From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

Some recent update has crashed one of my Windows 11 systems. I got it
fully updated to 30.01.26. Firstly Explorer stopped working; and then
the whole system crashed and wouldn't load. I couldn't even carry out a
Repair with a Win11 disc.
I rescued the thing with a Macrium Reflect disc, but the problem was
there on my latest backup. And so I had to restore to an earlier time,
wherein I've paused updates for 5 weeks.

It's working fine now, but I'd rather have updates working and be up to
date.
Could it have been 242H?

What would you experts do in this situation?

Ed


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From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

On Mon, 2/2/2026 1:30 PM, Ed Cryer wrote:

Some recent update has crashed one of my Windows 11 systems. I got it fully updated to 30.01.26. Firstly Explorer stopped working; and then the whole system crashed and wouldn't load. I couldn't even carry out a Repair with a Win11 disc.
I rescued the thing with a Macrium Reflect disc, but the problem was there on my latest backup. And so I had to restore to an earlier time, wherein I've paused updates for 5 weeks.

It's working fine now, but I'd rather have updates working and be up to date. Could it have been 242H?

What would you experts do in this situation?

Ed

Normally, one of the stop codes is "Inaccessible Boot Volume".

This one reports "Could not mount Boot Volume" which is a different
error, and there is no Stop Code number on the screen, making
further research rather difficult.

Most of the feedback so far on the web, is whining and not useful
responses for users such as yourself.

The current response from Microsoft, indicates that the December update
is what set up the failure chain, and the January update is simply
harvesting whatever time bomb December managed to inject.

*******

I have been known to do a side-by-side install on computers.

+-----+-----------+-----------------+----------------+
| MBR | ESP FAT32 | Win11 24H2 | Win11 24H2 |
+-----+-----------+-----------------+----------------+

Do that installation with the network cable disconnected, punch the
button to delay updates as you see fit.

There's no guarantee this will work, but it does leave
the install on the left, frozen. Whether any materials
in the ESP (system partition, what the OS uses to boot)
are sane, who can say, and the side-by-side install
may choose to not edit the ESP at all. You may still
need to boot from the DVD and use the troubleshooting
command prompt, while you rebuild the BCD file.

But do I have some fancy step-by-step procedure for this particular mess ?
Not really. You could say "not expert enough" or something.
But, I can tell you, that I WOULD have something to turn
this back into a computer, quicker than you can blink. I can
reach across the room, there are at least half a dozen SSDs
that will boot this computer right now. I can pour a coffee
and go back to web surfing, just like that. That's not bragging.
That's a WARNING TO MICROSOFT HOW QUICK THE TRANSITION IS!!!
I can be a Windows Free Shop in 3...2...1... Done.

Paul

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

Paul wrote:

On Mon, 2/2/2026 1:30 PM, Ed Cryer wrote:

Some recent update has crashed one of my Windows 11 systems. I got it fully updated to 30.01.26. Firstly Explorer stopped working; and then the whole system crashed and wouldn't load. I couldn't even carry out a Repair with a Win11 disc.
I rescued the thing with a Macrium Reflect disc, but the problem was there on my latest backup. And so I had to restore to an earlier time, wherein I've paused updates for 5 weeks.

It's working fine now, but I'd rather have updates working and be up to date.
Could it have been 242H?

What would you experts do in this situation?

Ed

Normally, one of the stop codes is "Inaccessible Boot Volume".

This one reports "Could not mount Boot Volume" which is a different
error, and there is no Stop Code number on the screen, making
further research rather difficult.

Most of the feedback so far on the web, is whining and not useful
responses for users such as yourself.

The current response from Microsoft, indicates that the December update
is what set up the failure chain, and the January update is simply
harvesting whatever time bomb December managed to inject.

*******

I have been known to do a side-by-side install on computers.

+-----+-----------+-----------------+----------------+
| MBR | ESP FAT32 | Win11 24H2 | Win11 24H2 |
+-----+-----------+-----------------+----------------+

Do that installation with the network cable disconnected, punch the
button to delay updates as you see fit.

There's no guarantee this will work, but it does leave
the install on the left, frozen. Whether any materials
in the ESP (system partition, what the OS uses to boot)
are sane, who can say, and the side-by-side install
may choose to not edit the ESP at all. You may still
need to boot from the DVD and use the troubleshooting
command prompt, while you rebuild the BCD file.

But do I have some fancy step-by-step procedure for this particular mess ? Not really. You could say "not expert enough" or something.
But, I can tell you, that I WOULD have something to turn
this back into a computer, quicker than you can blink. I can
reach across the room, there are at least half a dozen SSDs
that will boot this computer right now. I can pour a coffee
and go back to web surfing, just like that. That's not bragging.
That's a WARNING TO MICROSOFT HOW QUICK THE TRANSITION IS!!!
I can be a Windows Free Shop in 3...2...1... Done.

