Fix BCD corrupt error Windows 10/11 (0xc000000f)

Quick answer for advanced users: Boot from Windows installation media, go to Repair your computer > Troubleshoot > Command Prompt, then run these three commands in order: bootrec /fixmbr, bootrec /fixboot, bootrec /rebuildbcd. Reboot.

But if you're not there yet, let's back up. The error 0xc000000f usually pops up after a Windows update failed, a power outage while the PC was booting, or a bad shutdown. The boot configuration data (BCD) store is a tiny file that tells Windows where to find the system files. When that file gets scrambled, you get a blue screen with the error code and a message saying "The boot configuration data for your PC is missing or contains errors."

I've seen this happen most often on laptops that died mid-update, or after someone accidentally deleted a partition. The good news: rebuilding the BCD store is straightforward if you've got the Windows installation media handy. Let's fix it.

What you need before you start

A Windows 10 or Windows 11 installation USB or DVD. If you don't have one, you can create it on another PC using the Media Creation Tool from Microsoft's website.
If your PC won't boot at all, you'll need to borrow a friend's computer to make the USB stick.
Your BIOS should be set to boot from USB first. Usually you press F12, F2, or Del during startup to change boot order.

Step 1: Boot from the installation media

Insert your Windows USB or DVD.
Power on your PC. Press the boot menu key (F12 on Dell, Esc on HP, F2 on Lenovo) repeatedly until you see the boot menu.
Select your USB drive or DVD from the list. You should see the Windows logo and a spinning circle after a few seconds.
When the "Windows Setup" screen appears, click Next.
At the bottom left corner, click Repair your computer. This is easy to miss — don't click Install now.
You'll see a blue screen with options. Click Troubleshoot.
Then click Advanced options.
Finally, click Command Prompt. A black window opens.

Step 2: Rebuild the BCD store

Now we're in the command prompt. Type each command exactly as shown, hitting Enter after each one. Wait for the "The operation completed successfully" message before moving to the next command.

bootrec /fixmbr

After pressing Enter, you should see The operation completed successfully. This fixes the master boot record, which is the first thing the PC reads when starting up.

bootrec /fixboot

After Enter, you'll get The operation completed successfully again. This fixes the boot sector on your system partition.

bootrec /rebuildbcd

This command scans for Windows installations. After you press Enter, you'll see something like Total identified Windows installations: 1 and a prompt asking Add installation to boot list? Yes/No/All. Type Y (or A if it shows more than one) and hit Enter. It should say The operation completed successfully.

Type exit and press Enter to close the command prompt. Click Continue (the button that says "Exit and continue to Windows") — but wait, we're not done yet. Restart your PC by clicking the power icon in the bottom right corner of the blue screen, then click Restart.

If the error still appears after reboot, don't panic. Move to the alternative fix below.

Alternative fix: Delete and rebuild BCD manually

Sometimes the bootrec /rebuildbcd command doesn't work because the old BCD file is still hanging around corrupted. Here's the manual way. Repeat steps to get back to the command prompt as before.

Type diskpart and press Enter. A new command prompt appears: DISKPART>
Type list disk and press Enter. You'll see a list of disks. Usually Disk 0 is your main hard drive.
Type select disk 0 and press Enter. It says Disk 0 is now the selected disk.
Type list partition and press Enter. Look for a partition with type System — it's usually around 100 MB (on MBR) or 500 MB (on GPT). The drive letter might be something like C: or D:. If you can't find one, your disk might be formatted differently.
Type select partition 1 (or the number of the System partition) and press Enter.
Type assign letter=S and press Enter. This gives the partition a letter so we can work with it.
Type exit to leave diskpart.

Now back at the regular command prompt, navigate to the system partition and delete the old BCD:

S:

This changes the directory to S: (or whatever letter you assigned).

cd EFI\Microsoft\Boot

If you get an error saying the path doesn't exist, try cd Boot instead. This happens on older systems.

attrib BCD -s -h -r

This removes the system, hidden, and read-only attributes from the BCD file so we can delete it.

ren BCD BCD.old

This renames the old BCD to BCD.old — you can delete it later if everything works.

bcdboot C:\Windows

This tells Windows to create a brand new BCD file using the Windows folder on your C: drive. If your Windows is on a different drive (like D:), use that letter instead. After pressing Enter, you should see Boot files successfully created.

Type exit, restart your PC. This time it should boot normally.

Prevention tip for next time

The main reason BCD gets corrupted is unexpected shutdowns — power loss, forced shutdowns during updates, or hard reboots. If you're running Windows 10 or 11, go to Control Panel > Power Options > Choose what the power buttons do, and uncheck "Turn on fast startup." That setting can make the boot process fragile. Also, avoid turning off your PC with the power button when you see "Working on updates." Give it time — waiting 20 minutes is better than fixing BCD for an hour.