Boot Configuration Data file is missing some required information

Question

During the "setup" phase (~80%) of installing Windows RT 8.1, the Surface RT rebooted.

Upon reboot, I ge the following message:

"Recovery

Your PC needs to be repaired

The Boot Configuration Data file is missing some required information.

File: \BCD

Error Code: 0x000000d

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."

Any idea what (if anything) that I can do to recover?

Answer 1

OK, Here' my blog post with the fix. All working well now!

http://wp.me/p33LWd-fl

If you don't have the USB recovery key, I've made one available soon as well (It's about 185MB in size though!)

 http://kickthatcomputer.wordpress.com/2013/10/19/creating-a-windows-rt-recovery-usb-key/

Answer 2

Oh dear Microsoft.

I've got two RT tablets. One upgraded fine, the other I've got the BCD corruption. My observations so far (and I'll probably do a blog post about my experiences)

• After the message is shown, you need to wait a minute before you can get it to boot again using a USB key
• I just tried a recovery USB key created using the RT 8.1 that did upgrade and used the advanced options to try the Start-Up Repair option. No luck, it eventually says it can't repair.
• I'm about to try some manual BCD editing, will update if I get a better result.

Not having much luck with 8.1 so far. I've also tried updating my PC from my 8.1 ISO media and that keeps failing as well. At least it "recovers" back to 8.0 after the failure.

UPDATE: I've got a fix worked out for this problem without needing to restore your Surface from scratch. Just writing up the fix and will post it shortly

Answer 3

To get into Recovery Mode, you have to have a USB Recovery Disk connected to the Surface.

http://www.windows8core.com/how-to-boot-your-microsoft-surface-with-windows-rt-into-recovery-mode/

If you do not have access to another 32-bit Windows 8 machine to be able to create a recovery disk, the following forum post guides you to where to get one.

http://forums.wpcentral.com/microsoft-surface-windows-rt/232959-does-anyone-have-en-us-us-recovery-drive-windows-rt-8-0-a.html

Answer 4

I can't boot into any mode - the tablet is totally frozen on the error screen - just turns itself off. Never had any issues with Google or iOS updates!

Answer 5

I fixed the problem, but it's not a friendly/ideal solution.

You will need to use a Recovery Disk that you can create from another installation of Windows 8.  It has to be 32-bit, otherwise the Recovery Disk can not be used on the Surface RT.

Boot into recovery mode and do a reset.  I attempted a "refresh" where your files and apps are intact, but got an error stating the drive was locked.    There may be a way to get around the locked drive, but  since I didn't have any files that I needed (other than the apps), I opted for the full reset.

Also, there may be ways to "fix" the BCD, using the command line in Recovery mode, but I didn't explore that option.

Perhaps, we can get some insight from Microsoft on ways of fixing the BCD without having to completely reset (i.e. fresh install) RT.

Once you have a clean install, the 8.1 update was not available in the Store until after I applied the 30 available updates.  That whole process took about 5 hours.

The 8.1 update was successful on the 2nd attempt.

7 hrs just to get Windows 8.1 (not counting the 2 hrs on the first attempt)

~5-6 hrs to setup the Surface with all of the user accounts, email, apps

Overall, this is the WORST upgrade experience on a modern day OS.