If the path is Windows system32 winload.exe, then that's fine. Remember 'D' above is the name of the drive on which your vista is installed. If your vista in on 'F', use 'F', etc. 'default' in the blue text command above is the identifier for the os boot-up that you are trying to fix, in this case, vista.
So we have all seen and heard the many solutions to this issue, most which refer to the direct editing of the BCD and MBR. However, no one has pointed out exactly why this issue happens, which should be the first step in identifying a fix. The corruption of BCD occurs, In the most part, when the vista setup finishes and the sysprep command is run, generalising BCD, and in most cases i have found, users running either a dual boot, or seperate HD's, the generalisation of BCD fails.
It can also occur after installing the update KB936330, also known as Vista service pack 1. I am unsure why the issue can occur after installing the service pack, but I am certain that a generalised BCD was included in the package (Generalised being an OOBE prepared BCD.exe) and this may pertain to why some systems have this issue after, as additional HD's may not be installed until after the initial setup. We can be certain that no system with one HD is suffering from this issue, and that the problem extends from the shutdown sequence. There are two fixes, One pertaining to a single boot system, and one pertaining to a multi-boot system.
Usually the system will be afflicted with either, but in some cases, can be afflicted by both. THE PROCESS Once running a repair from the Vista disc, windows should boot fine once, but upon a shutdown the same error will be presented. However upon a 'Restart' the issue is not present and windows will boot fine.
It appears that upon the shutdown sequence, the BCD is corrupted and the information is erased. Most people would follow the onscreen prompts and insert the vista disc and proceed with a repair, when in 99% of cases, simply turning the pc off and back on again will be sufice and the system will then boot into windows fine. Try it, I can almost guareentee that it is the case.
If this is not the case, you may need to insert the installation disc and proceed to the repair OS screen, and select command prompt. Once in the command prompt; Run bootrec You will see a number of options; /repairmbr /repairbcd /osscan Repair BCD is the most essential command, as it locates missing OS's from BCD and links them, without modifying the other contents of BCD. Repair MBR is a dangerous command, and should only be used after running repairbcd as it will wipe the MBR and recreate it using the information from BCD. If the MBR is corrupted with false information from BCD, windows will be unable to repair this itself and a reinstall will be needed to correct it. Os Scan is a simple tool, used by repairbcd to scan for OS's not linked to either the MBR or the BCD. Run bootrec /repairbcd Answer Y once repairbcd has found the desired installation. You should recieve the message, 'All tasks completed successfully' Run bootrec /osscan If osscan returns an OS that is not linked, that is a vista OS, you will need to; Run bootrec /repairmbr Repairmbr is fully automated.
There is no need to explain it here. Once these steps have been completed, your 'generalised' BCD will no longer be 'generalised' and the system should be able to start without problem. If you are presented with the same error, simply turn the system off and back on again, The system should boot fine. I have notified microsoft of the fact that this only occurs upon issuing of the shutdown command and hopefully they should release a fix. WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS If the problem persists even after performing all of these steps and restarting does not fix the issue, the problem directly extends from the installation and the system should be reinstalled with a fresh install, and with the primary drive only.
After this, the service pack should be applied. Once this has been completed, additional drives should then be installed and configured. USE OF BCDEDIT In 90% of cases, this does not fix the issue. Only when pertaining to dual boot systems, will this correctely identify and fix the issue, because the 'Generalised' BCD is not the problem, it is the actual 'Unknown' entries in the BCD. If those are not present, then your issue is the 'Generalisation' of BCD and not the actual entries in BCD, and this WILL NOT WORK. That did not work 2. Confirmed a raid creation on the hardware level would format my C: and lose the os installed intel matrix storage console under vista and it 'failed to create volume' when I tried to mirror the C: (preserve data) to the D: (format loss of data).
This was supposed to be the intel solution to making a RAID1 in windows without doing a re-install of the os The intel chip set is set to ENHANCED / RAID MODE so its supposed to work in creating under windows but its not because of that error. Does anyone else know anything or have a clue about setting this up the best way?
![Winload.exe Winload.exe](/uploads/1/2/5/6/125627898/325625656.jpg)
REHV wrote: 1. That did not work 2.
Confirmed a raid creation on the hardware level would format my C: and lose the os installed intel matrix storage console under vista and it 'failed to create volume' when I tried to mirror the C: (preserve data) to the D: (format loss of data). This was supposed to be the intel solution to making a RAID1 in windows without doing a re-install of the os The intel chip set is set to ENHANCED / RAID MODE so its supposed to work in creating under windows but its not because of that error. Does anyone else know anything or have a clue about setting this up the best way? I have the same problem (RAID1 will only boot windows in sata mode), but winload.exe is visable on both the drives. Did you ever find a solution? This is very interesting.
I have a simple, one Hard disk PC, I only have the one O/S - Vista Ultimate. This error came out of the blue, windows just crashed after I got to the desktop two days ago. The desktop appeared on screen, I started up Firefox and Outlook 2009 and blam, blue screen of death. Then when I tried to reboot the system, I get the error described above. So I appear to be the except to the rule. I do not have a dual boot set up, only one Hard Disk and only one O/S installed.
I am grateful for the info above and I will give it a try and report back on how I get on. I installed a new Vista laptop, everything was great. Then I ran the updates and at some point it restarted and told me that Winload.exe was corrupt or missing. I tried bcdedit, repairing the system, whatever. Nothing worked.
Finally, I realized that the bcdedit path was pointing to windows system32 winload.exe and not windows system32 boot winload.exe as it should. Trying to modify this with bcdedit gave me error and didn't work.
So, as a last and desperate option I simply copied winload.exe from the boot folder to its parent folder ( windows system32 winload.exe), rebooted, and low and behold, Vista came back to life! So, all you need to do is simply copy windows system32 boot winload.exe to windows system32 winload.exe. Simple and easy solution. My guess is that some dude at Microsoft forgot to change the path:-) Hope this helps. I battled with the winload.exe missing error for weeks, trying to clone a 256GB SSD onto a new 500GB SSD. After trying several cloning software options, I eventually captulated and created a Windows 8.1 installation disk in a final attempt to try to repair the MBR.
Only when I ran the Windows installation disk did I eventually get an error message that a GPT formatted system was required. I reinstalled Windows without any problem once GPT formatting was selected.
It therefore seems that some of the new SSDs will not work in MBR format, even if they are much smaller than 2TB. As an experiment, I cloned the new disk back onto the old disk and it worked first time.