6 Fixes to a Required Device Isn’t Connected or Can’t Be Accessed

What Is the Error That a Required Device Isn’t Connected or Can’t Be Accessed?

When trying to boot your computer, you may encounter the BSOD error Your PC/Device needs to be repaired. A required device isn’t connected or can’t be accessed. Usually, the error message often comes some error codes, such as:

• 0xc000000e
• 0xc0000185
• 0xc000000f
• 0xc0000001
• 0xc0000225

In general, the error message of a required device isn’t connected or can’t be accessed is shown as the following picture.

What may cause the error that a required device isn’t connected or can’t be accessed?

The error that a required device isn’t connected may be caused by several reasons, like invalid boot configuration, the damaged OS disk or the inaccessible Winload.exe file, a wrong active partition, etc.  

However, do you know how to fix the error that a required device isn’t connected or can’t be accessed? If not, do not worry. In this post, we will show you how to fix this Windows boot Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) error.

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How to Fix Error That a Required Device Isn’t Connected or Can’t Be Accessed

In this section, we will show you how to solve the recovery your PC/device needs to be repaired error. We will elaborate on the solutions one by one.

Way 1. Run Startup Repair

In order to fix the error that a required device isn’t connected or can’t be accessed, you can choose to run Startup Repair which is able to fix some system errors.

Now, here is the tutorial.

As your computer is not able to boot into the operating system, so the Windows installation media is required. If you do not have one, please prepare it first. Read the post: A Complete Guide to Windows 10 Media Creation Tool: How to Use to learn how to create Windows 10 installation media.

1. Power off your computer and insert the Windows installation media. It could be a USB flash drive or a CD/DVD drive.

2. Then boot your computer from it.

3. Next, choose the language to continue.

4. Click Repair your computer.

5. Next, click Troubleshoot > Startup Repair to continue.

After that, it will start to scan your computer and fix some Windows loading problems. Once the Startup Repair process is finished, reboot your computer and check whether the error that a required device isn’t connected or can’t be accessed is fixed. If this solution is not effective, try another one.

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Way 2. Check BIOS Settings

It is possible that the incorrect BIOS settings may lead to the issue that your PC needs to be repaired a required device is not connected. In this situation, you can try to check BIOS settings.

Now, here is the tutorial.

1. Power off your computer and restart it into the BIOS settings. (Usually press F1, F2, Del, or Esc when your power on your machine.)
2. Then check the following settings:

• Make sure the hard drive is in the first boot order.
• Disable secure boot.
• In the SATA settings, look for SATA model. If it is set to AHCI or RAID, change it to IDE. If the SATA Mode is set to IDE then change it to AHCI.

Once all steps are finished, save the changes, exit the BIOS settings and reboot your computer and check whether the error that a required device isn’t connected or can’t be accessed is solved.

Way 3. Run a Disk Check and System File Check

If there are corrupted system files on your computer, you may come across the error that a required device isn’t connected or can’t be accessed. In order to fix this error, try running a disk check and system file check.

Now, here is the tutorial.

1. Boot your computer from Windows installation media.
2. Then click Repair your computer.
3. Click Troubleshoot > Command Prompt.
4. In the Command Line window, type the command sfc /scannow and hit Enter to continue.
5. Once the process is finished, type the command chkdsk c: /f /rand hit Enter to continue.

Once all steps are finished, reboot your computer and check whether the error that a required device isn’t connected or can’t be accessed is fixed.

Way 4. Rebuild BCD

As mentioned in the above part, faulty boot configuration data is able to give rise to the error that a required device isn’t connected or can’t be accessed. If the above methods are not able to fix the error recovery your PC/device needs to be repaired, you may try to rebuild BCD to see if it works.

Now, here is the tutorial.

