Bad Image Error On Clean Install

Question

Bad Image Error On Clean Install

Anonymous

I have a Windows 8.1 ISO that I used to create a bootable flash drive. I installed the OS and just before it was almost complete, I got an error. This occurred right after I setup the username and password. The error was:

rundll32.exe - Bad Image

C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\sfc.dll is either not designed to run on Windows or it contains an error. Try installing the program again using the original installation media or contact your system administrator or the software vendor for support. Error status 0xc0000020.

Now, it continued to go through setup and I reached the desktop. I decided to reboot the computer to see if I would receive the error again; I didn't.

While researching the issue, I found this article. Since it mentioned a virus in method 3, I downloaded Microsoft Security Scanner, which is listed in the article, and MalwareBytes, since I've used it before. MSS ran for 3 minutes and 47 seconds, scanning 3,495 files and stopping on C:\Windows\sysWOW64\rdpcore.dll. It stayed there for about 20-30 minutes. So I cancelled the scan and went to MBAM. I wasn't able to uninstall MBAM; I kept receiving the Bad Image error that I originally started with.

So, I went to method 1 and I ran sfc /scannow from an elevated command prompt. At 61%, I received **Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation.**So, following the guide, I booted into safe mode, ensured the listed folders were in the provided directory path, and ran sfc again. At 66%, I received the same error as before. **The article doesn't discuss what to do if you also receive this error in safe mode.**So I moved onto method 2.

Since I was already in safe mode, I tried installing MBAM again. I received the error still.

Onto Method 3. I tried running MSS again, but this time in safe mode. It did the same thing before. Hung at rdpcore.dll. Since it was late and I was about to go to bed, I just let it run all night. I noticed that it would hang mostly at dll files, but I also remember seeing it hang at an exe once (not sure if any of this matters). The scan took at least 2 hours and this was a quick scan.

So my questions are:

I'm assuming I should just reinstall and see if the problem persists. I thought I would ask to see if there is anything else I can do before trying that. Right now, I'm guessing the most probably solution is the image is bad, but I've used it before, so I'm wondering how this corruption happened. I used Rufusto create the bootable flash drive. It did fail the first time, but succeeded the second. I also tried Windows USB/DVDand it failed and I couldn't get it to work.
How do I get sfc to successfully run? And what's the issue here?
Anything to try/troubleshoot before simply attempting a reinstall?

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4 answers

Answer 1

I understand what your advice was and what you wanted me to do. Answers are what I was looking for. I could resolve the issue. I wanted to know or get some ideas as to what could have caused the error message.

For instance, your method was to download the iso from Microsoft, create a bootable flash drive with Rufus, and then install again. Had I done that and the issue been resolved, it would have seemed as if the issue was my iso. My iso wasn't the issue.

I did the same thing as before, but this time changed the settings within Rufus like I mentioned before. I used my iso. Everything went correctly with install and I haven't experienced the bad image error like I had before. So the issue was the settings that Rufus chose by default for me, not my iso.

So going back to answers, do you have any idea why choosing the below options for Rufus would have caused the bad image error I was experiencing? If you don't think it would have caused it, then why? (Maybe you think even though I did the exact same steps as before, only changing these 2 options, that something else affected the outcome).

MBR partition scheme for BIOS or UEFI
NTFS file system

Thanks.

Answer 2

Anonymous

My advice was to start again with known good Media.

Someone else may have a different approach.

0 comments

Answer 3

In regards to Rufus, these options were chosen by default that are different than the article you provided:

MBR partition scheme for BIOS or UEFI
NTFS file system

Would having chosen these options cause the error message I'm seeing? I understand why to choose FAT32 over NTFS for this case, but not sure why choosing GPT partition scheme for UEFI would be better.
Nothing if your previous response explains why I can't get sfc to successfully run or something else to try to get it to run successfully.

Thanks for the articles above. I'll start trying them after receiving responses to the above 2 questions. I'm just curious before I wipe the computer and start over.