0xc0000098 error, suggested solutions don't help so far

Hello,

As the title suggests, recently I have got a 0xc0000098 error message at startup on my laptop (Windows 7 Home Premium SP 1) after an inexpected shutdown.

Looking for advice on the net, I have found that I have to rebuild the BCD, but following that doesn't seem to help, namely:

I am able to get to a command prompt booting from recovery media I have, however, once there:

bootrec /fixmbr and

bootrec /fixboot

report operation completed successfully,

chkdsk c: runs quite fast and finds no errors, but

sfc /scannow reports pending restart (I don't remember the exact message word-for-word), and

bootrec /rebuild bcd, while too displaying a successful operation message, shows a "Total identified Windows installations: 0".

I went through

attrib c:\boot\bcd -h -r -s

ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old

bootrec /rebuildbcd

but the identified installations remained at 0.

Then, using Diskpart, I looked at what discs/volumes were listed - there was only one disc (disk 0), with 5 volumes on it, all with letters assigned.

Of those, 2 were listed as Type DVD-ROM,  I assume they must be the internal and the external optical drives I had attached, one with status No Media, and the other one Healthy.

The other 3 were type Partition, all Healthy, one with Label HDDRECOVERY, one System, and one (the "big" one, with most space assigned to it) with no label. The former 2 had file system NTFS, and the last one - well - RAW. The System partition was hidden.

While from inside Windows, C: was the letter for the - I take it - "big" partition, here C was assigned to HDDRECOVERY, and going into it, sure enough, the bcd.old file was there, that is, I assume all I did from command prompt was done in this partition.

Now, I am not sure whether to try to do something with System next, or with the RAW partition, and what exactly.

Thanks in advance for any helpful suggestions.

Hi, yes have to switch to the C:> to do the Repairs. 

I would think since it is not working you may want to switch to recovery mode and from another system make a Linux boot media of your choice, smaller the better or can try boot media from here : https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/bootable-windows-pe-based-recovery-discs/

Hiren's has some tools that may or may not help.

Hello, and, first of all, thanks for the reply.

Hi, yes have to switch to the C:> to do the Repairs. 

I actually did do everything so far in C:, but - as I try to explain in the first post, in this boot mode, C: actually seems to be the letter assigned to the HDDRECOVERY partition, that is, the one that (at least as far as I can make it out) is meant to run repairs from, not the actual OS partition with all the data on it. At the moment, it (the OS one) seems to be listed as RAW (in DISKPART), so I guess I cannot get into it. 

Also, there is a System partition, with yet another letter (not C) assigned to it, I am not sure whether I have to try to repair that, somehow, or something else.

The something else, I guess, having to do with the RAW (OS) partition, I have seen suggestions of chkdsk /f /r, for example, but it is said that it could lose some part of the data, so I don't know if this should be the first resort action.

Also, the recovery discs in the link seem to be fairly universal toolkits, I am not sure what to use exactly.

In all, I would ask for more specific steps to take, hoping I've explained everything clearly enough. If not, please ask for more details.

Thanks.

Hi, was drive used in a Mac before ??     Regardless I think your hooped.  Recouver if can and then format out all partitions that were part of C: before doing a install.

Would suggest before doing a clean install to use but after the format to use chkdsk/r command from a dos prompt to check drive and repair it if issues.

Should think if can now would be a dood time to think about moving to Linux

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If you have Linux questions visit BC's Linux Forum on the 1st page of the Forum here . Tutorials  and experts that know all about it.

There is nothing I can find for help for the C: Boot Drive Raw.      Maybe someone else has an idea : G'luck

Run testdisk on the partition.

https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

Not even sure if such a booting problem is Windows 7-specific any more, but anyway - that is the OS on the laptop.
 
No, the drive has not been used in a Mac, and as far as I am aware, anything else before this computer.
 
I can see TestDisk is included in, say, Hiren's BootCD recommended above, and maybe could be run on a non-booting machine in this way, but since it is a command-line utility, I might need a bit more instructions on how to use it.
 
Meanwhile, I have run a read-only chkdsk (without parameters) on the RAW partition, and while DISKPART lists it as RAW, chkdsk says it is NTFS, and seems to find only one index error (is it safe to post the results here?). I have seen claims that if the partition is seen as NTFS by chkdsk, running chkdsk /f might fix it, and feel tempted to do this next, but I don't want to do more damage.

So, first, would it be a good idea to run chkdsk /f (or maybe TestDisk would do this better?); and, second, if the BCD is to be rebuilt, would the Boot\BCD path be in the System, or in the OS/primary partition?

Thanks again.

Edited by FreeBooter, 16 September 2024 - 03:05 AM.

chkdsk c: runs quite fast and finds no errors

Did you specify the C: drive in the command you issued? If you did then it's worth pointing out that in the recovery environment the drive letters can get changed around so you may have checked the wrong drive. Have another go but first check which drive letter has been assigned to your boot drive.

In my experience it's usually file corruption that causes an unbootable PC after it's shutdown abruptly.
 

 

chkdsk c: runs quite fast and finds no errors

Did you specify the C: drive in the command you issued? If you did then it's worth pointing out that in the recovery environment the drive letters can get changed around so you may have checked the wrong drive. Have another go but first check which drive letter has been assigned to your boot drive.

Exactly, I executed the commands in C:, and from looking at the DISKPART list, again, I have 3 partitions listed, one with label HHDRECOVERY, one System, and the third is the "big" one which is listed as RAW, C: is assigned to HDDRECOVERY, so I guess whatever I did was done there; System is hidden, and I find a Boot directory in it, but not a BCD file in the Boot directory. Since the laptop is a Toshiba Satellite, maybe it is something Toshiba specific. Since some of the directories in System are apparently hidden as well, I am not sure where to look for it, so as to rename/rebuild it.

At the same time, chkdsk from command prompt finds the RAW partition as NTFS, I am not sure what is different about how DISKPART and chkdsk "look" at partitions, but if it does give some helpful information, this is it.

Again, is it safe to post the chkdsk output here?

FreeBooter, I have followed the instructions in the first video linked above, but, again, I am not sure where to look for the BCD.

As for TestDisk, I can't even tell if this is a partition recovery or file system repair problem, and I might resort to it eventually, but before I use third-party software, I suppose I want to exhaust all "native" possibilities.

Thus, any suggestions what to do next?

Thanks.

The BCD System Store, is created when you install Vista or Windows 7, is located at C:\BOOT\BCD

Ok, but - here C: refers to, I take it, the partition where the OS itself is installed?

Use Diskpart command to find the drive letter of Windows 10 installed partition and use Dir C:\BOOT\BCD command to see if BCD file located at Windows 10 installed partition.