When your PC ran into problem and was unable to boot into Windows, you might try various solutions to fix it. And one is to rebuild BCD with a few commands. You may input the following commands to rebuild BCD in CMD with a bootable USB drive.
- bootrec /fixmbr
- bootrec /fixboot
- bootrec /scanos
- bootrec /rebuildbcd
However, some users get into trouble during the process. When they type the command bootrec /scanos or bootrec /rebuildbcd and hit Enter key, the “total identified Windows installations 0” error message emerges unexpectedly. What happened? You might be confused.
If you have no idea about how to fix this issue, you may read this article.
What does the Windows 10 total identified Windows installations 0 message mean? Actually this error message is to tell you that bootrec couldn’t find any additional installations of Windows on your computer to add to the BCD. How to fix it? Don’t worry. You will just need to run a few more commands to repair the BCD.
Solution 1. Repair BCD
If you receive the “Total identified Windows installations: 0” message instead of “Total identified Windows installations: 1” message, you need to run a few more commands to fix this issue and continue to rebuild BCD.
Step 1. Create a Windows 10 bootable USB drive with Windows Media Creation Tool. If you have one, just ignore this step.
Step 2. Change BIOS boot order to boot from the USB flash drive.
Step 3. On the Windows setup page, choose your language preference, and then click Next to continue.
Step 4. Go to Repair your computer -> Advanced Options -> Troubleshoot -> Command Prompt.
Step 5. Input the following command and hit Enter. After inputting this command, you may encounter the total identified Windows installations: 0 error. Just follow the step-by-step guide to continue.
bootrec /rebuildbcd
Step 6. Type the following commands and hit Enter after each one
- bcdedit /export c:bcdbackup (This step is to created a backup of the previous BCD store.)
- attrib c:bootbcd -h -r -s (This step is to remove the hidden, read-only, and system attributes from the file BCD.)
- ren c:bootbcd bcd.old (This is to rename the BCD store)
- bootrec /rebuildbcd
Then following contents will appear:
Successfully scanned Windows installations.
Total identified Windows installations: 1
[1] C:Windows
Add installation to boot list? Yes<Y>/No<N>/All<A>:
Press Y to add the installation to boot list and hit Enter. Then you will see the “The operation completed successfully” message, which indicates that the BCD rebuild is finished completely.
Step 7. The error has been removed now. Then you can restart your computer and check to see if you are able to boot normally. Windows should start as expected.
If this method does not work, you may try the next solution to fix error total identified Windows installations 0 Windows 7/8/10.
Solution 2. Perform System Restore
The Windows built-in feature System Restore enables you to restore your computer to an early state by using the system restore points created in previous days. So System Restore is a quick fix for you to repair system issues. If you encounter bootrec rebuildbcd total identified Windows installations 0 issue, just try System Restore to restore your PC.
Here is the tutorial.
Step 1. Boot from the bootable USB flash drive you made before.
Step 2. Go to Repair your computer -> Advanced Options -> Troubleshoot get into the Advanced options page.
Step 3. On this page, click System Restore and follow the prompts to revert system to a normal state with system restore points.
System Restore can help you remove the error total identified Windows installations 0 and fix Windows startup issue in one step, which is very convenient and effective.
However, if you do not have created a system restore point before, you are unable to perform a system restore. And if other fixes cannot help you, you may need to reinstall Windows 10.
Solution 3. Reinstall Windows 10
If the above fixes cannot help you or you’ve tried many fixes on the Internet but just don’t work, you can reinstall Windows 10 to resolve this issue.
Step 1. Create a Windows 10 bootable USB drive with Windows Media Creation Tool. If you have one, just ignore this step.
Step 2. Change BIOS boot order to boot from the USB drive.
Step 3. On the Windows setup page, choose your language preference, and then click Next to continue.
Step 4. Click Install Now.
Step 5. Enter the license key. You can also click I don’t have a product key to skip it, but you will be required to enter the license key later.
