Windows Vista Boot Manager Is Missing

Hi everybody,

My son's Gateway PC is messed up. He's been trying to install another OS, but apparently doesn't have a clue about what he's doing, and somehow he messed everything up.

He isn't sure what all he did, (or he won't tell me - effect is roughly the same)

So what I have is a pc that won't boot.

When I tried to boot it, it said the boot manager was missing or corrupted. So I booted from the CD, and tried the Windows repair option, which said it can't repair it.

The log says:

Does that mean he doesn't even have Windows installed any more?

If so, that would seem to explain quite a bit.
OMG. If I'm reading this right, he's managed to wipe the drive clean. I went to a DOS prompt, and did a DIR command. I get two lines:

So, am I reading that right?

 

Shoot - I wish I could delete this and start over. I restarted it, and it booted from the external hard drive. I think it's booting in another operating system though.

Now it's hung up at a screen that says

Sigh. Off to google I go.

 

Hi, go back to the Windows disk.

After it tries to locate the OS and doesn't find it, it should let you get to advanced options with 5 choices. The first being startup repair. Choose that one. Let it run. Then restart from the disc and see if now the automatic startup repair sees the OS and can fix the boot manager.

 

Thanks for wading into this with me. I booted from the Windows disc. It goes to a screen with "Install now" in the center, and a "Repair" option in the lower left.

I went for the lower left, and get a "box" titled System Recovery Options. It doesn't show any operating system available there. It says to try "Load Drivers" if my system doesn't appear. I clicked that, and it wants me to tell it where to locate the drivers.

I'm stumped. So I start exploring and find that this is like being in someone else's kitchen. I have no idea where anything is! In real life, he's got an internal drive, and an external drive. In cyber-life, he's got 4 hard drives showing up:
-C has 10.4 of 10.8 GB free
-X is named "boot", and it has 30.9 MB of 33.3 MB on it
-D has 454 GB of 454 GB free
-K is named "My Book: and has 286 of 286 GB free

(When it boots up au natural, I get to see a what appears to be 4 different operating system installs - 2 Windows Vista and 2 something I don't recognize. But it speeds past them before I can pick one.)

 

Ok the 454 of 454 free doesn't look good.

Try removing any USB drives (which I think the My Book is).
Go back to the repair and where it doesn't find the OS instead of Load drivers select Next and see if you get to this page. http://windows7themes.net/pics/windows-7-system-recovery-command-prompt.JPG Where you would select Startup repair. Let that run and then try again booting to the CD to see if it now finds the OS and tries to repair automatically.

 

Ok, did that before taking the flash drive out. "Start Up Cannot repair this computer automatically."

>View Problem details:

Then I took the flash drive out. Dear son (DS) came home and tells me that's where Linux is. Booted again, and got a black screen with "Grub loading, please wait. Error 21."

 

Let's try a different way forward for a minute.

Remove the USB flash and the external drive.
Boot from Windows CD.
Get to the Command Prompt from the list of 5 options.
Type in diskpart and hit <enter>
Type in select disk 0 and hit <enter>
Type in list volume and hit <enter>
What do you get?
Type in exit and <enter> to leave diskpart.

 

We really need some information about the HD with Vista on it.
From the Windows CD if from the X: prompt you type dir D:: do you get 0 files?

Can your son still boot into Linux? Does he see anything on the Vista partition?

 

Hi..my son took jumped into the thread, and then a mod broke his posts into a separate thread. I thought it might be better if I just let him take over. But he's gone to bed, so I'll muddy the waters a little.

He can boot into Linux. He ran the partition wizard program and said he didn't see Windows. But when I booted as per your instructions, the box that previously didn't find an operating system now says (recovered). It wanted to repair the start up, so I let it. Still got the grub error, so I booted from the disc again, and did the list volume thing from above.

There's only two volumes that aren't marked removable, and since all those are gone, they all say no media.

The two that are there read as follows:

Vol 0 - D - CD-Rom - CDFS - DVD-Rom - 2586 MB Healthy
Vol 2 - C - Local Disk - NTFS - Partition - 466GB Healthy

 

Things have gotten confused.

Let me think about it.

I have found with the "boot manager is missing" message that a combination of the manual startup repair from the 5 options and then the automatic startup repair when first starting from the the Windows CD seems to get things working. (I know I sound like a broken record.)

The confusion is with the GRUB message, now. And the fact that we have the 465gb drive showing as empty. Yet, the startup repair now has a "recovered" option.

