Windows 8 Pro cannot boot - Error 0xC000021a

Anonymous
2012-11-25T18:10:13+00:00

Hi

I upgraded my son's laptop from Windows 7 to Windows 8 Pro. I has been working fine for a few weeks. But now when booting It halts iwth the error code 0xc000021a. I have tried the following options

Refresh - this fails with the error 0xc000021a

System Restore - this fails with 0xc000021a

Safe mode boot does not work

I can start the cmd console

Any suggestions as to how to proceed?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Performance and system failures

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-01-08T06:56:27+00:00

    I have the same problem right now, did you ever get it fixed? I only have one laptop and I have my life on it. And right now, it's completely useless. I am starting to rethink the Apple Mac, and I have never been a fan of Apple products. Never. But I can't do this. I need to have this fixed, I have all my work on it.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-01-08T15:51:54+00:00

    Hi,

    I sent the Laptop in and got the DVD drive repaired. This allowed me to reinstall W8. Now everything is working.

    If you can get to the CMD prompt, as was the case for me, you might want to try to backup your files to a USB stick or USB drive. Then reinstall.

    Hope this helps

    John

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-01-08T18:10:05+00:00

    How big was the memory on the USB? And does it absolutely HAVE to be a USB? I have an external CD/DVD drive. Could I just use a DVD and backup everything on there?

    Thanks.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-01-12T09:08:49+00:00

    i had this problem and i fixed it. i faced this after updating my win8 and rebooting after that update.

    to fix this, i tried safe mode but it failed to boot. finally i tried to boot with "force drivers to have signature disabled" and it worked.

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  5. Anonymous
    2013-01-17T04:43:04+00:00

    Hello, I am having this problem as well. Been running windows 8 on my desktop without issue for the past few months, and I got this problem all of a sudden.

    In my "C:\Windows\System32\LogFiles\Srt\SrtTrail.txt" file, it says

    "

    Root cause found:


    Bugcheck c000021a. Partameters = 0xfffff8a0052748a0, 0xffffffffc0000428, 0xfffff8a000486d40

    Boot critical file is corrupt.

    Repair action: File repair

    Result: Failed. Error code = 0x2

    Time taken = 5834 ms

    Repair action: System files integrity check and repair

    Result: Failed. Error code = 0x490

    Time taken = 641554 ms



    "

    Any ideas?

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