Solved WinRE boot loop

Coresus · Jan 8, 2026

Hello, I am on Windows Pro 11, version 23H2 and am stuck in a boot loop in Win RE.

I have tried going to safe mode.
I have tried to go back to a previous restore point.
I can open a command prompt and I have tried the various command prompt solutions offered in this video.

None of the above work.
Can someone help? Thanks.
Coresus

zbook · Jan 8, 2026

1) Please perform hard reboots > post images or share links displaying error codes or messages

Boot to Advanced Startup (WinRE) in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to boot to the advanced startup (WinRE) in Windows 11. The Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) is a companion operating system installed alongside Windows 11, typically in a separate partition, that can help with troubleshooting, recovery, or booting from...

www.elevenforum.com

2) Boot to Windows RE > perform a startup repair

Search for c:/windows/system32/logfiles/srt/srttrail.txt > post a share link

Use Startup Repair in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to use the Startup Repair tool to help fix common problems that can prevent Windows 11 from starting up. The Startup Repair tool automatically fixes many common problems. The tool also lets you quickly diagnose and repair more complex startup problems. When the...

www.elevenforum.com

3) Boot to Windows RE > perform system restore to the oldest system restore point

Use System Restore in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to use System Restore to go back to a restore point in Windows 11. Turning on system protection for a drive allows System Restore to include the drive when restore points are created so you can undo undesired system changes by reverting to a previous point in...

www.elevenforum.com

4) Boot to Windows RE > command prompt > type:

notepad
bcdedit
bcdedit | find "osdevice"
diskpart
lis dis
lis vol
sel dis 0
det dis
lis par
sel dis 1
det dis
lis par

Post a share link displaying commands with results.

Coresus · Jan 9, 2026

Thank you very much for helping.
I set out results below. Messages are sometimes in Italian because this machine was purchased in Italy, I guess they can be understood anyway,

1) Hard reboots: When booting it either goes straight into WinRE as follows:

OR it gets stuck saying "Your device ran into a problem etc." In this case the only way out seems to the the physical on/off switch, after which it will either reboot to WinRE as above or get stuck again.

2) Startup repair. I have done startup repair from WinRE but I am not able to view the log:

3) System restore: I had already done this to a previous restoration point when the problem started a couple of days ago. Now it will not let me proceed to restore (button is grayed out). See below:

4) Command prompt results. See below:

Thanks again.
Coresus

cereberus · Jan 9, 2026

On another pc, download Macrium Reflect free from majorgeeks, install it and create usb rescue drive.

Boot from it on your pc and select "fix windows boot problems"

Coresus · Jan 9, 2026

OK so I created a rescue drive with Macrium Reflect Free and booted from it.
When using the "Fix Windows Boot Problems" option, it could not find any installed operating system (see below), so I added Windows 11 as suggested here. I hope that wasn't the wrong thing to do.

Unfortunately, now after completing the Boot Fix I get this (see below) and none of the available options take me anywhere meaningful (as far as I can see):

Thanks for any help.

Celery · Jan 9, 2026

Coresus said:
Unfortunately, now after completing the Boot Fix I get this (see below) and none of the available options take me anywhere meaningful (as far as I can see):

Your PC/Device needs to be repaired
The operating system couldn't be loaded because the system registry file is missing or contains errors.
File: \Windows\system32\config\system
Error code: 0xc0000225

ChatGPT:

File: \Windows\System32\config\SYSTEM

Cause:
This is not a bootloader problem. This file is the SYSTEM registry hive, which Windows must load to even start the kernel.

If this file is:

Missing

Corrupted

Unreadable (disk errors)

Windows cannot initialize the OS at all — even if the boot configuration is perfect.

➡ bcdboot does nothing here, because:

The bootloader is already running

Windows fails after bootloader handoff

The problem is inside the OS itself

suatcini54 · Jan 9, 2026

If you have a bootable usb Windows 11 installation drive on which Windows 11 is the same build, you can boot to it and try to repair your system. You can create the usb drive on another PC.

Edit: Windows language should be the same.

john1955 · Jan 9, 2026

I hope you have a backup of the important stuff. This is why I have multiple operating systems on my computer AND backups, in case I need to git in and save stuff before something catastrophic happens (which has never happened thankfully) but sometimes I do dumb stuff that scares me

If a "repair" install does not work and if you have a lot to save maybe take that drive out and put a new drive in and start over(?) This is easier with a desktop computer which you seem to have.

SIW2 · Jan 9, 2026

Try copying the hives from the restore point

couple of ways to do it

ShadowCopyView - Shadow copy viewer for Windows 10/8/7/Vista

Simple tool for Windows 10/8/7/Vista that lists the snapshots of your hard drive created by the Volume Shadow Copy service of Windows

www.nirsoft.net

put shadowcopyview on a usb stick.

plug in the usb stick

boot to winre

use notepad to navigate to shadowcopyviewx64.exe on the usb stick

then you can copy the hives from the shadowcopy into your windows\system32\config folder

using bog standard winre.wim you will have to type in the destination to copy to e.g. c:\windows\system32\config

there is another way using cmd prompt but it is more complicated.

regbak is typically disabled so a shadowcopy can be a lifesaver if you havent been making regular images

Coresus · Jan 9, 2026

If you have a bootable usb Windows 11 installation drive on which Windows 11 is the same build, you can boot to it and try to repair your system. You can create the usb drive on another PC.

