install Win7 SP1 with bcdedit failing

1

I'm getting the error 0x800F0A12 which is described here.

bcdedit says:

C:\>bcdedit.exe
Der Speicher für die Startkonfigurationsdaten konnte nicht geöffnet werden.
Das System kann die angegebene Datei nicht finden.

(English: Couldn't open the start configuration. Couldn't find the file.)

(off topic: how can I get those messages in English?)

I played around and I assume that is because the system partition C:\ is not on the first BIOS disk.

There are 4 disks in my PC. On one of them (shown as the 4th in Windows drive manager) contains Windows, whereby the system-reserved NTFS partition is the first primary and the second primary is my main Windows system partition. A few more partitions follow with other (non-NTFS) stuff. I was able to set the first two disks offline (via the Windows drive manager). For the 3rd disk, it says that it cannot set the BIOS 0 disk offline.

How can I ignore that and still install SP1?

I don't want to rewire/resetup my disks.

Albert

Posted 2012-03-29T21:41:04.607

Reputation: 5 059

Answers

-1

You might encounter an issue during the installation of SP1 for Win7/R2 where the installer exits with: 0x800f0a12

This is due to the automount policy for your machine being set to disable. We block the service pack installation in these cases because we need to be able to write information to the BCD store during install and with automount turned off, we are not able to. To resolve this, re-enable automount and then install the service pack. Quick steps to do this in case you forgot are:

  1. Run DISKPART

  2. automount enable

  3. Restart

  4. Install SP1

link to full article on blogs.technet.com

snayob

Posted 2012-03-29T21:41:04.607

Reputation: 4 044

The automount policy is already enabled. Also, the problem described there doesn't really match the problem I described. (bcdedit doesn't even find the BCD store although it is just there.) – Albert – 2012-03-29T22:33:30.683

Physically, it is some SATA disk in my computer. In Windows drive manager, it is shown as the 4th disk. – Albert – 2012-03-29T22:51:00.880

bcdedit expects BCD on fist disk - active partition, if it is not there it cannot find it. Are you are dual-booting via Linux and swapping disks? – snayob – 2012-03-29T22:57:06.220

Yes, that is what I expected. Yes, I'm dual-booting. I'm not swapping any disks. How can I install the SP1? I don't want to rewire the disks physically. – Albert – 2012-03-29T23:49:53.550

You can disconnect all disks, then connect only disk with Windows. – snayob – 2012-03-30T00:04:51.190

Posting AGAIN as time limit for edits reached!...You can disconnect all disks, then connect only disk with Windows. To be sure that this disk will boot write again a Windows 7 MBR to disk and a Windows 7 PBR to active partition (you should have a Windows 7 recovery CD or USB ready !) BCD should be on active partition in \Boot folder. After booting to this only disk install SP1. Then reconnect all disks as they were before. – snayob – 2012-03-30T00:15:40.350

let us continue this discussion in chat

– snayob – 2012-03-30T00:25:23.410

What do you mean by disconnect? I don't want to physically change anything. Also I don't want to change the MBR. Also, my computer doesn't have any CD drive so that is not an option. If you know any solution, I think it should go here and not in chat. – Albert – 2012-03-30T02:20:09.073

Asked: 2012-03-29T21:41:04.607

Viewed: 869 times

Active: 2012-03-29T22:19:27.157