How to Fix Windows Boot Error 0xc0000001 in Windows 11, 10 and 7

The blue Recovery screen may say “Your PC/Device needs to be repaired”, “An unexpected error has occurred”, or that a required device is not connected or cannot be accessed. Windows may fail before the logo appears, restart repeatedly, or return to the same recovery screen after every reboot.

Error 0xc0000001 does not always mean that Windows or your personal files have been deleted. In many cases, the Windows partition is still intact, but Windows Boot Manager cannot locate or load it because the BCD entry points to the wrong partition or the required boot files are missing or corrupted.

Before You Start

You need a Windows installation or recovery USB, or a Lazesoft Recovery Suite bootable USB. Before repairing the BCD, confirm that the internal SSD or hard disk is detected in BIOS/UEFI. If the disk is not detected there, software commands cannot repair the problem. Check the drive connection, NVMe slot, SATA cable, storage-controller settings, and disk health first.

Drive letters in Windows Recovery Environment and Windows PE may be different from the letters used in normal Windows. The offline Windows installation may appear as D: or E: instead of C:. Always identify the correct Windows partition before running commands.

diskpart
list volume
exit

dir C:\Windows
dir D:\Windows
dir E:\Windows

Use the drive letter that contains folders such as Windows, Program Files, and Users. The command examples below assume Windows is on C:. Replace that letter when necessary. If BitLocker protects the Windows volume, unlock it before rebuilding the BCD or repairing offline system files.

Method 1: Repair 0xc0000001 with Lazesoft One Click Fix

Lazesoft One Click Fix checks common Windows startup components automatically. It is particularly useful when Windows Startup Repair fails or when you do not want to manually work with DiskPart, BCD paths, and boot partitions.

Step 1: Boot from the Lazesoft Recovery USB

Create a Lazesoft bootable recovery USB on a working Windows computer. Connect it to the problem computer, open the computer’s boot menu, and select the USB device. When Windows Boot Manager appears, choose Lazesoft Live CD and press Enter.

Step 2: Open Windows Recovery

After Lazesoft Recovery Suite Home Edition loads, select Windows Recovery from the main screen.

Step 3: Select the Windows Installation to Repair

Lazesoft scans the connected disks and displays the Windows installations it can find. Select the Windows 11, Windows 10, or Windows 7 installation that shows error 0xc0000001, and then click OK. Check the Windows version, boot volume, disk size, and system-volume information carefully.

Step 4: Choose One Click Fix

In Lazesoft Windows Recovery, choose One Click Fix Crash Solution or open the One Click Fix tab.

Click the One Click Fix button to start the automatic repair.

Step 5: Wait for the Boot Repair to Complete

Depending on the disk layout and boot mode, One Click Fix may check the MBR, boot indicator, boot-sector parameters, boot-sector code, BCD store, file system on the boot partition, critical Windows system files, and boot-related registry files.

Step 6: Restart the Computer

When the repair is complete, click Finish, close Lazesoft, and remove the USB drive. Restart the computer and allow it to boot from the internal disk.

Method 2: Run Windows Startup Repair

Windows Startup Repair is the first built-in option to try because it is automatic and normally does not affect personal files. Boot from a Windows installation USB and select:

Repair your computer → Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Startup Repair

Choose the affected Windows installation when prompted. Startup Repair checks boot files, BCD information, the system partition, and several startup settings. Restart the computer after it completes. If Startup Repair reports that it cannot repair the PC, continue with the manual commands below.

Method 3: Repair 0xc0000001 with Windows Commands

Open Command Prompt from Windows Recovery Environment. First identify whether the Windows disk uses GPT or MBR:

diskpart
list disk
exit

An asterisk in the GPT column means the disk uses GPT and normally boots in UEFI mode. No asterisk normally means an MBR disk using Legacy BIOS or CSM mode.

Step 1: Check the Windows Partition for File-System Errors

A damaged file system can prevent Windows Boot Manager from reading the BCD, loader, registry, or other startup files.

chkdsk C: /f

For a deeper scan that also checks for unreadable sectors, use:

chkdsk C: /f /r

The /r scan can take a long time. If the disk shows repeated bad sectors, disappears from BIOS, or makes unusual noises, back up important files before continuing because the drive may be failing.