Edit: Windows language should be the same.

Thanks for this suggestion. Can you or someone provide a few more details about how to create this bootable drive?

Coresus · Jan 9, 2026

Try copying the hives from the restore point

couple of ways to do it

ShadowCopyView - Shadow copy viewer for Windows 10/8/7/Vista
Simple tool for Windows 10/8/7/Vista that lists the snapshots of your hard drive created by the Volume Shadow Copy service of Windows
www.nirsoft.net

put shadowcopyview on a usb stick.

plug in the usb stick

boot to winre

Thanks for this. However at this point I cannot even get into WinRE any more (unless I'm missing something).

SIW2 · Jan 9, 2026

You can use any win11 winpe that has cmd prompt , type notepad, when it pops up click it and use File>save dailog to browse around ( you need to select ALL Files in the dropdown )

win11 installation media will do - you can get to cmd prompt from boot.wim by pressing shift+f10 or select repair my computer to get to cmd prompt

Topgundcp · Jan 9, 2026

OK so I created a rescue drive with Macrium Reflect Free and booted from it.
When using the "Fix Windows Boot Problems" option, it could not find any installed operating system (see below), so I added Windows 11 as suggested here. I hope that wasn't the wrong thing to do.

May I ask when you boot up the Macrium Rescue Disk, Did you select the correct boot entry ?
There are 2 entries on the Rescue disk, one is UEFI-USB (for GPT disk type)and the other is just plain USB (For MBR disk type).
UEFI-USB is the correct one to boot from since your Windows OS is on a GPT disk. If you select the wrong one then
"Fix Windows Boot Problems" might not find it.
If indeed you selected the correct one and Macriun could not find it then your EFI System Partition might be corrupted.
I would fix the Boot file first before proceeding...

SIW2 · Jan 9, 2026

The OP screenshot from post#5.

If it gets as far as trying to load the system hive there is nothing wrong with the esp or the bcd entry

You could rename the windows\system32\config folder to config-old before copying the config folder from the shadowcopy to avoid overwriting if you like

SIW2 · Jan 9, 2026

I have made win11 pe iso which you can borrow if you need. It should be extracted to usb stick because it links to the included programs on the usb stick

it is quite a fancy pe build so instead of scrolling through the bootom pane of shadowcopyview you should be able to open the shadow in explorer

zbook · Jan 9, 2026

Please search for any of these files > post share links

Minidump
memory.dmp
LiveKernelReports
CBS.log
srttrail.txt

%systemroot%\Minidump
C:\Windows\Minidump
%systemroot%\memory.dmp
C:\Windows\memory.dmp
%systemroot%\LiveKernelReports
C:\Windows\LiveKernelReports
%windir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log
C:\WINDOWS\Logs\CBS\CBS.log
C:/windows/system32/logfiles/srt/srttrail.txt

john1955 · Jan 9, 2026

SIW2 said:
I have made win11 pe iso which you can borrow if you need. It should be extracted to usb stick because it links to the included programs on the usb stick

it is quite a fancy pe build so instead of scrolling through the bootom pane of shadowcopyview you should be able to open the shadow in explorer

I need to learn how to do this. I did something like it a LONG time ago with BartPE but my brain has a memory leak

SIW2 · Jan 9, 2026

Could also be done with 7-zip if you have it in your pe

enter the snapshot name with an added backslash at the end

like this

\\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy1\

if you dont know the name try HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy1
then HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy2 etc till you find what you want

then press enter and scroll down to whatever you want to copy out

SIW2 · Jan 9, 2026

john1955 said:
I need to learn how to do this. I did something like it a LONG time ago with BartPE but my brain has a memory leak

You could take a look and find out. A lot of practice and trial and error is needed

I have been using pecmd for so long I wouldnt know how to do it without. That is not a simple build it uses winxshell and classic shell as well as relying on pecmd shel support and other functions. Many people have contributed over the years, Slore for winxshell, Mdyblog ( Davies) for pecmd and others.

There is a project called win10xpe if you don't want to build it yourself. I think that project only works for some earlier win11 media.

Coresus · Jan 9, 2026

OK so thanks to SIW2's WIN 11 pe iso I was able to access the files.
Big thanks for that

Further to Zbook's request I attach the files I found. I could not find memory.dmp at the location indicated, and the live kernel report was too large to get out using the bootable USB stick. The other files should be there.
Here's a picture of the LiveKernelReports directory. The two subdirectories are empty, there's just the too large Watchdog file.

Now should I go ahead and replace the config folder from the shadow copy? I'm not sure which of the two available restore points to use (probably the one from 29 December is safer?)

Thanks to all for helping.

Solved WinRE boot loop

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