BOOTMGR Missing

[melfineo]

My wife brought home a friends laptop for me to fix (thanks) but I don't have any experience with Vista problems.

The message is Bootmgr is missing press ctrl-alt-del.

I have googled and tried many of the various fixes, ie using my vista business dvd to run a startup repair, rebuild the boot sector etc but to no avail.

It seems that all files on the c: drive cannot be seen only a temp folder.

The only info I was given was that a button had been pressed?? It looks to me like it may have been formatted leaving only a c:\temp folder which incidentally contained bootmgr. I copied it to the root of c: and the bootmgr message did not appear but it would not boot due to not being able to see any O/S files.

What do you think? I am thinking clean install and goodbye to any data that was on it if it is not already gone.

 

[linney]

What make and model is the laptop? Have you looked at the manufacturer's site for any repair (first) and then alternatively recovery options available?

When you search the manufacturer's site, you may find out what all the various F Keys do at bootup etc.


Startup Repair: frequently asked questions

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/5c59f8c1-b0d1-4f1a-af55-74f3922f3f351033.mspx#EX

Was any attempt made to use BitLocker or other drive hiding tweaks?

 

[melfineo]

It's a Sony Vaio PCG - 5G2M. There is a recovery partition and it can be restored to factory default which will probably be my last step.

I don't know if there was an attempt to use bitlocker, the person who owns it is non technical. I used Bartpe to boot it and could only see the c: drive. From what I have read there would be smaller partition just under 2 gig also if bitlocker had been implemented?

 

[linney]

Probably not BitLocker as that gives you a pre-boot message for a key, but something to check out with the owner.

What does the Bios say about the hard drive, is it IDE or SATA requiring the F6 key and proper drivers for BartPE to recognize anything?

 

[BadBigBen]

This is what I would do, probably the easiest and with less of a headache to do...

Use a data recovery software to back up any deleted personal files to an external drive...

then I would just reinstall (fresh) Vista, copy the files back... install SP1, and redo all the Progs that they want on it...



Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[melfineo]

I'll give that a go tonight or over the w/end and see if I can see any files that can be "rescued".

I'll let you know how I get on.

Thanks

 

[melfineo]

I am running onetrack easy recover professional, the mft is gone found nothing. Now ignoring mft and it has found thousands of dirctories so far which I will have to trawl through I am guessing. Have you got any other recovery software recommendations?

 

[linney]

Most recovery software is much the same, a bit hit and miss, depends on luck to a certain extent, and you are using a better than most product.

Here are some others that I see mentioned with varying degrees of success.

Data recovery.
PC Inspector

http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm

http://www.restorer2000.com

http://www.runtime.org/hints.htm

Plenty of other recovery software listed here.

http://dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Disk_Management/Error_Checking_and_Repair/

Here is something you could look at if it is the Partition Table that is a problem.

The following are notes from the late Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows Technologies)

"Go to

http://www.bootitng.com.

look for MBRWORK in the free tolls and download it, put it on a DOS floppy (one made by formatting in XP and taking the MSDOS Startup disk option will do).

Boot that and run MBRWORK
Use options
1 (to back up the current state, so it could be restored with 2)
3 then 4 to delete the current code and tables
there will then be a possibility of using A
which will scan the disk for 'signatures' of partitions and rebuilt the partition table then
5
to install standard MBR code so the disk could be booted"

 

[melfineo]

Back up and running now. recovered some pics music and vids etc then ran the sony recovery program which was pretty straight forward.

 

[BadBigBen]

Glad you got it up and running...

and that you recovered at least some of the data, as I had thought that something had churned that drive when you mentioned that the BOOTFIX of Vista did nothing to alleviate your problem...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."