[Solved] Winload.efi Missing After Clone | 4 Ways + 1 Tip

Quick Navigation:

• Winload.efi Missing or Contains Error After Clone
• The Causes to Winload.efi Missing after clone
• 4 Ways to Fix Winload.efi Missing Errors
• Best Way to Avoid Missing Winload.efi After Clone
• Conclusion

Winload.efi Missing or Contains Error After Clone

You might encountered the Winload.efi missing or contains errors after clone like that: 

The Winload.exe file is the Windows operating system boot loader (an Extensible Firmware Interface(EFI) file) to boot system correctly. In UEFI systems, it’s called winload.efi, and located at \Windows\System32\winload.efi or \Windows\System32\boot\winload.efi.

Sometimes, you might encounter other error codes associated with Winload.efi file, like error code 0xc000000e after clone Windows 10, winload.efi error code 0xc000000f, winload.efi 0xc0000428, etc. This article will help you to resolve these winload.efi missing problems with detailed steps.

The Causes to Winload.efi Missing after Clone

The Winload.efi missing error is usually occurred after clone, after sysprep, after image or even after Windows update. There are some factors should be responsible for the Winload.efi file is missing after clone:

1. The incorrect registry key. The source disk and target disk owns different ID for volumes and drive letter, so you have to change the registry key after cloning.

2. Improper UEFI settings. The UEFI and Legacy mode requires different boot files and algorithms. So, make sure you set up correct settings for your destination disk.

3. The corrupted BCD files. Sometimes, cloning will damage the BCD store files, and then you will get this Winload.efi 0xc0000225 error message or other Winload.efi missing problems. Just repair BCD files first.

Therefore, how to repair the application or operating system couldn't be loaded because of missing winload.efi? Don’t worry about it! We will provide the solutions to fix it quickly in Windows 7/8/10/11. 

4 Ways to Fix Winload.efi Missing Errors

According to the causes, we offer the following quick solutions for you, just check it.

Solution 1: Disable Secure Boot

The Secure Boot will stop your system from accessing the winload.efi file if you have a UEFI based computer. So boot into BIOS or UEFI via F2, F8, F12, ESC or DEL key (varies depending on your PC manufacturer), and find the Secure Boot option in BIOS or UEFI, and then Disabled it.

If the above steps are not working for you, try the next way.

Solution 2: Use DiskPart to Repair

1. Boot into the Windows installation media, then go to Repair your computer -> Advanced Options -> Troubleshoot -> Command Prompt.

2. Input these commands to fix winload.efi missing error in Windows 7/8/10/11:

• diskpart
• list volume
• select volume=n (where the n is refer to volume number of system reserved partition with "System" labeled)
• assign letter=m (m is the proper drive letter that not in use)
• bcdboot c:\Windows /s m: /f uefi (Replace the letter "c" with the letter of your system partition with the "Boot" Label)

Now restart your computer to check if the winload.efi missing after clone is solved, if nothing helps try solution 3.

Solution 3: Check and Repair Windows System Files

1. Open Command Prompt with Windows installation media, then run the following command:

• sfc /scannow

Or input the following commands to fix winload.exe missing after clone error:

• bcdedit /enum | find "osdevice" (to find the Windows installed partition drive letter.)
• sfc /Scannow /OFFBOOTDIR=C:\ /OFFWINDIR=C:\Windows (replace the C: with the Windows installed partition drive letter.)

Solution 4: Fix Corrupted BCD files

If the above ways are not working, try this way. First of all, you have to prepare a Windows 7/8/10/11 installation media, then boot into recovery Environment and rebuild BCD store. If you have a Windows installation disc, refer to this text.

