How do I fix attrib c boot BCD path not found?

Always have A Windows installation/repair CD/DVD/USB ready before attempting any repairs of boot related files !

Always make a backup of BCD !

(use Visual BCD Editor or Dual-boot Repair tool to export/backup BCD or use "bcdedit /export backup-file-name" on elevated command prompt)

See how to create or obtain a Windows 7/8/10 installation/repair CD/DVD/USB.

In Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10 the System Boot Configuration Data (BCD) is stored in a file in folder "\Boot".

The full path to this file is "[active partition]\Boot\BCD".

(On UEFI/GPT the full path is "[EFI system partition]\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD")

Windows NT6 (Vista, Windows 7/8/10) BIOS/MBR boot process depends on the presence of an active partition on hard disk.

(On UEFI/GPT boot process depends on the presence of EFI System Partition(ESP) on hard disk)

BIOS/MBR boot process from hard disk goes like this:

1. BIOS firmware initialization and self test (Power On Self Test - POST)
2. load and execution of MBR (Master Boot Record) on first disk
3. load and execution of partition boot record (PBR) on active partition
4. load and execution of boot manager ("\bootmgr") from active partition and then display of boot menu (skipped if only one boot entry)
5. load and execution of Windows NT6 loader - file "winload.exe" from \Windows\System32 folder
6. load and execution of kernel and drivers

The active partition (also a primary partition) can be mapped to a drive letter like c:, d: or be the unmapped "System Reserved" partition. You can use Disk Management or diskpart.exe to view and set the active partition.

If BCD resides on an unmapped active partition the full path is "\Device\HarddiskVolumeN\Boot\BCD" where N is a number starting from 1. If active partition is mapped to c: drive then the full path to system BCD is "c:\Boot\BCD".

UEFI/GPT boot process from hard disk goes like this:

1. UEFI firmware initialization
2. load and execution of first boot candidate (first entry in NVRAM boot order - usually Windows firmware boot manager(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi))
   - no master(MBR) and partition boot record(PBR) code used!
3. display of Windows boot menu (skipped if only one boot entry)
   (it is not clear what's the purpose of Windows boot manager ("\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgr.efi") - should be investigated)
4. load and execution of Windows NT6 loader - file "winload.efi" from "\Windows\System32" folder
5. load and execution of kernel and drivers

And here a visualization of Windows UEFI boot process from an UEFI Plugfest - Windows boot environment by Murali Ravirala from Microsoft.

The almighty bcdboot command

The system BCD is a system protected file and can be accessed only with elevated administrative rights (for reading and for writing).

The tool supplied with Windows 10/8/7 to assist repair of BCD store is "bcdboot.exe".
bcdboot repairs also bootmgr and "\Boot" folder which contains also boot related language files and memtest.exe.

The simplest call to repair BCD is: (drive_letters in examples below should reflect concrete drive mapping on your system!)

bcdboot c:\windows

where "c:\windows" specifies the root of Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8/10.

On multi boot systems when you repair the system BCD always the root of the latest Windows OS (e.g. Windows 10) should be specified!

If no other parameter is given the tool has as target the active partition (or EFI system partition).

A target partition/drive can be specified as follows:

bcdboot c:\windows /s d:

where "d:" is the target drive to accept boot related files. "d:" should map to a primary and active partition (or map to a FAT/32 partition for UEFI firmware) to be bootable!

You can use also Visual BCD Editor or Dual-boot Repair tool to repair Windows BCD. Both tools give access to bcdboot utility using the same form:

Parameter "Windows Folder" specifies the root of Windows OS (Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8) used as source for boot related files.

Parameter "BCD Drive" specifies the target drive for BCD ("System" denotes the active partition or EFI system partition).

The bcdboot command assumes as default the English language. You can specify another language using parameter /l:

bcdboot c:\windows /s d: /l de-de

here German language for Germany is specified.

You should specify the language of the installed Windows version or else boot menu display problems could follow. Dual-boot Repair tool for Windows 10 and earlier has the "Automatic repair" option which tries to guess and set the correct language for Windows Boot manager in BCD.

Last but not least the /f parameter can be used for specifying type of boot: UEFI, BIOS or ALL(BIOS and UEFI)

bcdboot c:\windows /s d: /f UEFI /l de-de

here UEFI boot is specified.

You can specify the type of boot only when /s parameter is used.

To sum up:

bcdboot c:\windows /s d: /f UEFI /l de-de

Additional BCD repair steps

If there are problems/errors when executing bcdboot command (or when using Visual BCD Editor's or Dual-boot Repair's "Repair BCD" interface) then you have to remove following file:

• "\Boot\BCD" (on UEFI the file is "\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD")

There is no need to save/backup the file as it is seriously damaged if it cannot be repaired.

Start Windows repair CD/USB and go to command prompt.

C: drive is usually mapped to active partition. You can check if "\Boot" folder is present on c: drive with "dir" command.

What does path not found C :\ boot mean?

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