Windows 2008 R2 disk volume becomes read-only and fails to boot

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Windows 2008 R2 virtual machine fails to boot
• You see the error:
  
  File: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
  Status: 0xc000000e
  Info: The selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing or corrupt
   
• Running bcdedit from the installation CD shows all boot devices as unknown instead of the default:
  
  partition=C:
   
• Running Diskpart from the installation CD shows the system volume has read-only, hidden, No Default Drive Letter and shadow copy all set to Yes

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.7
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5

Cause

This issue may occur due to space issues on the drive.

Resolution

To resolve this issue:

Caution: Make a backup of the vmdk files before performing this procedure.

1. Boot the virtual machine from the Windows Server 2008 R2 media:
   • Select Repair your computer
   • Select Command Prompt
      
2. Clear the wrong states of the volume and assign the drive letter C: to the volume.
   
   From the command prompt, run:
   
   diskpart
   list volume
   select volume #
   att vol clear readonly
   att vol clear hidden
   att vol clear nodefaultdriveletter
   assign letter=c:
   exit
    
3. Edit the bcd entries to boot from C:.
   1. Execute these commands:
      
      bcdedit /set {default} device partition=c:
      bcdedit /set {default} osdevice partition=c:
      bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device partition=c :
      
      Note: Replace {default} and {bootmgr} with the UUID of the disk and {} required in the command. To determine the UUID of the disk, run the command:
      
      mountvol

If the issue persists, locate X:\Sources\Recovery, then run StartRep.exe. StartRep.exe is an automated startup repair utility that corrects boot environment values.

If the volume that has gone readonly is not the system volume, you can resolve without booting from the install media:

1. Log in to the virtual machine and open a command prompt.
2. From the command prompt, run:
   
   diskpart
   list volume
   select volume #
   att vol clear readonly
   exit

Workaround:

cd X:\Sources\Recovery

Type command 'startrep'

Additional Information

For more information, see BCDEdit/set.

 

Note: The preceding link was correct as of March 18, 2015. If you find the link is broken, provide feedback and a VMware employee will update the link.

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