SOLVED Recovery Drive boot fails with missing Boot Configuration Data

[hweso]

When I try to boot from a recovery flash drive, it fails with: \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD error status: 0xc000000f and message: The Boot Configuration Data for your PC is missing or contains errors.

The recovery flash drive was created on a Lenovo ideapad originally with Windows 8, now upgraded to Windows 10, latest upgrades applied. Checked the box for copying system files. Target drive was a 16GB DataTraveler flash drive formatted as FAT32. Creation ran to completion with no errors. When booting normally, Windows 10 runs fine with no issues. I tried re-creating the recovery drive with the same results.

I created a repair disk and tried to use bootrec to fix the issue, but I suspect it did nothing or fixed the c: drive. I ran boot rec while in the root directory on the flash drive.

Appreciate any suggestions. Thanks.

 

[hweso]

Found the problem -- it's not with the flash drive, it's with the bios settings. The Lenovo ideapad bios had Boot settings of 'UEFI' which needed to be changed to 'Legacy' and 'Legacy First'.

 

[Trouble]

Glad to hear that you managed to resolve your issue.
Thanks for posting back and updating your thread with your solution.

 

[Saltgrass]

Found the problem -- it's not with the flash drive, it's with the bios settings. The Lenovo ideapad bios had Boot settings of 'UEFI' which needed to be changed to 'Legacy' and 'Legacy First'.

If the system came with Windows 8, it is more than likely a UEFI system. Changing the Bios to accommodate your Recovery Drive should not have been necessary.

Recovery Drives are different than Install media in that they look for a specific OS install. If yours had been looking for Windows 8 or 8.1 it may not work with a Windows 10 OS.

But the most important thing now is to make a new Recovery Drive using Windows 10 and since the process has been changed, make a new one whenever some big upgrade happens.