I can't exactly remember what the menu items were called (because I can't boot into my computer), but I'll try my best.
Earlier I tried using EasyBCD with Windows 8 on a UEFI Lenovo IdeaPad Z580 laptop to add a boot loader option for Linux Mint. It didn't boot into Mint, and so booted back into Windows and, in EasyBCD set the MBR with the first option checked (Windows Vista/7 bootloader) clicked "Write MBR". I was still unable to boot into Mint, and I noticed that I could no longer access the BIOS/UEFI settings.
If I click the "Novo" button while the laptop is off I boot to a "Novo Button Menu":
┌──────────────────┐
│ Novo Button Menu │
├──────────────────┤
│ Normal Startup │
│ BIOS Setup │
│ Boot Menu │
│ System Recovery │
└──────────────────┘
The first three items would all just boot into Windows, I didn't try the fourth (I'll get onto System Recovery later).
In the Windows 8 boot menu I opened command prompt and ran bootrec.exe /fixmbr
to try restore the normal Windows bootloader and the BIOS options, but this did not work.
Then booted back into Windows again and opened EasyBCD. I went to "BCD Backup/Repair", selected "Reset BCD configuration" then clicked "Perform Action". The program said I needed to create at least one bootloader item, so I created a "Windows" one and set the drive to "C:", saved and rebooted. Whenever I rebooted, I was faced with a similar screen to when I tried to boot Mint with the Windows bootloader:
Windows failed to start.
[snip]
File: \BCD
Status: 0x0000098
Info: the Boot Configuration Data file doesn't contain valid information for an operating system.
now the first three Novo menu items do this, too. The last item opens Lenovo's "OneKey Recovery", which isn't really that useful since it requires a previous backup or a complete restore to a factory state.
How can I boot back into Windows now? I don't have a Windows 8 recovery disc. Is it too later to create one? My laptop has the Windows 8 serial built in (not printed on case).
bootrec /RebuildBcd
as detailed here from a Win7 DVD. If it works (I don't think the BCD format has changed in Win8) it might allow you to boot into Windows at least, although quite likely with the Win7 non-GUI bootloader. Best option of course would be to attempt this with a borrowed Win8 Core/Pro DVD, or one of the Recovery DVDs sold by the EasyBCD guys. The Enterprise Eval might also work.