Hello,

I am running Windows 8 Professional 64-bit and encounter the following error when booting:

System:
Windows 8 Professional x86_64
Intel Core i7 3770K (Ivy Bridge)
4 x 4 GB Corsair Vengeance
4 random SATA2 HDDs and a Corsair Force Series 2 SSD
ASRock Z77 Pro3 (Mainboard)

Before the error ocurred
I was attempting to launch The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim which failed to start properly and I had to force a reboot on my computer
Windows was stuck for 10 minutes and i forced another reboot to find the automatic repair screen. The automatic repair failed and when I rebooted I had this new problem.

Error
Your PC needs to be repaired

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 tools on your installation media. If you don't have any installation media (like a disc or USB device), contact your system administrator or PC manufacturer

Press Enter to try again
Press F8 for Startup Settings

Attempted fixes

1 - Press F8

Screen flashes quickly but nothing else happens

2 - Reboot computer with installation media (USB 3 stick)
Computer failed to get past POST check
Moved USB stick to another port and booted from it and followed this procedure:
Automatic System Repair - Didn't work
System Restore - Didn't work
BootRec /RebuildBCD, BootRec /FixBoot, BootRec /FixMBR - No difference here either
Refresh PC from repair DVD - "An error ocurred while refreshing your PC, no changes were made"

3 - Check for faulty hardware
Running chkdsk on system drive
Tried booting using nothing but the system drive attached
Tested all RAM sticks
Checked with another graphics card
Tried CMOS reset
Flashed newer BIOS
Tried alternative installation media (DVD)

4 - Google the issue
Only to find the same solutions as the ones I already tried on instinct.

I am completely lost... What else could possibly be wrong? How can I fix it?

• Changed type Time Sheep Thursday, November 08, 2012 7:22 PM
• Edited by Time Sheep Thursday, November 08, 2012 8:45 PM

What you still not tried, was another harddisk.

From your description I would assume, that the system disk is faulty.

Did you already try to run chkdsk /r from the repair environment cmd prompt agains the volume containing the system?

(To get the proper drive letter you could open notepad and use it's Open dialog as explorer replacement to optically view the drives.)

Best greetings from Germany
Olaf

Just ran chkdsk on my system drive. No errors. It says changes were made to the filesystem however I still end up with the same error at boot.
Thanks for the notepad tip!

Just ran chkdsk on my system drive. No errors. It says changes were made to the filesystem however I still end up with the same error at boot.

Hm, well. Changes to the file system could mean, that the file system was indeed corrupt - which can also happen due to a crash during write access. So if a file was damaged in this process, it can be unrecoverable. But on the other side it could be, that now the other repair processes work again, since a damaged file system will obviously have caused troubles.

Wish you good luck
Olaf

Hello,

Could you please boot your computer from Windows 8 setup media, start command prompt from there by pressing SHIFT+F10 after WinPE Setup wizard starts and try accessing your boot partition (this is where your efi boot file is located).

If am not mistaken, it's too late in Russia and my mind doesn't serve me well at this time, this error indicates that your boot code on your system partition is OK and BIOS successfully runs it, but after that, when it tries to access EFI file from your boot partition to start Windows, it fails to do so because it cannot access the volume that is pointed by boot code (the volume where EFI file is located). For example, it may happen if your boot code is located on a NTFS system partition and your data partition is formatted into ReFS file system. In this case, your system will be able to access the boot code, but the boot firmware will fail to access winload EFI file located on a non-supported file system.

In short, it looks like you have specified in BIOS to use 16-bit old BIOS (non-UEFI) firmware, but Windows Loader points to EFI file due to a record in the Boot Configuration Database (BCD) that points to winload.efi EFI firmware. Could it be that you were installing Windows 8 on a UEFI-enabled PC and then changed BIOS setting and disabled UEFI in BIOS?

Could you please certify that you have enabled UEFI in your BIOS and you are starting Windows using old int13 (13 hex interrupt) access method? Do you see Windows Loader option in your BIOS boot screen?

Please check this thread for information about how you could recover missing winload.efi/winload.exe boot manager: Winload.exe is missing or corrupt - Recover CD does not boot - Problem SOLVED!

You would need to recover winload.efi (if this file is missing from the pointed partition , I guess this should be c:\Windows\system32\winload.efi) or recover the boot record by recovering Boot Configuration Database.

Please see this thread to find out who you could recover the BCD using bcdboot tool: [VHD][BOOT][UEFI] Boot Windows 8 From a VHD Drive On a GPT Disk Using UEFI BIOS. Proper Partition Layout To Optimize Disk Usage

Than

Hi, i have a windows 8 Toshiba Satellite C850. It worked fine for about a month and then got stuck in an auto repair loop. I was able to reset it and it worked fine for a week, but now has bsod \window\system32\winload.efi error. The code seems to variate sometimes. 3 examples would be; 0xc0000185 , 0xc0000001 , 0xc0000225. I have downloaded a windows 8 .iso and had to disable the secure boot in order for it to work and it appears to be working, but after about 10 mins i get another blue screen saying your pc has encountered an error and must reset. 

Is there some way to erase all data and clean install with a bsod blocking my way?

  

I had a smilar problem few days ago. I have a Samsung ATIV Tab Pro with Windows 8. It updated it self to 8.1 and after configuration i tried to restart but it didn't open! Gave me 0xc0000001 windows.efi error. I could reach BIOS, help screen with F8 and Recovery screen. But non of them was solved problem. Until I found this solution from a hard to discover subject > 

Press F8. This will open a screen tagged like "Start-up Configurations" with 9 options. Press 8)  Disable early launch anti-malware protection. 

After this, my Tab PC opened like nothing happened! I guess problem was caused by Norton during update which had came on PC. I deleted Norton and installed Avast. Now it works fine! 

My point is, if you have a similar situation likes this, try this solution before recovery, USB, bla bla..