I'd really like to know if Partition Wizard when first started and you right-click on the C: (or Vista partition) lets you select Explore and shows the normal Vista folders such as Users and Windows and Program Files. That would tell us if the 465gb partition still has the Vista files on it or if it is indeed empty.

EDIT: Not to confuse the two threads but in Linux does he see anything on the Vista drive or is it empty? He should be able to see the Vista drive in Linux as well as he can see/explore it in Partition Wizard.

*********
Going back to diskpart: In diskpart does list volume tell you under the INFO heading that volume 2 is boot or system? Or is the INFO column just blank?

 

In diskpart, the "Info" field is blank.
In Partition Wizard, I click on C: It shows My Computer> Local Disk Disk1 Partition 1. There are 10 folders, and 7 files. Here is the list:

Folders:
Windows
Users
System Volume Information
Program Data
Program Files
Documents & Settings
Boot
$Windows.~LS
$Windows.~BT
$Recycle.Bin

Files:
$bootdrive$
$installdrive$
$lsdrive$
autoexec.bat
bootmgr
config.sys
WinPEpge.sys

 

Ok, that looks good.

In the main window of Partition Wizard (lower pane).

You see Disk 1 in bold.
Under that what do you see in the list?
Just the one partition or more?
What does it have in each column for the partition(s)? Partition, FileSystem, Capacity, Used etc.?

 

My rows are the columns:

It says:

DISK1: *:Local disk

File System: NTFS
Capacity; 466 GB
Used: 4 GB
Unused: 462 GB
Status: Active
Type: Primary


That's it.

 

Well, that is not good. Only 4gb used? That is probably not even enough for a full Vista installation. Did he have files on that drive that he needed?

I think you should wait for him to tell you what has happened in terms of recently doing a fresh install. If he has anything he needed off that HD then I would try to recover the files before doing anything more in terms of getting Vista to boot.

Minitools has a program PowerDataRecovery that might work if he connected the HD to another working computer. It is free for home use but you have to check the box "I am a home user" when first starting the program to avoid being asked to pay to upgrade. That would let him try to recover anything of importance to a different HD or external HD or flash drive.

***
I don't know what to say. It looks like that HD has been formatted and a relatively fresh install of Vista has been either attempted or successfully completed but it definitely doesn't have much, if any, personal files on it with only 4gb used. If he had many personal file he may be able to recover some of them before doing too much more with the HD.
After recovering what he can then a fresh install or trying to salvage this one is all you can try.
***
You could try from Partition Wizard right-clicking on Disk 1 and selecting Partition Recovery let it do the Full Disk and Quick scan to see if it shows anything other than Existing partitions. In particular you would be looking to see if it finds anything with a larger amount of used space. You don't have to apply any changes just see what it says, click Finish and exit the program without Applying changes. http://www.partitionwizard.com/help/partition-recovery.html

 

It's quite possible that my son decided to reinstall Vista. I seem to recall him scrounging around looking for the official sticker the other night, now that you mention it.

I think he keeps most of his gaming files on the external drive. Most of his video is stored on YouTube, his games are primarily through STEAM, and the ones that aren't we have the discs for. He might have to start some of those over...oh, the horror.

The reason I'm involved is that my husband uses this PC occasionally, and he had some documents that he'd like to recover. I think most of those are recoverable through Gmail's "Sent" items to be honest though. That's probably the quickest way out of this. Plus he'd like to be able to actually turn it on and use it without getting the Grub error. That's about where my interest in this ends.

How do I make that happen?

 

Let's wipe out the grub loader. That may take you back to bootmgr is missing but that is alright, we can go from there.

With the Windows Cd get to command prompt and type bootrec /fixmbr and hit <enter>.
Type exit and <enter> to quit.

Try restarting without the CD. If bootmgr is missing then boot from CD again and see if it offers to fix startup, if it does let it and reboot and see what happens. If it doesn't offer then go the list of 5 options and choose startup repair. After running, reboot and see if it boots to Vista.

 

Restarting without the CD prompted me to insert the CD. Which I think means the Grub error is gone.

Ran Start Up Repair, got Startup Repair cannot repair this computer automatically. The problem details read:

 

I'm not sure about the registry error.
Try with the Windows Cd get to command prompt and type bootrec /fixboot and hit <enter>.
Type exit and <enter> to quit.
See if any change.

 

No, no change.

 

You could try the Startup repair from the list of 5 choices. It should give you a message such as no problems detected if the basic boot files are in place.

I'm still thinking that you don't have a complete install of Vista on that drive. 4GB is very small. I think XP can get as low as 2gb but I believe Vista needs closer to 6gb or more. That could explain the registry error.

