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[W10] bootrec /fixboot : Access is denied, even after formating UEFI partition and recreatinf boot files.

Anonymous
2020-05-10T18:30:05+00:00

Hello,

When I try booting windows, I get this screen :

So I tried to fix BCD booting on a install key > repair your PC > command prompt with these commands :

bootrec /rebuildbcd

Successfully scanned windows installations.

Total identified windows installations: 0

The operation completed successfully.

bootrec /fixmbr

The operation completed successfully.

bootrec /fixboot

Access is denied

So, following a lot of answers to this access is deniedproblem, I assigned a letter to the UEFI partition (V in my case) using diskpart.

Then I formated the partition with the format v: /FS:FAT32 command which seemed to work with the format complete output*.*

bcdboot c:\Windows /s v: /f UEFI then resulted in Boot files successfully created.

Finaly I moved to the partition with cd /d v:\EFI\Microsoft\bootand launched bootrec /fixboot with the same result : Access is denied.

I tried lots of variations of this solution during hours, always ending with Access is denied when i try bootrec /fixboot. My PC never booted either.

If someone could help me before I reinstall windows (or linux...) with complete despair, I would be gratefull.

For info, I use windows 10 on a Dell latitude Laptop

Thank you for your help.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Windows update

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-05-15T11:11:02+00:00

    So, after multiple tries in dirty things, I decided to reinstall windows.

    The last things I tried were :

    • Copying the entier c:\Windows from a fresh install to my not-booting install. Windows booted, proving that the problem really came from the OS partition. Unfortunately I could only see a black screen with my mouse on it. I couldn't do anything.
    • Copying only subfolders or subfiles of the c:\Windows from a fresh install to my not-booting install, like the c:\Windows\boot folder or things like that. But I couldn't find what to copy to make it boot.

    If I had time and patience I'm sure I could have found the files that were broken but I needed my PC and I had nothing to lose on my hard drive so I just reinstalled windows.

    Actually I could do that right at the begining but it was way more fun and instructive to try to fix it instead.

    Thank you again for your help.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-05-11T18:58:32+00:00

    I may have asked you earlier for the listing from a bcdedit command.  It should show what is booting..

    If you missed it, use an admin command prompt from Windows and just type bcdedit  then copy and paste the listing.

    I tried to get Rufus to produce a drive like you had with the FAT 16 partition but could not.  Since my install image is only 3.4 GB, it did not need to create a second NTFS partition..

    When Win 10 installs, it needs 4 critical partitions.  If they are already present for a prior install, it can install on a different partition as a dual boot..  And yes, the same EFI System partition is used.

    Problems can happen with the OS partition where the windows loader is corrupted somehow..

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-05-11T17:25:33+00:00

    Okay, so I created a new USB drive with windows media creation tool (I suppose Microsoft does the things the correct way). Unfortunately it didn't change anything.

    I tried deleting the EFI partition and recreating it with diskpart. No change again.

    Next, I tried a little trick. I cloned the Hard Drive bit-to-bit so that I don't lose anything.

    On the clone, I deleted the 400GB partition and installed a brand new windows 10 on a new partition (keeping the old 65GB OS partition), so that the fresh installed windows overrides the boot manager already installed (tell me if I'm wrong but I think the EFI partition was also detected and overriden with the fresh install).

    Now If I boot normaly I have access to windows boot manager that detects the two windows installs. Unfortunately only the new one boots, the old one is always stucked with the same problems.

    I'm running out ouf Idea.

    Tell me if I'm wrong but I'm thinking the problem is actually an OS-partition problem.

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