BleepingComputer.com: bootmgr is missing

for the past couple days my pc has been doing a chkdsk almost every time i boot.

today when it ran it ended up freezing at 80 percent. it sat for a while and i didn't know what to do so i just turned my computer off.

when i tried to reboot it, right after the blue hp boot screen it went to a black screen and said "bootmgr is missing press crtl + alt + delete to restart"


the first thing i tried to do is use the vista recovery disc. the first problem i had is when i clicked on repair computer, my operating system doesn't show up before i click next. this happened to me before and it didn't seem to matter, i had to fix the bootsect or whatever.

i figured this was the same problem before so i tried the same commands again.
f:boot\bootsect.exe /nt60 all -force or whatever the command was
it said it repaired it but when i tried to delete my bcd is said it didn't exsist, i tried to rebuild it again but it says it was successful.

my computer still didn't work when i restarted it, i ended up going into setup and saw that my main master drive wasn't there. the drives listed
(i have 3 hard drives just to clarify)

slot 1 - unused (when i click on it, it says that there's 0 megs in it and everything is empty)
slot 2 - maxtor hard drive
slot 3- unused
slot 4 - wd hard drive
slot 5 - dvd drive

as you can see there's supposed to be a drive in slot 1, i even went to the boot sequence menu and it wasn't listed. i even unplugged the other drives and it didn't seem to do anything.

i also ran a diagnostics check and it didn't show up either. when it finished scanning it said "error code biohd-3" no boot drive detected.

i used partition wizard so i can boot into something to see what drives i have, it said that my c: that's marked active is only 137gigs with about 40 gigs unallocated. that obviously isn't right since my c: is supposed to be 320 gigs.

my computer is only 6 months old, could the drive really have died like that over night? hopefully there's a better explanation for all this, i can't afford to reformat or have my drive sent in for repair.

i'm not sure what other info you need, here's my computer stats.

windows vista home premium
amd 64 duel core 2.2 ghz processor
3gig of ram
320 gig hard drive SATA (master, not sure what brand it is)
250 gig maxtor IDE (slave)
160 gig western digital SATA (slave)


please help, thanks

This post has been edited by deathx88: 28 March 2010 - 10:52 AM

System manufacturer and model?

This seems to be an HP error message/situation...but I like to be sure.

Louis

Hi deathx88 and welcome to the BC.com forums!

Without knowing the system manufactureer and model number it makes it tough to advise you on how to change some settings in your motherboard BIOS setup utility, as the menus are different from BIOS to BIOS.

For now, the only suggestion I can offer you is going into your BIOS setup utility and looking for the following words located somewhere at the bottom of the MAIN BIOS screen's menu area.
LOAD SYSTEM DEFAULTS there may also be another one worded like this LOAD SETUP DEFAULTS if both exist then select the F keys listed next to the command, it might be the F5 key for one of the commands.

Once you have reset one or both (if both exist) hit your F10 key, this will bring up the words SAVE CHANGES TO CMOS AND EXIT? type Y for yes.

Your computer should now reboot.

Let us know how these changes have worked out, if this fails let us know.

Good luck!

This post has been edited by MrBruce1959: 30 March 2010 - 09:32 AM

yes, it worked.
now i atleast know my harddrive isn't dead.

i went into bios and press F5 and clicked yes.

i checked the menu and a new hard drive appeared in slot 3. which listed as 360gigs when i clicked on it.
so i went to the boot sequence screen and set it as the main boot priority.


but now i have another problem, when it restarted it ran chkdsk again.
like before, during stage 3 it froze up at 80 percent.

i missed the chance to skip the chkdsk to make sure my computer would boot but i don't want to turn off my computer again while it's running it. the same thing might happen again.

i'll let it sit and run while i'm waiting from a response from you guys since maybe it's just going really slow.
but there's obviously something wrong i think.

my computer is an HP PAVILION a6607c



EDIT: i just checked on my computer again. i looked at the screen and it said bootmgr is missing again.
i tried to do what i did before and load system default but this time my hard drive didn't show up.

now what do i do?

This post has been edited by deathx88: 28 March 2010 - 06:13 PM

here's an update on the problem

my computer ended up turning on again today, this time i skipped the chkdsk and it loaded up to the desktop.

everything seemed fine but after about an hour it completely froze up on me.
i restarted again and like before my hard drive wasn't detected by the bios.


there seems to be a pattern here. computer works for an hour, freezes, bios doesn't detect hard drive, several hours later it detects it again.


is there something wrong with my hard drive? do i need to get a new one?

my main problem would be how to get all the data off of here.

data recovery cost at least $200.
hopefully if my computer turns on again i might be able to use an external.
but an hour isn't long enough to get all my data.

what's the best way to go about doing this.


can anyone help me?

