Repair Windows 8.1 UEFI booting messed up by Easus Partition Manager? Error Code: 0xc0000225

Question

Laptop Toshiba Satellite (Model will post but not super critical as the info posted below).

• Pre-Installed OS: Windows 8.1 Bing as C: Drive

• Default booting is/ was UEFI

• Wanted to create another partition to install a second OS as the C partition was huge.

• Tried using DiskMgmt.msc and it just would not help resize/ reduce existing C partition.

Installed Easus Partition Master Server Edition 9.x and applied the following actions:

• Resize C Partition
• Format Unallocated empty space
• It wanted to Reboot to complete actions.

Finally this is what I got and get now. I tried a few things outlined below.

• Error Message: This error code is “0xc0000225”:

Recovery

Your PC needs to be repaired.

An unexpected error has occurred.

Error code: 0xc0000225

You'll need to use the recovery tools on your installation media. If you don't have any installation media (like a disc or USB device), contact your system administrator or PC manufacturer.

Press Enter to try again
Press F8 for Startup Settings
Press Esc for UEFI Firmware Settings

If I press ENTER to try again, it gives me this:

Recovery

The application or operating system couldn't be loaded because a required file is missing or contains errors.

File:\windows\system32\winload.efi
Error code: 0xc0000225

You'll need to use the recovery tools on your installation media. If you don't have any installation media (like a disc or USB device), contact your system administrator or PC manufacturer.

Press Enter to try again
Press F8 for Startup Settings
Press Esc for UEFI Firmware Settings

Current Disk Status (as viewed by GParted and Paragon HDM 15 Premium):
I think there was an OEM OS Recovery/ Restore partition at the end of the HDD that may have been borked by Easus. Also, 1st partition was borked by Easus & Undeleted by Paragon HDM

• 450 MB - Unallocated - I wonder why? Did Easus wipe it out?

• 450 MB - System - Recovered by Paragon > Undelete Partitions

  • \$RECYCLE.BIN > ..\S-15-18 > desktop.ini
  • \BIN > ..\Logs ..\LOGS_PBR > PBR Boot, RicaDeployer, WinRE etc.
  • \boot > ..\en-us ..\fonts ..\resources ..files
  • \Recovery > ..\Logs ..\WindowsRE
  • \RicaTools > ..\BIN ..\Boot ..\efi ..\PLANFOLDER ..\SOURCES
  • \System Volume Information > tracking.log

---

• 250 MB - FAT32 - Boot - GPT System Partition
  • \EFI > ..\Boot ..\Microsoft ..\toshiba
  • \Temp > bcdinfo.txt, bootfailure.txt, disklayout.txt, Srt Trail.log, Srt Trail.txt
• 128 MB - NTFS - MSFTRES - Microsoft Reserved Partition
  • \System Volume Information > \ EfaData > SYMEFA.DB
• 309 GB - NTFS - TIxxxxx (Original Preinstalled Win 8.1 Bing)
• 155 GB - NTFS - W7SP1 (Created but not used as yet)

Thoughts & Actions:

• I think the reboot (and some actions) did not go well due to UEFI (Existing Install( vs BIOS booting (Maybe thats what this version of Easus was trying to do).

• I realized this may have been a mistake and I should've used the Bootable PE DVD version of a newer Paragon Partition Manager premium that I believe would be more UEFI aware as well as PE DVD boot would not undergo this "mixed" Reboot mishap.

• I booted from an Win 8.1 DVD and applying Startup Repair etc 3+ times (as suggested on EightForums and no dice.

Partition and Disk Updates:

• Although there was a Pre installed restore partition (maybe at the end of the disk) I don't think it works or can be invoked anymore. Will try and post more details on it.

• Was able to recover the "Unallocated" 450 MB partition, which I think was the WinRE partition

I'm quite familiar with EasyBCD, bcdboot.exe and use them, but this time I'm on a slight mental block on how to proceed.

Any thoughts on what I could do to get the original OS booting?

Answer 1

Use diskpart

A common is to use the diskpart utility (available on the Windows 8/8.1 recovery disc/USB) to make sure the UEFI partition has a letter assigned to it. If it doesn’t, you’ll assign it a letter.

The instructions you need to follow are:

1. Insert your original Windows 8 installation disc or Windows 8.1 installation USB
2. Boot from the disc or the USB
3. At the Install now screen, click Repair your computer or press R
4. Click Troubleshoot
5. Click Advanced options
6. Click Command Prompt
7. When Command Prompt has finished loading, type: diskpart
8. Press Enter
9. The diskpart utility should now be loaded: DISKPART>
10. Type: sel disk 0
11. Press Enter
12. Wait for the confirmation message: Disk 0 is now the selected disk.
13. Type: list vol
14. Press Enter
15. diskpart will now show the full list of volumes available on your PC
16. Find the UEFI volume from the list. This usually has “BOOT” mentioned on the Label column, “System” on the Info column. The Fs column might FAT32 specified. For our example, in the next steps, our UEFI partition will be on Volume 2.
17. Type: sel vol 2
18. Press Enter
19. Type: assign letter=G:
20. Press Enter

21. Wait for the confirmation message:
    DiskPart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point.

22. Type: exit

23. Press Enter

24. Type: cd /d G:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\

    Where G: is the drive letter you’ve assigned to your UEFI partition a few steps back.

    If the \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\ folder doesn’t exist (the error message will be “The system cannot find the path specified”), you can run the same command on alternative paths:

    cd /d G:\Boot\

    or

    cd /d G:\ESD\Windows\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\

    Remember to replace G: with the UEFI’s partition letter.

25. Type the bootrec command: bootrec /fixboot

26. Press Enter
27. For backup purposes, backup the BCD record of your computer like this: ren BCD BCD.bak

28. Recreate the BCD using the bcdboot command: Bcdboot C:\Windows /l en-us /s x: /f ALL

    Where C:\ is the letter of the drive where Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 is installed on.

    The /l en-us parameter is used for localization: US. You can use ln /en-gb for UK localization.

29. Press Enter

30. You can also run this command too: bootrec /rebuildbcd
31. Press Enter
32. Type exit in Command Prompt
33. Restart your computer
34. Your Windows 8/8.1 should now boot again

_source

Answer 2

First things first, you need to Launch repair computer from an install disc. Next you need to launch the command prompt

Run

booterec.exe /fixmbr

bootrec.exe /fixboot

and then you are going to want to run

bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd

These three commands should fix your problem.

Also, for next time you want to resize your partition's without much problems, download gparted. It downloads as an ISO and you use it to boot a linux live OS to use gparted. Its always wise to do disk manipulations like this while the drive is not in use as it reduces errors you might run into. Also I have used Diskparted before and it can make EFI partitions or is EFI aware.