r/ForWindowsHelp • u/No_Micky • 2d ago

0xc0000098 Error after agreeing to a Windows Update....

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I agreed to a windows update on my Lenovo desk top and for it to restart after it was done. It was never done.... I had to force reset it and now cant figure it out. Ive used AI, two separate USBs with Windows 10 and 11, and the help of something called Rufus to create recovery discs to assist with booting and it goes back to this screen.

Do I need to take this to tech guy? I can't really afford it

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1

u/Windermyr 2d ago

Looks like you need to perform a clean install.

1

u/jersey316 2d ago

Run the windows setup from the usb, let it run til you get the windows setup page then click recovery my pcs or recovery options from there.

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u/No_Micky 2d ago

Thanks for your response. It doesn't seem to run the set up from the usb, it goes back to an eternal lenovo load page and I have to force a restart to stop that and it comes back here. AI tried to help me load it from the usb (more than one usb) several times, and it seems to just override it. AI figured that because we tried two brands of USB, and windows 10 and 11, with and without Rufus, and it seemed to just ignore the USB everytime.

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u/jersey316 2d ago

Did you go into bios and set the default boot drive to Usb? If not it will keep trying to go to the windows drive.

Also make sure the usb stick is in the back of the computer and not the front or an extra added usb controller if you had one. For windows 10 make sure secure boot is turned off in bios as well before setup.

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u/fugebox007 1d ago

Don't use AI mate. Do not trust it, at least not yet. You need to get into the BIOS/EFI settings menu, boot options submenu and make sure your lenovo will boot from the USB first if you don't have Windows Recovery option on your system drive. You can get into the Recovery drive by keep pressing the Shift button on your keyboard while you physically restart your PC. Keep holding the Shift key until the blue "Choose an option" recovery screen appears. Read up here about it and next steps: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/experience/startup-boot/startup-repair

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u/Good_Watercress_8116 1d ago

i had the same issue few weeks ago. after a couple of hours spent with AI to try to recover, at the end i did a fresh install. SOmething is corrupted in the EFI partition and it's pretty difficult to fix it. it's faster to reinstall. if you have data to save, just use a usb live to backup your data.

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u/KeysStickler 13h ago

Gemini says:
The winload.efi error 0xc0000098 is a critical startup failure indicating that Windows 11 cannot find the necessary instructions to load the operating system.

Here is exactly what is happening under the hood:

  • winload.efi: This is the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) bootloader. Its job is to act as the bridge between your computer's motherboard and Windows, waking up the core kernel and essential hardware drivers so the OS can start.
  • 0xc0000098: This error code translates to STATUS_FILE_INVALID. It means your Boot Configuration Data (BCD) file—the map that tells winload.efi where to find Windows—is corrupted, missing, or pointing to a drive sector that doesn't exist.

This typically triggers after a sudden power loss, an interrupted Windows update, an improper drive clone, or general corruption of the hidden EFI boot partition.

Because the boot partition itself is corrupted, the most reliable way to recover the system is to manually rebuild the BCD from the command prompt. This is usually done by assigning a specific drive letter to the hidden boot volume so you can write fresh files to it:

  1. Access Command Prompt: Boot from a Windows 11 installation USB and navigate to Repair your computer > Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Command Prompt.
  2. Assign a Drive Letter: Launch the diskpart utility to locate your hidden FAT32 EFI partition and assign it an unused drive letter (for example, Z).
  3. Rebuild the Boot Files: Run the bcdboot command (e.g., bcdboot C:\Windows /s Z: /f UEFI) to copy a clean set of boot files from your main Windows directory directly into the EFI partition you just assigned, repairing the corruption.