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I currently only have access to a this older laptop because my new one crashed do to an update by microsoft. (And yes, it was caused by an update) The laptop was a dell venue 11 pro. Which is one of those 2 in 1 computers which is better then most of them, and I actually like it. But sadly it dosen't have a cd drive so I can't use a disk for recovery. What's happening is that it says that it's missing BCD info. I know what that is but I don't know how to get it without a recovery drive. Please help.

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Dani AI

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A few practical recovery routes that tie into the suggestions already in this thread from and — one aimed at using a Windows machine to create a recovery USB and one for a Linux-first workflow.

If you can get hold of another Windows PC, use the official Windows ISO / Media Creation Tool to make a bootable USB (UEFI/GPT). That USB boots into Windows Recovery Environment, which is the simplest place to run the official repair tools. Microsoft’s download page for Windows installation media is here: Media Creation Tool.

For a Linux-oriented approach, use WoeUSB or Ventoy to make a UEFI-bootable Windows USB from the ISO. Ventoy is convenient because it handles large files and multiple ISOs; WoeUSB works too for single-ISO writes. See: WoeUSB and Ventoy.

Once you can boot to the recovery USB, the usual, reliable fix for a broken BCD is to mount the EFI partition and use bcdboot (or bootrec if needed). Typical sequence from WinRE Command Prompt:

diskpart
list disk
select disk 0
list vol
select vol X   (the FAT32 EFI volume)
assign letter=Z:
exit
bcdboot C:\Windows /s Z: /f UEFI

If bcdboot does not work, try bootrec /fixboot and bootrec /rebuildbcd. See the Microsoft documentation for details: and bcdboot.

Cautions: be sure you target the correct disk/volume in DiskPart to avoid data loss; back up user files first if possible (mount the drive from Linux to copy them out). If the ISO’s install.wim is larger than 4 GB, use Ventoy or a tool that supports NTFS for UEFI, or create the USB on Windows with Rufus (rufus.ie) to avoid the FAT32 size limit.

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Member Avatar for Dani

Define "crashed". Are you able to boot into Windows at all? Can you copy the file(s) you need onto an external USB disk from the older laptop and use that to transfer? USB disks can be bootable.

Member Avatar for Jack_9

Thank you.

Member Avatar for Jack_9

Still trying but now I have a little bit better of an idea. I'm more of a linux person.

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