Does System Restore from the Cd give you any options?

Perhaps a fresh install would be easiest? You don't have anything irreplaceable on the drive at this point. Performed without any external drives or USB devices plugged in, it should be fairly straight forward.

 

I'm fine with just doing a fresh install. How do I get that started?

 

What type of Windows disc do you have? Is it retail or is it from a computer manufacturer? What exactly is written on the disc?

 

It is the disc that came with the computer. It has the Gateway logo at the top, and says "Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 32 bit Operating System Disc."

- "Use this disc to re-install your operating system."

- To re-install the operating system, Insert this disc, close all your programs, restart your computer then follow the onscreen insctuctions."

Hmmm - I seem to recall passing an "Install" option now that I think about it. That's probably where I need to go. Duh.

 

Yep, that is the large Install option in the middle of the screen above the repair option.
That disc should be fairly straight forward.

You can take a look at this guide but you want to use the custom option to wipe everything off that HD (might as well start fresh). When you get to the screens on the second page where it asks where to install. I would delete the existing partitions. You will see the delete icon at the bottom of the window. Just delete the existing partitions so it will show 465gb unallocated space. Then choose to install on the unallocated space.
On the second page

 

Alrighty then. I deleted the partition, and it is now installing.

 

Well, that did not go well. I got an error message:

 

I think it is just the DVD. Clean the DVD as best you can and try again.

Is it a particular file that it gets stuck on?

If necessary you can copy the DVD (I'm not sure but I think Vista might be a DVD rather than CD).

 

Cleaned it and ran it again. It ran the first step fairly quickly (Copying Files) but the second step (which was unpacking or something) failed. It never went past 0%.

Copy the disk - that will work even though it's corrupted?

I have another Vista disk that came with a Dell Laptop. Can I use that?

 

I'm not sure on using the Dell disc because usually they have the license key already in there. Someone else might be able to answer that or you could try and if asked for a license key try the one on the tag on the case.

I've found copying the disc usually works unless you get errors during the copy process.
I've used imgburn's "Create Image File from Disc" option to write an ISO file onto a working computer's HD. If that process completes with no problem then the original disc was not in too bad shape. Then I used the "Write Image File to Disc" option to burn that ISO onto a fresh disc. It seems to work for most people. Something about the Windows installation process is just picky about discs.

 

How much free space do I need on my HD?

 

I would say 2gb tops. Probably closer to 1gb.

You can just put the disc in the drive and then see the size in Computer. Whatever size it is is how much space you need.

 

Well, it ran like a charm. That copy disc trick is certainly something I would have *never* thought of. Everything is installed and updated, seems to be running fine.

A far cry from the "Mom, I think it needs a new hard drive" message I originally heard.

Thanks so much for your help. They really should let you guys put tip jars up....

 

Good work!

I'm curious how much used space is on the Vista partition now? I just want to see if a fresh install of Vista is larger than 4gb for future reference. (I'm wondering if a faulty reinstall was the original problem.)

Oh, in fairness, I have to say when you had trouble expanding the files, "Check HD for bad sectors" flashed through my mind. It is usually a problem with the installation disc but sometimes is a bad HD.

 

How do I check the partition size?

I ran chkdsk and nothing seemed bad. That's why I thought I better check.

I am not sure what he was trying to do when he messed up the bootmgr. But then again, I don't know anything about partitions and linux and all that, either. Perhaps he was trying to get it to boot off the stick as the primary?

 

Ok, I installed Partition Wizard, and there's 36.2 gig used. If I understand what a partition is (and it is very likely I am not envisioning it right) then Vista isn't partitioned off.

I haven't installed much, just the web cam, the printer, and Open Office.

 

Just computer and right-click properties of C:. That amount of used space is all I'm interested in.

Yes, that BackTrack Linux is a bit of a tricky distro, wouldn't be my first choice.

It is fairly easy to boot of a Linux USB with no Linux files needed on the HD. He might try Lili USB Creator. He can try a few linux distros and never have to install anything to the HD. If he uses a distro that supports the persistence option, it will allow him to update the USB stick, install programs and save settings like FF bookmarks and passwords. All stored on the flash drive no changes made to the HD. Linux Mint is a good one to try. Or maybe PClinuxOS would have more programs pre-installed--I seem to remember that one having more extras than I, personally, was looking for.

 

Wow, 36gb!

That is probably taking into account space reserved for the recycle bin and system restore. Don't worry about it--it isn't that important. Suffice to say it is over 4gb for a full Vista install so it was probably a problem with the disc not completing a full install earlier.