Paul

This is the screen I got;
https://i.sstatic.net/b5T4o.jpg
If people are whining about being put in a similar position, then I
sympathise with them. Neither F1 nor F8 worked.

Has your web feedback indicated that MS are going to repair the error
soon? I don't mind waiting a while until they do so.

The computer involved is a little Geekom mini. And now that it's running
again it passes all the usual tests; DISM, sfc and a full 5-item checkdisk.

Ed



--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

Ed Cryer wrote:

Paul wrote:

On Mon, 2/2/2026 1:30 PM, Ed Cryer wrote:

Some recent update has crashed one of my Windows 11 systems. I got it
fully updated to 30.01.26. Firstly Explorer stopped working; and then
the whole system crashed and wouldn't load. I couldn't even carry out
a Repair with a Win11 disc.
I rescued the thing with a Macrium Reflect disc, but the problem was
there on my latest backup. And so I had to restore to an earlier
time, wherein I've paused updates for 5 weeks.

It's working fine now, but I'd rather have updates working and be up
to date.
Could it have been 242H?

What would you experts do in this situation?

Ed

Normally, one of the stop codes is "Inaccessible Boot Volume".

This one reports "Could not mount Boot Volume" which is a different
error, and there is no Stop Code number on the screen, making
further research rather difficult.

Most of the feedback so far on the web, is whining and not useful
responses for users such as yourself.

The current response from Microsoft, indicates that the December update
is what set up the failure chain, and the January update is simply
harvesting whatever time bomb December managed to inject.

*******

I have been known to do a side-by-side install on computers.

     +-----+-----------+-----------------+----------------+
     | MBR | ESP FAT32 |  Win11 24H2     |  Win11 24H2    |
     +-----+-----------+-----------------+----------------+

Do that installation with the network cable disconnected, punch the
button to delay updates as you see fit.

There's no guarantee this will work, but it does leave
the install on the left, frozen. Whether any materials
in the ESP (system partition, what the OS uses to boot)
are sane, who can say, and the side-by-side install
may choose to not edit the ESP at all. You may still
need to boot from the DVD and use the troubleshooting
command prompt, while you rebuild the BCD file.

But do I have some fancy step-by-step procedure for this particular
mess ?
Not really. You could say "not expert enough" or something.
But, I can tell you, that I WOULD have something to turn
this back into a computer, quicker than you can blink. I can
reach across the room, there are at least half a dozen SSDs
that will boot this computer right now. I can pour a coffee
and go back to web surfing, just like that. That's not bragging.
That's a WARNING TO MICROSOFT HOW QUICK THE TRANSITION IS!!!
I can be a Windows Free Shop in 3...2...1... Done.

    Paul

This is the screen I got;
https://i.sstatic.net/b5T4o.jpg
If people are whining about being put in a similar position, then I sympathise with them. Neither F1 nor F8 worked.

Has your web feedback indicated that MS are going to repair the error
soon? I don't mind waiting a while until they do so.

The computer involved is a little Geekom mini. And now that it's running again it passes all the usual tests; DISM, sfc and a full 5-item checkdisk.

Ed

Copilot tells me that the likely culprit is KB5074109; and that MS has
ongoing problems and is investigating. A fix has not yet been released.
In the meantime he (it or she or they (How the dickens does one address
an AI bot?)) recommends the solution I've applied; restore and pause
updates.
Alternatively, you can update and then uninstall that KB, and then pause updates.

Ed


--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

On Tue, 2/3/2026 4:10 AM, Ed Cryer wrote:

This is the screen I got;
https://i.sstatic.net/b5T4o.jpg
If people are whining about being put in a similar position, then I sympathise with them. Neither F1 nor F8 worked.

Has your web feedback indicated that MS are going to repair the error soon? I don't mind waiting a while until they do so.

The computer involved is a little Geekom mini. And now that it's running again it passes all the usual tests; DISM, sfc and a full 5-item checkdisk.

Ed

That seems to be a slightly different failure than the
presumed "gift this month" version.

Search terms: windows won't start c000000f

"The error code 0xc000000f you are experiencing is usually related to the
boot configuration data (BCD) file in Windows. It can occur due to a corrupted file,
disk write error, power failure, or boot sector virus."

If you have a Macrium Rescue CD, it has the Boot Repair which you could try out.
But because this is a service failure, the Boot Repair function in Macrium
does not have the capability to add files to the ESP partition. It generally just issues the usual four commands.

