try doing a system refresh --

To gain access to your stuff - you can use PE media in sig below

Click to expand...

I should have mentioned I get the "There was a problem" message whenever I try auto-repair, refresh, etc.

Paladynne said:

Windows 8 came pre-installed on my laptop, so I don't have any product key. Would I need one still?

Click to expand...

If you have an OEM computer with UEFI firmware (BIOS) embedded Windows 8/8.1 product key, the Windows 8.1 installer should automatically detect product key from UEFI firmware (BIOS).

When installation is finished, Windows 8.1 will be activated automatically, if your internet connection is up and running.