RPLFILES (0x00000A35) share missing — stop the service first, then recreate it

You're staring at Event ID 7023 or a service popup saying the RPLFILES (0x00000A35) service failed because the RPLFILES share is absent. Annoying, but fixable in under a minute.

The fix

1. Open an admin Command Prompt on the server hosting the RPL share.
2. Run this command to drop the broken share (if it still partially exists):
   net share RPLFILES /delete
   If it says the share doesn't exist, that's fine — move to step 3.
3. Recreate the share pointing to the original RPL directory (the default is usually C:\RPLFILES):
   net share RPLFILES=C:\RPLFILES /grant:SYSTEM,FULL /grant:Administrators,FULL /grant:Everyone,READ
   Adjust the path if you moved the RPL directory to another drive.
4. Start the Remote Boot service:
   net start RPLFILES

That's it. The service should start cleanly. If it still fails, check that the directory actually exists — RPLFILES won't create it for you.

Why this works

The Remote Boot service, in its initialisation routine, calls the Windows networking API to open the RPLFILES share. If the share doesn't exist — whether it was deleted manually, got orphaned during a disk migration, or the server was restored from a backup that excluded share metadata — the service has no share to bind to. It logs error 0x00000A35 and exits.

The net share command recreates the share with the right name and path. But there's a gotcha: the share name must be RPLFILES. Not RplFiles, not RPL_Share — exactly that, in uppercase, though Windows share names are case-insensitive. The service looks up the share by its canonical name using the Server service, so any mismatch means failure.

Less common variations

Share exists but service still fails

Sometimes you'll see the share in Computer Management, but the service still won't start. What's actually happening here is the share's security descriptor has been corrupted. The service can find the share but fails when it tries to bind to it. The fix is still the same: delete and recreate. Don't bother editing the share permissions — they'll still reference the old, broken descriptor. Nuke it and start fresh.

Directory moved or renamed

If you moved the RPL directory to a different path (say D:\RemoteBoot\RPLFILES), you need to include the full path in the net share command. The service doesn't care where the files live — it only cares that the share name is RPLFILES and that the share's root directory exists. If the old directory is gone, the service can't start even if the share points to it. So recreate the share pointing to the new location.

Permissions bite you on newer Windows versions

On Windows Server 2008 and later, the Remote Boot service runs under the LocalSystem account. Even though LocalSystem is part of the Administrators group on the local machine, the share permissions you set matter. If you give Everyone only Read, LocalSystem will be able to read the share but might fail if the service tries to write logs or lock files. Give SYSTEM (which is the same as LocalSystem in this context) Full Control. The command I showed above does exactly that.

Prevention

• Never delete the RPLFILES share manually. If you need to move the directory, use the Services console to stop the RPLFILES service first, then delete and recreate the share. The service caches the share handle — deleting the share while the service is running can corrupt that handle.
• Back up the share metadata. When you back up the server, include the registry keys under HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\RPLFILES and HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Shares. The latter contains the share definitions. If you restore only the file system, the shares disappear.
• Monitor Event ID 7023. Set up a scheduled task or a simple script that checks the Application log for this error and recreates the share automatically. I've seen a script run every 5 minutes that checks net share | findstr RPLFILES and recreates it if missing. Crude, but effective in environments where share deletion happens during automated disk cleanup.

That's it. No registry hacks, no reinstalling the service — just a clean share recreation. The error 0x00000A35 is almost always about a missing or broken share, and the fix is as straightforward as it gets.