The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Winload.exe problem.

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by Calvengeance, Dec 21, 2007.

  1. Calvengeance

    Calvengeance Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    64
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Booting up after having to shut down unexpectedly led to the following:

    Winload.exe failed to load.

    Status is 0xc000000f.

    Any way to fix this without my Vista DVD?

    I'm at a relative's house and the DVD's at my house.
     
  2. qhn

    qhn Notebook User

    Reputations:
    1,654
    Messages:
    5,955
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    205
    it is gonna be tough, any roads to fix it required the boot dvd or a way to access the boot.ini file - anyone in the neighbourhood has the dvd?

    cheers ...
     
  3. gerryf19

    gerryf19 I am the walrus

    Reputations:
    2,275
    Messages:
    3,990
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    105
    Depending on the issue, this MAY work

    download RC.iso from the following link:

    http://www.thecomputerparamedic.com/rc.iso

    You need to burn this image to a CD and boot your computer with it--this is different than burning a file to a CD. If you do not know how to burn an ISO image, then download the following program to another Windows XP machine, install it.

    make certain you download the proper installation for your version of windows. Open MY COMPUTER, choose HELP > ABOUT. Note the service pack and get the appropriate version of the iso burner power toy

    http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm

    After installation, reboot, then right click the RC.iso file you downloaded above and choose COPY IMAGE TO CD.

    Then reboot your broken PC with that CD in the CD-ROM drive.

    This will give you a recovery console to use to run

    Insert the cd into the non-functioning PC

    When boot begins, a windows setup will appear to start, but you will be taken to a recovery console.

    You will need to select your windows installation by pressing a number, most likely 1

    Windows will ask you for a password

    If you have XP home, press enter...there is no password

    If you have XP Pro, you need to enter the password you set when you installed your machine with XP Pro.

    After entering the password, you will find yourself at a command prompt that looks like this

    c:\windows

    type
    chkdsk /r
    <enter>

    follow the prompts, then when it is complete, remove the CD

    type

    EXIT

    <enter>

    the machine will reboot

    Did that fix it?
     
  4. nizzy1115

    nizzy1115 Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    2,557
    Messages:
    6,682
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    205
    happened to me yesterday (after attempting to install sp1 rc1). i repaired it with the vista disk, it worked and booted into windows. next reboot, it errored again, and i said screw it and reinstalled windows.
     
  5. kegobeer

    kegobeer 1 hr late but moving fast

    Reputations:
    836
    Messages:
    3,682
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    105
    @gerry: The OP has a Vista problem - will your XP solution work on a Vista machine?
     
  6. Calvengeance

    Calvengeance Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    64
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I'm going home tomorrow, so I'm just going to wait till then and use the recovery CD.
     
  7. gerryf19

    gerryf19 I am the walrus

    Reputations:
    2,275
    Messages:
    3,990
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    105
    Only if the problem is a corrupted file system.

    The cause of his problem is that Windows Vista kernal cannot load the windows (gui) loader

    It could be the file is missing, or it could be that the Vista equivalent of the boot.ini is damaged/missing, but it could also be that the file system is damaged and cannot find the file.

    While Vista was originally intended to have a new file system (winfs), they pulled the new file system and opted to remain with ntfs.

    The above process will repair any ntfs errors, which may allow the vista kernal to load winloader.

    So, yes, if the error is caused by a file system error, rather than a FILE error, it could bring the system back to life.
     
  8. Calvengeance

    Calvengeance Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    64
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I'd like to try that out but this computer doesn't play nice with creating CDs.
     
  9. gerryf19

    gerryf19 I am the walrus

    Reputations:
    2,275
    Messages:
    3,990
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    105
    you can do it with any windows xp cd---the above is just a small download