Fix UEFI Boot: Fix for Windows 10, Windows 11, 7, and 8

This article explains step-by-step solutions that you can use to fix your computer’s UEFI boot for these Windows versions: Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows 7, and Windows 8.

This how-to article is applicable for PCs with UEFI/EFI that have either Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows 7, or Windows 8 installed.

Contents

UEFI (EFI) is the updated version of BIOS, which is commonly found on older models of computers. Major PC manufacturers – Dell, HP, Acer, Asus and so on – no longer ship PCs with BIOS, but with UEFI/EFI instead.

Most computers with UEFI/EFI can provide legacy support for BIOS. In this kind of example, if you enable legacy support, you could install Windows 7, Windows Vista or Windows XP on a computer that has UEFI/EFI and not BIOS.

ThinkPad UEFI-Legacy Boot Priority

PCs with Windows 8 or newer usually have UEFI/EFI installed and not BIOS, but PCs with Windows 7 will use the UEFI/EFI set with Legacy mode active.

Fix UEFI Boot with Easy Recovery Essentials

Easy Recovery Essentials is our EFI and UEFI repair CD/DVD/USB for Windows that can be used to fix your computer.

Easy Recovery Essentials can correct errors in the UEFI/EFI firmware configuration.

Easy Recovery Essentials can fix many errors such as this automatically using its built-in Automated Repair option. EasyRE is currently available for Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, Windows 10, and Windows 11 and can be downloaded and created on any PC.

Download Easy Recovery Essentials. Make sure to note your Windows version (XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10, or Windows 11) before you download EasyRE. This guide can help you identify what version of Windows you have installed.
Burn the image. Follow these instructions on how to burn the bootable ISO image very carefully, as making a bootable CD can be tricky! Alternatively, these instructions explain how to create a bootable EasyRE recovery USB stick/drive.
Boot up your PC from the Easy Recovery Essentials CD or USB you created.
Once EasyRE is running, choose the “Automated Repair” option and click Continue.

Choose “Automated Repair” in Easy Recovery Essentials
After EasyRE scans your computer’s drives, identify and select the drive letter for your Windows installation from the list, and then click on the Automated Repair button to begin.

Choose the drive associated with the Windows installation you’re trying to repair.
Easy Recovery Essentials will start analyzing the selected drive for problems. EasyRE will test for and attempt to automatically correct errors with the disk, partition, bootsector, filesystem, bootloader, and registry. No intervention is required, as EasyRE’s repair is fully automated:

Easy Recovery Essentials searches for errors and makes corrections to the selected Windows installation.
Once the process is complete, EasyRE will report its findings. Click on the Restart button to reboot your PC and test the changes.
The “any UEFI boot error” error should now be fixed as your PC begins to load:

You can download Easy Recovery Essentials from here.

Fix UEFI Boot in Windows 7

The step-by-step instructions for fixing the UEFI/EFI boot on a Windows 7 system are very similar to those of Windows 8/8.1:

Use bootrec
Use diskpart
Use Easy Recovery Essentials

Windows 7 can’t be installed if your computer’s UEFI/EFI mode is set as active and not in Legacy mode. Legacy mode allows your computer to boot Windows 7.

If your computer model is new and has UEFI/EFI installed, but you have Windows 7 installed, it’s most likely that you’re running UEFI/EFI as Legacy.

Follow the instructions from prerequisites below before you start.

Prerequisites

Before you start using the bootrec or the diskpart command to fix the bootloader of your Windows 7 system, first you must determine that UEFI/EFI loads with the Legacy mode active.

Follow these steps:

Restart your computer
Press the necessary key to open UEFI/EFI. The key depends on your PC manufacturer and PC model.Most common keys are: F2, F8, F12, Del. Esc is also an option.
Once inside the UEFI/EFI setup menu, search for Secure Boot.This is usually found at any of the following tabs: Boot, Authentication or Security.
Make sure Secure Boot is either Disabled or Off
Save these settings and exit the UEFI/EFI setup menu

Secure Boot [Enabled] on a Dell computer

Secure Boot [Enabled] on a HP computer

Fix #1: Use bootrec

To use the bootrec utility and fix the boot error of your Windows 7 system, follow these steps:

If you don’t have the Windows 7 installation CD/DVD to run Command Prompt, go to Fix UEFI Boot with Easy Recovery Essentials.

Insert the original Windows 7 installation CD/DVD and boot from it
Select a language, keyboard and click Next
Select the operating list (Windows 7) from the list and click Next
At the System Recovery Options screen, click Command Prompt

Windows 7 System Recovery Options Screen
Type:
```
bootrec /fixmbr
```
Press Enter
Type:
```
bootrec /fixboot
```
Press Enter
Type:
```
bootrec /ScanOs
```
Press Enter
Type:
```
bootrec /rebuildBcd
```
Press Enter
Remove the installation CD/DVD, type exit, press Enter and restart your computer

Windows 7 bootrec utility results screen

If the bootrec utility doesn’t fix the boot error, follow Fix #2: Use diskpart.