Repair a UEFI/GPT Computer

On a UEFI system, the BCD is stored on the FAT32 EFI System Partition at \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD. Use DiskPart to find the small FAT32 volume, which is often around 100 MB to 300 MB.

diskpart
list volume
select volume X
assign letter=S
exit

Replace X with the EFI System Partition volume number. Confirm the partition contains an EFI folder:

dir S:\

Then recreate the UEFI boot files and BCD store:

bcdboot C:\Windows /s S: /f UEFI

A successful command normally displays “Boot files successfully created.” You can inspect the BCD store with:

bcdedit /store S:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD /enum all

Restart the computer and confirm that the firmware is set to UEFI mode and that Windows Boot Manager is first in the boot order.

Repair a Legacy BIOS/MBR Computer

On a Legacy BIOS computer, the BCD is normally stored at \Boot\BCD on the active System Reserved partition or Windows partition. Start with Bootrec:

bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /scanos
bootrec /rebuildbcd

If Windows is found, type Y to add it to the boot list. If bootrec /fixboot reports Access is denied, continue with bcdboot.

Find the small NTFS System Reserved partition and assign it a temporary drive letter:

diskpart
list disk
select disk 0
list partition
select partition X
active
assign letter=S
exit

Replace X with the correct System Reserved partition number. Then rebuild the BIOS boot files:

bcdboot C:\Windows /s S: /f BIOS

If there is no separate System Reserved partition and Windows itself is the active system partition, use:

bcdboot C:\Windows /s C: /f BIOS

You can inspect a Legacy BCD store mounted as S: with:

bcdedit /store S:\Boot\BCD /enum all

Rename a Severely Corrupted BCD and Create a New One

If the existing BCD cannot be opened or rebuilt, rename it instead of deleting it. This preserves a backup.

UEFI/GPT

cd /d S:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot
attrib BCD -s -h -r
ren BCD BCD.old
bcdboot C:\Windows /s S: /f UEFI

Legacy BIOS/MBR

cd /d S:\Boot
attrib BCD -s -h -r
ren BCD BCD.old
bcdboot C:\Windows /s S: /f BIOS

If the BCD file does not exist, skip the rename commands and run the appropriate bcdboot command directly.

Repair Offline Windows System Files

Error 0xc0000001 can also occur when essential Windows loader, registry, or system files are corrupted. Run System File Checker against the offline Windows installation:

sfc /scannow /offbootdir=C:\ /offwindir=C:\Windows

If the boot files are on a separate partition mounted as S:, you may need:

sfc /scannow /offbootdir=S:\ /offwindir=C:\Windows

For Windows 10 and Windows 11, also try DISM:

dism /image:C:\ /cleanup-image /restorehealth

If DISM cannot find repair source files, use a matching Windows installation USB as the source. After DISM completes, run SFC again. Windows 7 supports offline SFC, but its DISM repair capabilities are more limited than those in Windows 10 and Windows 11.

What If Error 0xc0000001 Still Appears?

1. Verify the boot mode. A GPT Windows disk normally needs UEFI mode. An MBR Windows disk normally needs Legacy BIOS or CSM mode.
2. Check the boot order. On UEFI systems, select Windows Boot Manager for the correct internal disk.
3. Restore the previous storage-controller setting. Changing AHCI, RAID, Intel RST, or Intel VMD can prevent Windows from accessing the boot device.
4. Disconnect extra disks. Old Windows disks or multiple EFI partitions can cause boot files to be created on the wrong drive.
5. Check disk health. Repeated CHKDSK errors, slow detection, disappearing disks, or unreadable sectors may indicate hardware failure.
6. Check recent changes. If the error followed a clone, restore, partition resize, Windows update, or power loss, rebuild the boot files on the intended system disk.
7. Back up important data. If the disk may be failing, recover files before performing more repairs.

Which Repair Method Should You Use?

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