Winload.exe missing or corrupt (0xc000000e)

Today we had a problem with Acronis Disk Doctor. We used it to try to resize a existing partition. The tool doesn't directly support dynamic disks - only after downloading additional drivers. These were downloaded, because we had those in our system, and the system had to be rebooted. No changes had been made to this point. But after the reboot, the system stopped almost immediately with a "black screen" reporting:

0xC000000E \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\WINLOAD.EXE INFO: THE SELECTED ENTRY COULD NOT BE LOADED BECAUSE THE APPLICATION IS MISSING OR CORRUPT

What made this case different from all others that I could find on the internet is that the system partition was no longer accessible. It was not assigned the C drive letter.

So, the suggestions I could find did not work. They include, but are not limited to:

• Repair using the Vista installation disc
• From the Vista installation disc's command prompt option:
  bootrec /fixmbr -> completes succesfully, but didn't fix the issue
• From the Vista installation disc's command prompt option:
  bootrec /fixboot -> no system partition can be found
• From the Vista installation disc's command prompt option:
  bootrec /scanos -> no system partition can be found
• Perform the following three commands from the Vista installation disc's command prompt option:
  x:\windows\system32\bcdedit /set {default} device partition=c:
  x:\windows\system32\bcdedit /set {default} osdevice partition=c:
  x:\windows\system32\bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device partition=c:
  -> no system partition can be found

Bootrec is the "fdisk /mbr" for Windows Vista and Windows 7.

If you got here and you still have a C drive letter assigned and that drive is accessible, then the suggestions above might work. I suggest you try them first.

If you don't have a system drive letter, then the resolution is fairly simple:

Start the repair option from a Windows 7 installation disk.

It detected that there were issues with the current Vista installation and fixed them. We rebooted the system and all was well again. No data loss and still running Vista.

We used a Windows 7 Ultimate x64 disk to fix a Windows Vista Ultimate x32 OS.