Fix #2: Use bootsect

Windows Setup CD/DVD Required!
Some of the solutions below require the use of the Microsoft Windows setup CD or DVD. If your PC did not come with a Windows installation disc or if you no longer have your Windows setup media, you can use Easy Recovery Essentials for Windows instead. EasyRE will automatically find and fix many problems, and can also be used to solve this problem with the directions below.

Follow these steps to run diskpart to repair the boot sector code of the Windows 7 installation:

Follow the steps from Fix #1: Use bootrec until you reach Command Prompt
Type:
```
bootsect /nt60 SYS /mbr
```
Press Enter
Remove the Windows 7 installation CD/DVD from the disc tray, type exit in Command Prompt and press Enter
Restart your computer

Windows 7 bootsect utility results screen

Fix UEFI Boot in Windows 8, 8.1 or 10

To fix the UEFI bootloader on a Windows 8, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 system, you can follow these options:

Use diskpart to check if the UEFI partition has a drive letter assigned (if not, it must be assigned)
Use Automatic Repair if diskpart doesn’t work
Use Easy Recovery Essentials to automatically fix the UEFI bootloader

Fix #1: Use diskpart

If the UEFI partition on your computer doesn’t have a drive letter assigned, this may be the primary cause of your computer’s boot error.

A common is to use the diskpart utility (available on the Windows 8/8.1/10 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:

Insert your original Windows 8/8.1/10 installation disc or installation USB
Boot from the disc or the USB
At the Install now screen, click Repair your computer or press R

Windows 8 Repair Your Computer Menu
Click Troubleshoot
Click Advanced options
Click Command Prompt
When Command Prompt has finished loading, type:
```
diskpart
```
Press Enter
The diskpart utility should now be loaded:
```
DISKPART>
```
Type:
```
sel disk 0
```
Press Enter
Wait for the confirmation message:
```
Disk 0 is now the selected disk.
```
Type:
```
list vol
```
Press Enter
diskpart will now show the full list of volumes available on your PC
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.
Type:
```
sel vol 2
```
Press Enter
Type:
```
assign letter=G:
```
Where G: should be a unique drive letter. It can’t be already used, e.g. C:\, D:\
Press Enter

Wait for the confirmation message:

DiskPart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point.

Type:
```
exit
```
Press Enter
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.
Type the bootrec command:
```
bootrec /fixboot
```
NOTE: on newer Windows 10 installs this command may return with an “Access Denied” error. On those versions the following command should be run:
```
bcdboot C:\windows /s G: /f UEFI
```
Press Enter
For backup purposes, backup the BCD record of your computer like this:
```
ren BCD BCD.bak
```
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, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 is installed on. The /l en-us parameter is used for localization: US. You can use ln /en-gb for UK localization.
Press Enter
You can also run this command too:
```
bootrec /rebuildbcd
```
Press Enter
Type exit in Command Prompt
Restart your computer
Your Windows 8/8.1/10 should now boot again

Windows 8 bootrec utility results screen

Fix #2: Use Automatic Repair

The built-in Automatic Repair utility, available on the Windows 8, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 disc, might fix errors with the UEFI bootloader of your computer.

In most cases, Fix #1: Use diskpart works better than Fix #2.

The instructions to run Automatic Repair are:

Insert the Windows 8/8.1/10 installation disc or USB
Restart your computer and boot from disc/USB
At the Install Now screen, click Repair your computer
At the Choose an option screen, click Troubleshoot
Click Automatic Repair
Choose an account from the list to continue, at the Automatic Repair screen
Wait for the process to finish

Windows 8 recovery options screen

More Information

Linked Entries

Support Links

Easy Recovery Essentials for Windows – our repair and recovery disk.

It’s an easy-to-use and automated diagnostics disk. It’s available for Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows Vista. It’s also available for Windows XP and Windows Server.

Read more at Windows Recovery Disks.
The NeoSmart Support Forums, member-to-member technical support and troubleshooting.
Get a discounted price on replacement setup and installation discs: Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10, Windows 11.

Applicable Systems

This Windows-related knowledgebase article applies to the following operating systems:

Windows 7 (all editions)
Windows 8 (all editions)
Windows 8.1 (all editions)
Windows 10 (all editions)
Windows 11 (all editions)

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Fix UEFI Boot: Fix for Windows 10, Windows 11, 7, and 8

Fix UEFI Boot with Easy Recovery Essentials