BleepingComputer.com: Bootmgr Is Missing, But Vista Loads Fine

Hey guys,

My computer running Vista home premium gives me a message at startup that says "Bootmgr is missing. Press any key to restart."

I press a key, and then vista just loads like normally it would! Strange indeed.

Still, i am concerned if this is bad. I don't know if it will lead to a problem someday or if it's just some minor error. How can i remove it?

I tried the install CD repair option, but it didn't fix it.

Thanks, Jason

This post has been edited by SuperTyphoon: 01 August 2008 - 01:10 PM

Did Vista come pre-installed or do you have the Vista DVD?

My Vista install is from a ISO copy of my original install disc, which i do not have any more. However, i do have an official Ultimate install disc, which i assume contains the same files for recovery as it has worked for me in the past.

Try running Startup Repair to fix it: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/repair-windows-with-windows-startup-repair/

None of the startup repair options helped... I'm starting to think that this may be a setting i accidentally messed around with...

That's odd that it didn't help, it's the sort of problem that Startup Repair is supposed to fix.
This sort of error usually indicates that Windows can't find the bootmgr.exe file - which is a function of the boot sector of your hard drive.

Give these 2 articles a try:
http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPo...4&SiteID=17
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392/en-us

I would also try running "chkdsk /r" (without the quotes) from the Command Prompt in the Recovery Environment, then run the "fixboot" (without the quotes) command to attempt to fix the boot sector.

If none of this works, then I'd suggest a hard drive diagnostic (available from the manufacturer of your hard drive)

Nothing works. I tried the two links, all the steps in them, and the checkdisk. No problems found, but the message still appears and i still have to press a key.

I doubt it is anything wrong with the hard drive though...

Quote

Why not? If there is a programmatic error that can not be corrected, then the first thing I would suspect is a problem with the hard drive. What was the output of chkdsk? You cna dump it to a text file by doing the following from a command prompt. You will have to run command.exe with admin privs for this to work:
chkdsk > C:\chkdsk_dump.txt Carefully examine the generated text file to see if there are any errors listed in it.

As usama already mentioned, it is odd that the standard fixes didn't work.