*******

Boot the installer DVD for Windows (relatively close to the same version
the OS is using), and select Troubleshooting, then Command Prompt. Careless me, I used my 24H2 DVD to fix my 25H2 installation :-)

+------+-------------+---------------+---------------------------------------------+
| MBR | ESP (FAT32) | C: Windows 11 | System Reserved (winre.wim emergency boot) |
+------+-------------+---------------+---------------------------------------------+
0x07 0x27 (Hidden NTFS)

Notice how, the ESP (System) partition, doesn't have a letter. I might use W: for
this, but there's a little ceremony to do it.

W:
dir
dir /ah # show hidden items, spot \EFI\Microsoft folder and so on

If you're booting a Windows installer DVD and using the Command Prompt there, then the sequence goes like this.

Command Prompt (it is Administrator when you boot the Windows DVD plus Troubleshooting)

diskpart
list disk
select disk 0 # Assumes disk 0 happens to be our broken disk
list partition
select partition 1 # This is the System Partition, we hope.
assign letter=W # Assign a letter to the ESP (change "assign" to "remove" later, to remove that letter)
exit # Exit diskpart

W: # Now that W: exists, we can have a sniff around.
dir
dir /ah # show hidden items, spot \EFI\Microsoft folder and so on

*******

OK, so I just trashed the ESP on SSD #6, a Win11 24H2.

The 24H2 DVD is in the drive, and she's booting up.

OK, so I do the above diskpart recipe, and made Partition 1 (ESP) into W: .
I check and it seems empty (even dir /ah is clear).
(The "bootmgr" file may have been firmware and could not be touched.)
If you wanted, you could go to W:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\ and do

ren W:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD W:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD.old

just to ensure it is out of the way when you make a new one.

Next, I check that C: is really C: right now.

C:
dir
dir /ah # Should see a pagefile.sys , at the very least

Since W: is the ESP system partition, and C: is the Windows boot partition (the things
labeled in Disk Management as being important, we're ready to repair and repopulate
all the files in W: . Let's see what happens :-)

bcdboot C:\Windows /s W: # This should re-fill W: and put a BCD boot menu file and so on

Now, we go back to letter W: and look for
signs of life, like W:\EFI , W:\EFI\Microsoft, W:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD file (24KB or so), and so on.

It's all back. Boy, am I glad I packed an extra pair of shorts.

Since I'm on letter C: now, I can use diskpart, and use the

remove letter=W # For the partition 1, selected as before.

While it isn't necessary to remove W: like that, I do it anyway.
It's not persistent when doing it this way, as the mountvol is
not receptive to the information at the moment.

*******

I have this command in my Notes file as well.

bcdboot /bcdclean full

That's for when C: is booted again, and I am interested in removing any
other Windows multiboot entries. We don't need this right now, because
we scraped it down past the barnacles. (I deleted my BCD for this experiment.)

We will be interested in reagentc when booted. I guess I should reboot
my pig and see if it works. (OMG, it's actually booting...)

reagentc /info # Probably disabled
reagentc /enable # Odds not good, but you never know, it might work

Oh, well, "Operation Failed: 2" but it's not the end of the world.
Work for another day. (Will require a PBR Push Button Reset, using the winre.wim on the 24H2 DVD and so on. I'm sick of doing these.)

Anyway, not a major trauma. But between you and me, there is always
the chance that additional issue are present on your disk, and this
is just the Google presumption of what it needs.

Paul








--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

On Tue, 2/3/2026 6:52 AM, Ed Cryer wrote:

Ed Cryer wrote:

Paul wrote:

On Mon, 2/2/2026 1:30 PM, Ed Cryer wrote:

Some recent update has crashed one of my Windows 11 systems. I got it fully updated to 30.01.26. Firstly Explorer stopped working; and then the whole system crashed and wouldn't load. I couldn't even carry out a Repair with a Win11 disc.
I rescued the thing with a Macrium Reflect disc, but the problem was there on my latest backup. And so I had to restore to an earlier time, wherein I've paused updates for 5 weeks.

It's working fine now, but I'd rather have updates working and be up to date.
Could it have been 242H?

What would you experts do in this situation?

Ed

Normally, one of the stop codes is "Inaccessible Boot Volume".

This one reports "Could not mount Boot Volume" which is a different
error, and there is no Stop Code number on the screen, making
further research rather difficult.

Most of the feedback so far on the web, is whining and not useful
responses for users such as yourself.

The current response from Microsoft, indicates that the December update
is what set up the failure chain, and the January update is simply
harvesting whatever time bomb December managed to inject.

*******

I have been known to do a side-by-side install on computers.

     +-----+-----------+-----------------+----------------+
     | MBR | ESP FAT32 |  Win11 24H2     |  Win11 24H2    | >>>      +-----+-----------+-----------------+----------------+

Do that installation with the network cable disconnected, punch the
button to delay updates as you see fit.

