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While restoring my laptop, I encountered a message that read "BOOTMGR is missing." This happened shortly after I backed up my system. I looked for my Windows 7 instillation disc, and it dawned on me that my system came without any disc. I have tried several repair disc, downloaded from the internet, to try and bring my system back. No such luck. Do I need to buy Windows 7 software to reinstall it, or is there any other solution that may work?

 

Define "restoring" in this case.
Were you attempting to use a recovery partition? Most manufacturers provide these nowadays: an image of Windows on a hidden section of hard drive to restore the computer to "off the shelf" condition (in terms of software, I mean).

If you haven't tried this already, this may be your course of action. Do you have a prompt during startup saying to press a button "recover" or "restore" your system? What is the manufacturer and model of the laptop?

 

Initially my Windows Installer file got corrupted. I could not open any documents, nor download any document using Windows. Therefore, I decided to restore my computer back to the original manufacture state. First I backed up all of my files then I tried the restore. During the restore, a error message appeared saying Boot mgr file is missing. I am not able to get a prompt at boot. My system goes through a brief process as if it is going to boot, and all I get is the missing boot mgr message. I can boot using a Repair Disc Window 7 taken from the internet. It will allow me to go to the system recovery section. But whenever I select a function, I get a prompt "Windows cannot find a system image on this computer." I can also boot with an Active X Disc, but I can only use the operating system built into the disk. I can look at the files through the X drive, but I cannot access them.

 

Hi,

A bunch of questions:

How far into the restore did you get before the error? Do you think Win7 was fully installed?

Have you tried to use the factory restore function more than once?
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From the Win7 Repair disc have you tried the Startup repair at the top of this list, yet? It works slightly differently than the automatic one. If you haven't tried it, run it once then go back and reboot then try the automatic repair and see if it finds the Win7 installation.

http://www.dedoimedo.com/images/computers_years/2011_1/win-7-rescue-options.jpg

 

I have tried that option but it did not work. I think my only choice is to go and purchase the Windows 7 software.

 

I think the bootmgr is missing error can be fixed if recovery proceeded to a certain point. Then you would have a better idea if the recovery set up enough files for Win7 to load. You didn't say how you ran recovery (by special key combination or from CD/DVD) or if you tried it more than once.

Try using your Repair disk and choosing command prompt.
Type in diskpart and hit <enter>
Type in list volume and hit <enter>
Post the info you see here. (We should be able to set the Windows partition Active and then get the boot files on that partition to see if Windows will boot or give a different error.)

 

This is the information that is listed.

DISKPART> dir
Volume 0 F Repair disc UDF DVD-ROM 261 MB Healthy
Volume 1 C SYSTEM RESE NTFS Partition 100 MB Healthy
Volume 2 D Acer NTFS Partition 285 MB Healthy
Volume 3 E PQSERVICE NTFS Partition 12 GB Healthy Hidden
Volume 4 G Removable 0 B No Media

DISKPART> d

Microsoft DiskPart version 6.1.7600

ACTIVE - Mark the selected partition as active
ADD - Add a mirror to a simple volume
ASSIGN - Assign a drive letter or mount point to the selected volume
ATTRIBUTES - Manipulate volume or disk attributes
ATTACH - Attaches a virtual disk file
AUTOMOUNT - Enable and disable automatic mounting of basic volumes
BREAK - Break a mirror set
CLEAN - Clear the configuration information, or all information, off
the disk
COMPACT - Attempts to reduce the physical size of the file.
CONVERT - Convert between different disk formats
CREATE - Create a volume, partition or virtual disk
DELETE - Delete an object
DETAIL - Provide details about an object
DETACH - Detaches a virtual disk file
EXIT - Exit DiskPart
EXTEND - Extend a volume
EXPAND - Expands the maximum size available on a virtual disk
FILESYSTEMS - Display current and supported file systems on the volume
FORMAT - Format the volume or partition
GPT - Assign attributes to the selected GPT partition
HELP - Display a lost of commands
IMPORT - Import a disk group
INACTIVE - Mark the selected partition as inactive
LIST - Display a list of objects
MERGE - Merges a child disk with its parents
ONLINE - Online an object that is currently marked as offline
OFFLINE - Offline an object that is currently marked as online
RECOVER - Refreshes the state of all disks in the selected pack
resynchronizes mirrored volumes and RAID5 volumes
that have stale plex or parity data
REM - Does nothing. This is used to comment scripts
REMOVE - Remove a drive letter or mount point assignment
REPAIR - Repair a RAID-5 volume with a failed member
RESCAN - Rescan the computer looking for disks and volumes
RETAIN - Place a retained partition under a simple volume
SAN - Display or set the SAN policy for the currently booted OS
SELECT - Shift the focus to an object
SETID - Change the partition type
SHRINK - Reduce the size of the selected volume
UNIQUED - Displays or sets the GUID partition table <GPT> identifier or
master boot record <MBR> signature of a disk

 

Double check Volume D: Acer is that supposed to be 258GB? You have 258MB?

 

You are correct. It is 285GB.

 

Let's try this in diskpart.
Type in select disk 0 and hit <enter>
Type in select partition 2 and hit <enter>
Type in active and hit <enter>
Type in exit and <enter>
Now reboot from the CD and see if it finds your Windows installation. If it does let it try automatic repairs.

 

I tried, but it did not work.

Thanks for your help.

 

I'm at a bit of a loss but I suppose you could try to rebuild the configuration manually.

Go back to diskpart and set partition C: to active to undo our last change:
Type in select disk 0 and hit <enter>
Type in select partition 1 and hit <enter>
Type in active and hit <enter>
Type in exit and <enter>

You should now be at the command prompt starting with X:\

Type the following commands in the command prompt window and press Enter to execute each command (paying particular attention to insert a space where shown below):
bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup So this is bcdedit (space) /export (space) C:\BCD_Backup <enter>
c:
cd boot
attrib bcd -s -h -r
ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old
bootrec /RebuildBcd

When you have finished, type Exit at the command prompt then press Enter to close the command prompt window. Restart your computer.

 

I did as instructed, but no success. The bootmgr prompt disappeared, but now I have a prompt saying "NTLDR is missing." I cannot boot from any cd. This is not a result of any instruction you gave me, but from me playing around with the files. I'm off to the store to purchase the Windows 7 installation disk. Thanks for all your help.

 

Does this mean that I have to ditch my PC, or, is there another option?

 

You could boot from CD the other day so you should be able to boot from CD today. Try F12 during the manufacturer's logo screen. It should give you a list of boot devices. Try CDROM with a bootable CD in the drive.

And really you should still be able to use the recovery partition to try again to go back to factory defaults. That process should still work. If you haven't tried the restore more than once you should try it again.

 

I purchased a recovery disk from the manufacture and I was able to restore my PC back to the original state. I lost all my data. However, I had backup before the problem started.