The easiest (IMO) way to try to move data from a hard drive...is to remove the drive from parent system and attach it to a 2d working system...then move the files desired.

Louis

hamluis, on Mar 29 2010, 08:48 PM, said:

well i'd have to get the whole drive copied, i read that clonezilla is a good, free program.
and i only have less than an hour to copy the whole 320 gigs so i'm hoping i can get it done.

thing is, i'm not quite sure how to go about using a disk cloning program
what would be the best way to do this.

i have an external drive i can use and another computer.
i'm guessing i could set my busted drive to a slave and put it in the external enclosure.
if i get a new drive i could set that as a slave as well and put it in the other computer, right?

if i put the new drive in the other computer do i have to format and partition it first, then clone it?
and my busted drive has two partitions on it, if i clone it will it add both of them? i'm a little confused on this.

<<thing is, i'm not quite sure how to go about using a disk cloning program
what would be the best way to do this.>>

Decide what program you want to use for said effort...then read the instructions for using it. The standards don't include the manner in which attempts to accomplish the designated task, so there are no standard directions I would give.

Such programs are plentiful, I only have familiarity with a couple of such, while the same is probably true of others here.

You are assuming...that the drive can currently be recognized/read from another system, as a secondary. I think I'd find out if such is the case, before I made any tentative plans.

If the partition is currently reflected as RAW or is otherwise unreadable right now...you will need a different plan/strategy.

Louis

i think i've just decided to use a data recovery service since i don't want to risk it. i don't think it should be that expensive for something like this.

so hopefully i should be good to go.

Sounds to me like a dying motherboard.

cryptodan, on Apr 3 2010, 01:53 AM, said:

I wouldn't say this just yet, there are other issues that can cause this error to happen.

It is best to run a process of elimination before suggesting a major device such as the motherboard, is dying. It may not be the case here at all and a perfectly functioning device could be discarded needlessly.

This post has been edited by MrBruce1959: 03 April 2010 - 12:24 PM

Well...I tend to believe in trying the easy things first.

Since a motherboard "test" is tedious and involves replacing it with another or moving it to a second system...it's the last thing I would consider, along with CPU failure.

After all other easy possibilities are exhausted...I then grab at straws and move on to items a typical user cannot readily test.

Louis

deathx88 before we assume that you have a dying motherboard, have you tried disconnecting all of the cables and reconnecting them, please include all cables going to SATA hard drives or E-IDE hard drives, make sure they are fully pushed in when reconnecting them.

I want to mention that sometimes oxidation can build up between the connectors, this can cause intermittent connections, where the device is there and then it isn't issues. Disconnecting and reconnecting a connector will disturb the oxidation build up and reestablish the connection to 100% connectivity again.

Re-seat all your power connectors and data cables, pay special attention to the drive you are having issues with.

If your hard drive is failing, it may be heat related, hard drives do get very warm with prolonged usage, sometimes they over heat and cause crashes.

To slow the possibility of this occurring, purchase a chassis fan and locate it inside the desktop so it is blowing toward your hard drive/s. Programs such as HWMonitor or Speed fan that monitor temperatures, include the monitoring of your hard drive temps.

I have not seen where you mentioned your hard drives manufacturer, but most hard drive manufacturers have hard drive diagnostic tools, which can detect hard drive issues such as whether the hard drive has ever experienced an over heating issue. Seagate/Maxtor tools includes such a feature IMO.

Make sure your data cables are in good shape, look for cracked or deteriorating insulation and replace them if you suspect one of them.

Try what I suggested above before it is assumed that your motherboard is dying.

Post back your results.

Best regards.

If you are not sure if motherboard work fine then you need use other computer of a friend.
and check there your hard disk with chkdsk but boot with windows cd or DVD.
There are many recovery programs in internet. You can search in google using the proper words.
If finaly your hard disk has problem in PCB board, this one with the electronic chips on it, one solution it to search in google or in ebay to find exactly same harddisk to replace the PCB board.
Some of them the cost is few USA $ ! and some of them less than 50$ depent harddisk and the person or the shop that make the offer.
Usually recovery laboratories ask over 400$ for it MINIMUM !. some other 10000 USA $ or more!
I saved a disk in past with less than 30 USA$ ! and I asure you the data inside had value 100 times more.

FWIW: Last post by OP was 31 March.

Louis