1. Boot your computer from the Windows installation media.

2. Click Repair your computer.

3. Then click Troubleshoot > Command Prompt to continue.

4. Type the following commands and hit Enter after each command.

bootrec /scanos
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /rebuildbcd

5. If the above commands fail, type the following commands and hit Enter after each command.

bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup
c:
cd boot
attrib bcd -s -h -r
ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old
bootrec /RebuildBcd

After all steps are completed, restart your computer and check whether the error that your PC needs to be repaired a required device is not connected is fixed.

Way 5. Set Correct Partition as Active

If the incorrect partition is set as active by accident, you may fail to boot and encounter the error that a required device isn’t connected or can’t be accessed. Thus, in order to fix this boot problem, you can try setting the correct partition as active.

Now, here is the tutorial.

1. Power off your computer and insert the Windows installation media.
2. Then boot the computer from it.
3. Next, click Repair your computer to continue.
4. Then choose Troubleshoot > Command Prompt.
5. Then type the following commands one by one and hit Enter after each command.

diskpart
list disk
select disk n (n represents the disk number of your system disk)
list partition
select partition x (x represents the number of system partition. You can recognize the system partition through the partition size.)
Active

Once the above processes are finished, restart your computer and check whether the error that a required device isn’t connected or can’t be accessed is fixed.

Related article: An Easy Way to Set Partition as Active or Inactive with MiniTool

Way 6. Perform System Restore

There is an available method for you to fix the error that a required device isn’t connected or can’t be accessed. If you have created a system restore point before, you can choose to perform a system restore. To do that, you can revert your computer to an earlier normal state and do not affect your personal files.

Now, here is the tutorial.

1. Boot your computer from the Windows installation media.
2. Then click Repair your computer.
3. Choose Troubleshoot > System Restore.
4. In the popup window, click Next.
5. Next, select a restore point from the list based on the creating time and date.
6. Confirm the restore point and click Finish to continue.

After that, reboot your computer and check whether the error that a required device isn’t connected or can’t be accessed is fixed.

If the above solutions can’t solve the issue that a required device isn’t connected or can’t be accessed, you may need to reinstall the operating system. However, before proceeding on, please recover your data from the unbootable computer first.

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Useful Suggestion: Back up Windows 10

System boot issues such as a required device isn’t connected or can’t be accessed may occur unexpectedly due to mistaken operation, virus attack, corrupted system files, etc. When system crashes, you need to try several methods to let it work. However, it would be troublesome or even worse you can’t fix the issue.

Hence, to make things easier and make sure that you can fix the problem successfully, there is a way for you. You can choose to create a system image when the computer is normal. When system crashes, restore the computer to the normal state with the created system image.

Therefore, you may ask how to create a system image. Here is the answer.

To create the system image, you can use the professional backup software – MiniTool ShadowMaker. It is designed to back up the operating system, files, folders, disks, and partitions.

Besides, it is a piece of file sync software and a useful hard drive clone tool, which allows you to clone hard drive to another one without data loss.

Now, we will show you how to use MiniTool ShadowMaker to back up Windows 10.

1. Click the following button to get MiniTool ShadowMaker, install and launch it.

MiniTool ShadowMaker TrialClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

2. Click Keep Trial.

3. Then you will enter the main interface of MiniTool ShadowMaker and go to the Backup page.

4. MiniTool ShadowMaker chooses the operating system as backup source by default. So, you just need to select a target disk to save the backups. Click Destination module to select a target disk and click OK.

5. After selecting backup source and destination, click Back up Now to perform the system backup immediately.

After that, you have successfully created a system image. If system crashes, you can use the system image to restore the computer to a normal state. Apart from creating a system image, we recommend you to create a bootable disc or drive with MiniTool ShadowMaker so that you can boot the computer to perform system recovery when encountering the error that a required device isn’t connected or can’t be accessed.

Bottom Line

As for how to fix the error that a required device isn’t connected to can’t be accessed, after reading this post, you may have the answers. If you come across the same issue, try those solutions.

If you have any different idea of the problem that your PC needs to be repaired a required device is not connected or have any problem with MiniTool ShadowMaker, you can leave a message in the comment zone or contact us via the email [email protected] and we will reply to you as soon as possible.