Step 6. Choose the operating system you want to install and click Next.
Step 7. Read and accept the license terms and click Next.
Step 8. Here choose one method to reinstall your operating system.
If you choose to perform a clean install (install Windows only), you need to backup important files in advance, as this option will wipe your hard drive and make a fresh start.
- [Upgrade: Install Windows and keep files, settings, and applications]: This will keep all your files, settings and applications saved in the system partition. However, it is only available when a supported version of Windows is already running on the computer.
- [Custom: Install Windows only (advanced)]: This will remove all your personal files, settings and applications and give you a clean install of Windows 10. You can make changes to partitions and drives. It is recommend to backup your files before you continue.
Step 7. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the system installation. The installation process will start and your PC will reboot. When it’s finished, you just need to log in with your account.
Recover Data from PC with Total Identified Windows Installations 0 Error
If you come across any data loss, you may use MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro Ultimate to help you make data recovery. MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro Ultimate is a piece of professional hard drive recovery software. It can help you recover many types of file including documents, photos, audio, music, videos, emails, archives and so on.
If you want to recover data from the PC with total identified Windows installations 0 error directly, you can just follow the steps below.
Now I will show you the detailed steps to recover data from the unbootable computer.
Step 1. Get MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro Ultimate by click the following button. Install it on a normal PC that can boot into Windows and launch it to get the main interface.
Step 2. Click the Bootable Media on the main interface and follow the prompts to create a bootable USB drive. If your PC can boot into Windows, you can use the software on your PC to perform data recovery directly.
Step 3. Boot from the USB drive and you will see the MiniTool Partition Wizard Bootable Edition.
Step 4. On the interface of MiniTool Partition Wizard Bootable Edition, you can click Data Recovery button on the top toolbar to launch it.
Step 5. On the Data Recovery interface, choose a partition and click Scan button on the lower right corner.
There are five parts listed on the interface, namely Recovery Result, Logical Drive, Lost Partition, Unallocated Space, Hard Disk.
- Recovery Result will recover the last scanning result and you can load .rss file manually to get result recovery you’ve scanned.
- Logical Drive will list all existing partitions on your PC.
- Hard Disk will show you all disks connected on your PC including SSD, HDD, USB flash drives, SD cards as so on.
- Lost Partition or Unallocated Space part will only appear when there is lost partitions or unallocated spaces on your PC hard drive.
Step 6. You see, the software is scanning your drive right now. When it is finished, you can check out the recovery result. During the process, you can pause or stop the scanning any time you want. Just click the Pause or Stop button near the progress bar.
Step 7. When it is finished, you can check the items you want to recover and click Save button.
These features on the top tool bar can help you find needed files quickly.
- Show Lost Files: Click this button to check out lost files only.
- Find: Click this button to find a file by its file name exactly with its Match Case and Match Word option.
- Filter: Click this button to find needed files by filename/extension, file size, file creation or modification date
- Preview: Click this button to preview a file before recovery. The supported preview file types reach to 70 in 14 categories.
Step 8. Choose a directory to save the needed files immediately. It is recommended to save the recovered files on another drive. Otherwise, the lost/deleted data could be overwritten.
If you find any data loss on your PC, you can utilize MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro Ultimate to recover the data immediately. And keep in mind that do not save new files to the hard drive that encounter data loss, or the lost data will be overwritten.
Bottom Line
This article has shown you how to remove the error total identified Windows installations 0 when you rebuild BCD in CMD. The above three methods are proven to be effective. If you come across the error total identified Windows installations: 0 when running bootrec /scanos OR bootrec /rebuildbcd, you might as well try the fixes shown in this article.
If you have any question about how to fix the error total identified Windows installations 0 Windows 7/8/10 or recover data from the computer, you may post your comment in the following comment zone. And we will reply as soon as possible. If you need any help when using MiniTool software, you can contact us via [email protected].