Vista boot problem

32bit Vista - after powering on and seeing the Dell logo, all I get is "BOOTMGR is missing - Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart" or something VERY close to this. I did some research and it turns out that the entire folder C:\boot is missing. I've tried bootrec /rebuildbcd and I get the msg "Operation completed successfully. Number of Windows installations: 0" and of course after restarting, still I get the "BOOTMGR is missing" error. So I figured I'd copy the folder C:\boot from another PC and then rebuild bcd but so far that hasn't worked either, but that's because you can't copy C:\boot\bcd to a flash drive while in Vista; meaning that I have to boot to a WinPE or WinRE disc and then copy the boot folder while Vista isn't "active". But - is this going to work? Am I wasting my time? And what the *#$%^&! happened to the freekin' C:\boot folder? How does it simply disappear or get deleted?

THX

 

Hi dlb,

\boot is a hidden folder so an attib -s -h c:\boot will probably make it visible.

You can just cd boot without attrib to get into the folder then try and copy your files or delete all files and let the WinRE CD recreate them..

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One thought on using the RE disc without doing anything manually is after it finds no Windows installations hit the Next button (where you have a choice of drivers or next buttons) and choose Startup Repair from the 5 options. After it runs then reboot to RE CD and see if now finds your Windows installation and automatically fixes the bootmgr missing error.

Edit: Just for information, I have tested this before, if you delete/rename the \boot folder and then run the Startup Repair option from the list of 5 options and reboot to the CD and let it do the automatic repair it recreates the folder and writes all necessary files to /boot and a new BCD. Well, at least 95% of the time. I've had a couple threads here where there were problems but the files are part of the RE CD so even with problems you can eventually get them recreated.

 

The WinRE file explorer has the viewing of hidden/system files and folders enabled by default, so it isn't that the boot folder is hidden, it was somehow removed. For some reason, the rebuild command just doesn't do what it should, and Startup Repair simply reports that it was unable to repair anything. I have a few other things I'm going to try, so hopefully I'll have this things booting today.... thanks for the input!

 

It really is a hidden folder even in RE. Try cd boot and see if it lets you in to the folder. It may also be a different drive letter than C:.

If you want you can put boot files on the Vista partition and then worry about fixing the System Reserved files later.

From command prompt:
diskpart
select disk 0
list partition (get the partition number of the large Vista partition probably #2)
select partition 2 (change number as needed)
active
exit

Now start RE again and it should see your Vista partition and do the repairs. You may have to do the Startup Repair from the 5 options before it finds the OS for the automatic repair.

 

I'm not sure how I missed it yesterday, but it turns out that C:\bootmgr is missing also :banghead

 

Upon further investigation, it was found that the folder C:\Windows had only about 10 folders in it and NO files. In the System32 folder, we have only about 5 or 6 folders and no files. It looks to me like the owner of the laptop started an OS reload and then aborted it mid-way through. Unfortunately, all his personal data/documents were lost too. This is one reason why performing a reload/restore at home is not a good idea unless you are VERY familiar with the process and you understand what's being told to you on the screen. Many people either don't read what's on the screen, or they simply don't understand and they continue anyway....

(I just checked the amount of free space: the hard drive has a full capacity of 465gb (it's a 500gb drive and after parities has a capacity of 465gb), and it shows 463.8gb of free space!)