There's no guarantee this will work, but it does leave
the install on the left, frozen. Whether any materials
in the ESP (system partition, what the OS uses to boot)
are sane, who can say, and the side-by-side install
may choose to not edit the ESP at all. You may still
need to boot from the DVD and use the troubleshooting
command prompt, while you rebuild the BCD file.

But do I have some fancy step-by-step procedure for this particular mess ? >>> Not really. You could say "not expert enough" or something.
But, I can tell you, that I WOULD have something to turn
this back into a computer, quicker than you can blink. I can
reach across the room, there are at least half a dozen SSDs
that will boot this computer right now. I can pour a coffee
and go back to web surfing, just like that. That's not bragging.
That's a WARNING TO MICROSOFT HOW QUICK THE TRANSITION IS!!!
I can be a Windows Free Shop in 3...2...1... Done.

    Paul

This is the screen I got;
https://i.sstatic.net/b5T4o.jpg
If people are whining about being put in a similar position, then I sympathise with them. Neither F1 nor F8 worked.

Has your web feedback indicated that MS are going to repair the error soon? I don't mind waiting a while until they do so.

The computer involved is a little Geekom mini. And now that it's running again it passes all the usual tests; DISM, sfc and a full 5-item checkdisk.

Ed

Copilot tells me that the likely culprit is KB5074109; and that MS has ongoing problems and is investigating. A fix has not yet been released.
In the meantime he (it or she or they (How the dickens does one address an AI bot?)) recommends the solution I've applied; restore and pause updates.
Alternatively, you can update and then uninstall that KB, and then pause updates.

Ed

You have to be careful with the LLM-AI (large language model - not really artificial intelligence).

When you phrase a question, you have to give it a minimum of information.

Now that I've written a sample solution in the other post,
let's ask the AI for its opinion.

"My Win11 Home computer will not boot and shows error c000000f as the reason.
What do you recommend as a method to fix this ?
"

Part of the CoPilot answer is, to use the Command Prompt from the installer DVD in the Troubleshooting section, and issue

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

In my case, I erased the BCD file that those commands would "repair"
and did this instead. I wanted a fresh clean BCD made from scratch.
A scratch cake.

bcdboot C:\Windows /s W: # There is a procedure to assign letter W: to the ESP partition...
# This can also refill the ESP partition with files! Technically,
# this command adds partition C: as an OS tile in the boot menu.
# But we're pretending this is a brand new OS, with no files at all.

We're focused on the same sort of root cause, that the BCD
boot menu file (a registry-type file so it is binary), is
the cause of the problem. This is not the same as the "cannot mount something" error others are seeing. Yours is not the "January 2026 problem".

If you feed the AI too much information, instead of correcting you,
it sometimes just melds your text right into the answer. That is why
we try not to give it too much text to be doing that.

The hard part, when crafting questions, is giving enough "hints" to
constrain the question, without giving so much text it just cheats
and feeds your text right back at you. That's bad.

If I copied "War and Peace" into the question window, it would write
a condensed version of "War and Peace" into the answer section :-)
But War and Peace would be too many input tokens, so the process
would bomb out on a timeout. There are limits to how long your question
can be. Including feeding it program source and asking for comments.
If you give it the *URL* of a github source file, it can and will read that.

The AI also suggested running CHKDSK on the partitions, in case
there is a problem there. You could do that first if you want.

chkdsk /f C:

While occasionally a PC dismounts a volume while a file is open
and something gets damaged, that doesn't normally happen. The journaled
file systems (C: is journaled) can recover from dirty shutdowns.

I did not include a CHKDSK step in my answer in the other post,
because there is no particular reason to assume it has damaged.
Neither would I tell you to run DISM and SFC, because the problem
context does not go near those areas.

To train the AI, a tremendous amount of energy goes into that.
When I asked my question above, it was two sentences. During
training, the machine in effect eats 420TB of files -- 21 twenty
terabyte disk drives of stuff. That's what a standard training set
would include. And they could throw in a few current-affairs disk
drives in, to bring the AI up-to-date chronologically. Otherwise,
it might make dumb answers about the cartoon characters in our
lives.

The AI makes good answers, if they reside in the training set.
If the AI were to meet ET the Extraterrestrial, it would not know
what to do because it is "not good at thinking outside the box".
To think outside the box, they use simulated reasoning for that.
Which hardly works. The machine can be made to slog for *hours*
when asked to think outside the box.

If the machine thinks about a question for too many hours,
it eventually forgets what the question was! That's how you
know the machine is at its limits. This is called "coherence"
(or a lack of "coherence").

Paul


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