Stuck at Windows Boot Manager -- status 0xc0000225

tgwilson

Member
Within hours of my admonition to my 10-year-old that he needed to *not* execute programs he downloaded as he browsed the web...my Windows 7 HP desktop is bordering on brick status.

I have the Neosmart system recovery disk, and I have the recovery disks from HP (I've already gotten desperate to the point of ordering those). I've possibly hosed up my partitions from various efforts with the Neosmart system recovery utilities. I'm not worried about the data at all. I'd actually like to start fresh and have the kid banished to one of our older machines.

The problem is that, when I try to boot using the HP System Recovery disks for my system, I get the "Windows loading..." bar/message, and then I get to a "Windows Boot Manager" screen that tells me Windows failed to start and that I should insert my Windows installation disk and restart the computer.

Furthermore, it has "Status: 0xc0000225" and "Info: an unexpected error has occurred."

From searching around quite a bit, I know this isn't an uncommon error. BUT, the wrinkle is that I can't get past this screen -- not with the HP system recovery disks I ordered, nor with a Windows 7 System Repair disk that I downloaded and burned. I can't get to a command prompt to try any of the boot manager (bootmgr.exe?) steps that are documented.

I've had computers crater in the past, but the nuclear option has always been pretty reliable: slap the manufacturer's disc in the drive and start from scratch. In this case, that's not working.

Any tips or ideas would be greatly appreciated!
 
That error would indicate that you're trying to boot from a displaced W7 partition.
Is the BIOS correctly set to boot CD before HDD ?
 
As best I can tell, I'm booting from the DVD

The BIOS is set with "1st Boot Device" set to "[CD-ROM Group]" and the "2nd Boot Device" set to "[HDD Group]," so I think I've got that set correctly.

Also, if I boot *without* anything in the DVD drive, I get a different behavior -- a message that says "Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media into proper Boot device and press a key."

That would indicate that I am trying to boot from the DVD, right?
 
Hmmm. Well, I used ImgBurn to burn the ISO. Since I also downloaded the Neo system recovery disc and used the same approach to burn it. That launches fine if I boot to it -- just none of the system recovery utilities make a difference on the functioning of the system when I put in the HP-provided DVD in and boot from that.

So, recapping:

* NeoSmart system recovery disc for Windows 7 at http://systemdiscs.com/?utm_source=neosmart&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=Win7_Recovery -- downloaded, burned to DVD, launches fine

* Straight-up Windows 7 system repair disc (that's a bit dicier -- I couldn't find another Windows 7 machine to make a set from, so I picked those up off of a torrent) -- downloaded, burned to DVD, provides the behavior described here of "Windows Starting Up"...and then throwing an error

* HP-provided recovery DVDs -- Windows Boot Manager issue described above. I didn't have to burn anything for those

Can I use the Neo recovery to reformat / repartition / something to start over from scratch? Or...do I have something going on that precludes that?

Thanks!
 
[UPDATE] Looks like unmatched System Recovery Disk

I went ahead and shelled out $60 to talk to HP support (first time in over 15 years of PC usage that I've had to resort to paid support -- a surprisingly emasculating experience). After an hour of running through all the steps I've run through, the support tech had me look on the bottom of my HP Pavilion to get the "bundle ID" for the machine, which he then had me compare to the bundle ID on the HP system recovery disks. They didn't match. This seems like an HP miss, as best I can tell, as the path on their site to order the disks in the first place was pretty straightforward and didn't indicate that there was any risk that I was shelling out $30 for a set of coasters. To their credit, they're FedExing me a new set of disks which, hopefully, will successfully function as boot disks and will run.


Hmmm. Well, I used ImgBurn to burn the ISO. Since I also downloaded the Neo system recovery disc and used the same approach to burn it. That launches fine if I boot to it -- just none of the system recovery utilities make a difference on the functioning of the system when I put in the HP-provided DVD in and boot from that.

So, recapping:

* NeoSmart system recovery disc for Windows 7 at http://systemdiscs.com/?utm_source=neosmart&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=Win7_Recovery -- downloaded, burned to DVD, launches fine

* Straight-up Windows 7 system repair disc (that's a bit dicier -- I couldn't find another Windows 7 machine to make a set from, so I picked those up off of a torrent) -- downloaded, burned to DVD, provides the behavior described here of "Windows Starting Up"...and then throwing an error

* HP-provided recovery DVDs -- Windows Boot Manager issue described above. I didn't have to burn anything for those

Can I use the Neo recovery to reformat / repartition / something to start over from scratch? Or...do I have something going on that precludes that?

Thanks!
 
Can I use the Neo recovery to reformat / repartition / something to start over from scratch? Or...do I have something going on that precludes that?

Thanks!

If you read the link at the top for the SystemDiscs site you will see this:

SystemDiscs.com hosts copies of various system repairs discs and recovery tools for Windows Vista and Windows 7 that contain automated and advanced repair tools and virus scanners. These discs do not contain setup files, and cannot be used to install Windows. Please note that we cannot guarantee these CDs will fix your PC. Need more info? Read more about what these discs can do.

You can't use this software to start over. You will have to use the HP Disks to do that.
 
I wasn't expecting the systemdiscs.com disk to actually reinstall Windows. I initially just wanted them to get me to a point where I could use the System Recovery disks from HP. I was hoping they would help me "START over from scratch" -- not be any sort of actual OS or software installation.
 
I can't get past this screen either. I actually used a linux utility to wipe my Windows drive completely. I then created a partition after running into this problem. I can't get past the screen that tells me to boot from the windows cd... FROM THE WINDOWS 8 INSTALLATION CD! I see the same problem if I throw a Windows 7 install disk in there. Please help. Like OP, I also have never had to get a computer repaired in 15 years.
 
Back
Top