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How to fix bootrec /fixboot and bootrec /rebuildbcd each displaying Element not found

Question

Saturday, November 30, 2019 4:03 AM

The computer is using UEFI / GPT.

The computer boots without any problems.

The computer failed Windows upgrade with setupdiag displaying:  System Boot Failure

Booting to windows RE on a windows 10 iso 1909 displayed:

bootrec /fixmbr..................> The operation completed successfully

bootrec /fixboot.................> Element not found

bootrec /scanos.................> Total identified windows installations: 1

bootrec /rebuildbcd..........> Total identified windows installations: 1
.............................................> Add installation to boot list?
.............................................> Y
.............................................> Element not found

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
                
  Volume 0     C                NTFS   Partition    697 GB  Healthy    Boot
  Volume 1                      RAW    Partition    450 MB  Healthy    Hidden
  Volume 2                      FAT32  Partition     99 MB  Healthy    System
  Volume 3                      RAW    Partition    880 MB  Healthy    Hidden
DISKPART> lis par

  Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset
        
  Partition 1    Recovery           450 MB  1024 KB
  Partition 2    System              99 MB   451 MB
  Partition 3    Reserved            16 MB   550 MB
  Partition 4    Primary            697 GB   566 MB
  Partition 5    Recovery           880 MB   697 GB

BootFailureDetected - 4FB446C2-D4EC-40B4-97E2-67EB19D1CFB7

  • This rule indicates a boot failure occurred during a specific phase of the update. The rule will indicate the failure code and phase for diagnostic purposes.

Error: SetupDiag reports fatal migration plug-in failure.
Setup Operation: Stop suspended services
Plug-in Error: 0x87AF000B
Plug-in Name and Action = Action,CMXEPlugin,C:\WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\ReplacementManifests,Microsoft-Windows-AppX-Deployment-Server\AppxUpgradeMigrationPlugin.dll,{AE27C1A6-25F2-45FD-9A28-081B81F29E0A},Apartment.

Matching Profile found: BootFailureDetected - 4FB446C2-D4EC-40B4-97E2-67EB19D1CFB7
System Information:
Machine Name = DESKTOP-BH9NBPV
Manufacturer = Hewlett-Packard
Model = HP ZBook 17
HostOSArchitecture = x64
FirmwareType = UEFI
BiosReleaseDate = 20180412000000.000000+000
BiosVendor = L70 Ver. 01.41
BiosVersion = L70 Ver. 01.41
HostOSVersion = 10.0.15063
HostOSBuildString = 15063.0.amd64fre.rs2_release.170317-1834
TargetOSBuildString = 10.0.18362.418 (19h4_release_svc_prod1.191005-1654)
HostOSLanguageId = 1033
HostOSEdition = Professional
RegisteredAV = Windows Defender,Windows Defender,Windows Defender,Windows Defender,Windows Defender,Windows Defender,Windows Defender,Windows Defender,
FilterDrivers = FsDepends,WdFilter,wcifs,luafv,Wof,FileInfo,
UpgradeStartTime = 11/24/2019 5:26:19 PM
FinalizeStartTime = 11/24/2019 5:49:32 PM
PostOOBESuccessTime = 11/24/2019 8:31:26 PM
TotalOfflineTime = 02:41:54
UpgradeEndTime = 11/24/2019 8:34:08 PM
UpgradeElapsedTime = 03:07:49
CV = ANcdoy6IBUmuASBX
ReportId = 

Error: Found system boot failure.
Last Phase: OOBEBoot,End.
BootLogErrorCount: 1
LastErrorEvent: 80
LastErrorCode: 1

.

.

The computer's Windows Recovery Environment (RE) is also unavailable.

The only Windows RE available is using a Windows 10 iso.

.

.

What do these mean?  (The computer boots normally but the commands display)

bootrec /fixboot displaying Element not found

bootrec /rebuildbcd displaying Element not found

.

.

.

How do you fix each:

bootrec /fixboot displaying Element not found

bootrec /rebuildbcd displaying Element not found

All replies (4)

Saturday, November 30, 2019 2:15 PM

when the recovery partition is empty (RAW), it is no wonder you can only boot into recovery mode with an external drive.

"The computer is using UEFI / GPT" but then you use "bootrec /fixmbr"?!
Either you use GPT or MBR, so what are you trying to achieve?
I wonder what else you tried? The recovery partition is certainly not cleaned by a Windows update.

you could try a repair install, or restore the last backup.


Saturday, November 30, 2019 5:08 PM

The computer boots normally.

See opening post (second sentence).

The computer was upgraded from 1703 to 1909.

It had black screens after logon with personal settings (not responding) and Windows explorer not responding.

Many troubleshooting steps were performed.

There used to be an automatic 30 day period for rollback and it is now 10 days.

A rollback was performed.

Setupdiag was ran and displayed:  System Boot Failure

So bootrec commands were ran.

Two of them displayed:  Element not found

What is the meaning of Element not found?

And how is it troubleshooted? 


Monday, December 2, 2019 8:28 AM

The error ‘Element not found’ is often caused by inactive system partition or if the EFI partition is not assigned a letter.

Try to: Boot system to WinRE via your installation media.

Set the System Partition to Active

Assigning Drive letter to EFI Partition

Source:

Fix: Boorec /Fixboot Element Not Found on Windows 10

https://appuals.com/fix-boorec-fixboot-element-not-found-on-windows-10/

Please Note: Since the website is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this information.

Regards

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Monday, December 9, 2019 2:49 AM

For this problem a second EFI partition was created to the right of C:

The first EFI partition on the left of C: was formatted.

The EFI partition was then created.

The second EFI partition was then removed.