I have a dual-boot system with Ubuntu 14.04.3 & Windows 10. Since my video cards died a while ago I’ve not been using Windows much, but a couple of months ago I started up Windows to let it run some updates. After the obligatory reboot it just went into a loop of booting, telling me there had been this obscure error, rebooting to diagnose/fix it and then failing to fix it. I was pretty fed up after doing quite a bit of searching but finding nothing that seemed to relate to my situation and certainly nothing that fixed it.
But now I have a new video card and, although I am enjoying Ark Survival, there are other games I’d like to get back to that only run in Windows. I’m not sure where to start though - I’m not even sure what this error means. Windows at some point also mentions not being able to access the boot device which doesn’t make a lot of sense. I’ve run boot-repair from a live Ubuntu session and it reports nothing wrong. All the files that should be there arethere and the partitions are all correct and accounted for.
Any suggestions? What does this error actuallymean?
Hi @Moilleadoir.
Are you sure that it starts with a C? Or it is 0x0000007B?
Asking because 0xc000007B and 0x0000007B are two different things; the first one is an application error status generally not effecting booting and the second one is a bugcheck code that does not let windows boot.
We can start troubleshooting after your reply.
Also let us know how the dual boot is configured. Are the OSs in two different physical disks or in a same disk? Which is the bootloader ... windows boot manager or GRUB?
It definitely says 0xc000007b but it happens during boot. I never get as far as the lockscreen.
Both OS are installed on the same SSD. Windows 10 was installed first. GRUB handles boot.
0xC000007B reads as STATUS_INVALID_IMAGE_FORMAT. The explanation is ....First, boot into the BIOS, disable Secure boot if it is enabled.{Bad Image} %hsis either not designed to run on Windows or it contains an error. Try installing the program again using the original installation media or contact your system administrator or the software vendor for support.
Also, update GRUB. If any boot entry is corrupted, it will rectify that.
It boots up, but not reaches upto the lock screen, that gives a hint something of the startup items are causing the issue.
If Windows is the default boot option in GRUB, then you may use the Windows 10 Recovery Tools and try to do a Clean Boot. I am not sure how much it will be effective if Windows is not the first boot option.
Personally during my long time of troubleshooting Windows 7, I have noticed that if GRUB is placed in the same physical HDD with Windows, it may corrupt Windows boot beyond repair. The safe way to dual boot with Ubuntu is to use Wubi and not ues GRUB as the bootloader.
Using Wubi is a rather silly suggestion. That is definitely not going to happen. Putting all my eggs in the Windows basket has lead to much more trouble than anything GRUB can dish out. I have never seen it ‘corrupt Windows boot beyond repair’ though it’s possible to break anything if you try hard enough.
GRUB defaults to the last choice so that’s much the same (if not quite the same) as Windows being the first entry. I’m not sure it should matter anyway so long as I can always choose the Windows boot entry.
The post about doing a clean boot seems to assume you’d be doing it from a working install. Will this also work from a USB boot? If this is the problem then it sounds like Windows has installed a broken driver. Is there any way to stop it doing that again?
