Windows 11 April 2026 updates - BootDevice Not Found

Recent Windows Updates broke some Windows 11 devices, preventing them from booting.

Background

The affected devices will showcase the following symptoms:

1. User initiates the updating process
2. At some point, a message appears on the screen 'Something didn't go as planned. No need to worry-undoing changes. Please keep your computer on'.
3. Device shutsdown/reboot
4. Upon reboot, the following message appears 'BootDevice Not Found, Please install an operating system on your hard disk. Hard Disk - (3F0)'
5. Device will continue to load into System Diagnostics page in BIOS

Solution

 

1. Boot to a Windows USB
2. Go through the prompts and select ‘Repair this PC’
3. Choose language
4. Select Troubleshoot -> Command Prompt
5. Enter BitLocker Recovery Key (if enabled)
6. Enter the following commands

1. diskpart

2. list disk

3. sel disk 0 (usually its 0, otherwise check which disk contains Windows from the previous command)

4. list vol

5. sel vol 1 (usually its 1, verify from the list vol command which volume is about 100MB and FAT32 format)

6. assign letter=Y (or any letter)

7. exit

8. bcdboot C:\Windows /s Y: /f UEFI

7. Close the command prompt
8. Select Exit and continue to Windows 11
9. Enter BitLocker Recovery Key (if enabled)

10. If Windows still doesn’t boot, repeat the above steps once more