1. Boot into Windows Recovery Environment from the installation media.

2. Choose Repair your computer -> Advanced Options -> Troubleshoot -> Command Prompt.

3. Then type the following commands to execute one by one to fix Master Boot Record (MBR), Boot Sector, and BCD store:

• bootrec /fixmbr
• bootrec /fixboot
• bootrec /scanos
• bootrec /rebuildbcd

If the above steps not working, please try these commands below:
bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device boot
bcdedit /set {default} device boot
bcdedit /set {default} osdevice boot
bcdedit /set {default} device partition=c:
bcdedit /set {default} osdevice partition=c:
bcdedit /set {default} path \windows\system32\winload.efi

4. Restart your computer to check if you are success.

Of course, if you don’t have a Windows installation disc, you could create one by yourself. The powerful third party media creation tool - Qiling Disk Master Professional will do you a big favor. Before repairing winload.efi missing or contains error after clone, please download Qiling Disk Master Professional to create WinPE bootable media. Besides, you could prepare a USB flash drive at least 16GB and connect it to your computer. 

• Free Download
• Windows 11/10/8/7, 100% Secure

1. Open this software after installing, choose Tools -> Create Bootable Media on the main window.

2. Choose the USB Boot Device and hit Next to create a universal bootable USB.

★Tip: you could burn the WinPE to CD/DVD, or export to an ISO file as well. If you don't have any storage device, you could also create recovery environment. It will directly add Qiling Disk Master to Windows boot options, just act like the Windows bootable media, and is much easier.

After creating bootable media (just a few minutes), boot your computer from this media, then Qiling Disk Master will run automatically, then go to Tools -> Windows Shell Command. And you can restore system image or disk image created by Qiling Disk Master. 

 Besides, you might encounter other cloning problems, such as, File:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD Error, Windows 10 BCD file missing, Seagate DiscWizard not cloning problem, Transcend SSD Scope not working for system clone, etc, this powerful software can still help you work it out.

Best Way to Avoid Missing Winload.efi After Clone

If you encounter problems continuously after or while cloning, you could use powerful hard drive cloning software for Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10, 11 - Qiling Disk Master Professional to clone hard disk. 

• With the Disk Clone feature, you can clone all kinds of disks easily, such as, clone HDD to SSD, clone NVMe to NVMe, etc. 
• If you clone boot drive to another one, the cloned drive remains bootable after cloning.
• It also has the ability to improve SSD disk performance, such as, reading and writting speed, and prolong its lifespan.
• Besides, it is capable of cloning MBR disk  to GPT without losing data, or vice versa.

All in all, you can easily clone hard drive without winload.efi missing after clone or 0xc000000e after clone Windows 10. Here take clone Windows 10 to NVMe as an example. 

1. Choose Clone -> Disk Clone on the main console.

Tip: The Professional vesion of Qiling Disk Master supports cloning all the data disk and system disk, from MBR to MBR, MBR to GPT, GPT to GPT  (eg: clone NVMe to larger NVMe) and GPT to MBR. 

2. Choose Windows system disk as source drive to clone, and hit Next.

3. Select a larger HDD or SSD as destination, and hit Next.

4. Preview the operations, and press Proceed to clone hard drive in Windows 10. If your destination is an SSD drive, please tick SSD Alignment to optimize the reading and writing speed for SSD.

★Tips:
✍Sector by sector clone: Make sure your destination is equal to or larger than this source disk if check this option. It will clone all sectors of a hard drive including the empty sectors and bad sectors.
✍Edit Partitions: It helps to convert disk type (MBR or GPT) if the source disk and destination disk is different. Besides, it also has the ability to add unused space to all partitions or adjust the partition size manually.

After cloning, change the first boot device as the destination disk (the cloned drive) in BIOS if required, and then boot your computer to the cloned disk.

Of course, you are allowed to backup entire hard disk to an image file, and then restore the image file to your destination disk, the same result as cloned disk and will not meet the Winload.efi missing after clone issue in Windows 11/10/8/7.  

Conclusion

It’s easy to solve Windows\system32\winload.efi missing after clone or Winload.efi contains error problem according to the above solutions. Besides, winload.efi missing in Windows Server 2012 (R2), 2016, 2019, please try Qiling Disk Master Server to get fixed.

If you are an IT technician, just try Qiling Disk Master Technician Plus to enjoy more advanced features like system clone, universal restore, command line utility, dynamic disk volume clone, PXE Boot Tool, Qiling Image Deploy, etc.

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