How To Fix Surface Boot Configuration Data File Missing Error 0xc000000d

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One of my colleagues brought in his Surface the other day asking if I can help him fix this issue for him. The Surface had this Recovery message showing up on the screen that prevented him from booting into Windows.

Recovery
Your PC/Device needs to be repaired
The Boot Configuration Data file is missing some required information
File:\BCD
Error code: 0xc000000d
You'll need to use recovery tools. If you don't have any installation media (like a disc or USB device), contact your PC administrator or PC/Device manufacturer

Press the Windows key for UEFI Firmware Settings

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Pressing Windows key didn’t get me anywhere but the keyboard was still responding because I was able to press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart the tablet.

Here are the steps I took to get this issue fixed.

Retrieve your BitLocker Recovery Key

First thing first, find out your BitLocker Recovery Key before looking into the solution to fix this issue. Your Surface tablet is most likely encrypted with BitLocker. Without the recovery key, there is just no way to get into the system to do any recovery. You can simply skip all the steps below and start resetting your device from scratch to factory mode.

If you don’t have the recovery key handy, follow this Microsoft BitLocker Recovery FAQ page to see if it helps.

Create a Recovery Drive

If the Surface is running Windows 10, you can create a recovery drive from another Windows 10 computer. Plug in a USB flash drive into the computer, follow the Create Recovery Drive wizard to create Windows 10 recovery drive. Searching “Create a Recovery Drive” from Start menu will help you find the tool you need.

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Change Surface Firmware to allow boot from USB drive

You can follow this Microsoft How-To to set the Surface to boot from USB drive but here is a simplified version of it.

  1. Shutdown the Surface completely (press and hold the power button long enough to make sure it’s powered off)
  2. Press and hold the Volume-Up button, and then press and release the Power button.
  3. Continue holding the Volume-Up button until you see the Surface UEFI menu.
  4. For Surface Pro 3 and Surface 3, select Configure Alternative System Boot Order, and select USB > SSD.
  5. Disable the Secure Boot Control.
  6. Exit

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Boot from USB

Restart Surface while pressing and holding the Volume-Down button, and release when the Surface logo disappears.

Go to Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Command Prompt.

You can definitely try other options such as System Restore, Startup Repair. But since none of them worked for me, I had to open Command Prompt window.

The command lines came to rescue

Running the following command lines in order:

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

Exit Command Prompt window, restart the Surface. If everything goes well as planned, your Surface will be in working order shortly.

Hopefully, it helps.

9 COMMENTS

  1. This was excellent!!!
    I took my SurfacePro 1 to a computer repair shop and they could not figure out nothing…I don’t think they know how to fix SurfacePro computers. They suggested I get an iPad right away without even discussing other options.
    What book should I get to really understand how to repair SurfacePro tablets?

    • Glad it helped. Surface table is such a great product. I’ve worked on almost 20 of them and only encountered this issue once. In fact, this same issue could happen on other Windows 10 computers as well. Other than the steps to get the encryption key, and boot to USB on Surface, the last portion of the fix can be applied to other devices as well.

  2. Recovery
    Your PC/Device needs to be repaired
    The Boot Configuration Data file is missing some required information
    File:BCD
    Error code: 0xc000000d
    You’ll need to use recovery tools. If you don’t have any installation media (like a disc or USB device), contact your PC administrator or PC/Device manufacturer
    Press the esc for UEFI Firmware Settings. Fujitsu life book 2004

    Please help me fix

  3. Excellent – mille grazie!!!
    My Surface is now recovered and without lost of any flies on the computer (that I had no back-up for but have NOW!!!).
    I did not have another Windows 10 computer but I found under https://www.microsoft.com/surface/sv-se/support/warranty-service-and-recovery/downloadablerecoveryimage where I could download a recovery image.
    The page is in Swedish but I guess there must be a similar in English on microsoft.com
    I had not used BIT-Locker yet so that was not a problem.

  4. Thanks it worked perfectly for my SP4.

    I had same problem with blue screen (bcd file missing error).
    I followed the given instruction.

    1. Took the BitLocker key from http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=237614
    3. Got the recovery usb created from other win10 pc. Took 2 hrs with “backup system file….” option checked in.
    2. With recovery usb inserted from the shut down state accessed the troubleshoot menu by pressing volume down key and pressing power key together.
    3. Used command prompt option to run the given script in order.
    i. bootrec /fixmbr
    ii. bootrec /fixboot
    iii. bootrec /scanos
    iv. bootrec /rebuildbcd

    All except (ii) ran successfully.
    (Before using command prompt wasted some time over usb option as I thought the recovery usb is to be used. Still not sure it was of any use or not. However it was inserted while running script)
    4. Used volume up and power key pressing method to access UEFI menu. Disabled secure boot from security tab.
    5. On reboot BitLocker key was demanded. Entered same. It was successful.
    6. From UEFI menu again enabled secure boot.
    7. Rebooted Surface and every thing was normal.

    Thanks for the trick.

  5. Trying to type in the command prompts in the recovery just gives me “The request failed due to a fatal device hardware error”

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