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BOOTMGR is missing

I have tried everything that I have found to get beyond the "BOOTMGR is missing" message, but have not yet been able to boot into Window 7.  Perhaps I am trying to do something that can't be done...

I started with a Windows 7 system that was getting hard drive errors.  When I attempted to backup a system image with Macrium Reflect, it would not complete because of hard drive errors.  The Win 7 system had 3 partitions on the hard drive:  OS, recovery, and a small FAT partition.  I finally gave up on getting everything backed up, and only selected the OS and FAT partitions, and got a successful system image created.  I then went on to restore the system image to a good hard drive, and started trying to get it to boot.  Note:  the bad hard drive was still booting okay after a few runs with chkdsk  /r.

One thing I noticed is that I think the active partition on the bad hard drive was the recovery partition that did not get successfully backed up.

I have tried  Bootrec (/fixmbr, /fixboot, /rebuildbcd) without any success.  I have also tried many other things I have found at different websites, but nothing has worked.

For a while, I was trying with the 2 partitions, then later I deleted the small FAT partition, and tried to work with only the OS partition.  I tried all possible combinations of making different partitions active.  Nothing so far has helped.

I have tried several methods of rebuilding the BCD,  refreshing it, etc., etc.

I would like to know if what I am trying to do is even possible, where I have gone from 3 partitions to 2, then to 1?

Thank you

***Post moved by the moderator to the appropriate forum category.***

Hi Skipper,

One of the possible reasons why you are getting the error message "Bootmgr is missing" is due to a damaged or missing boot sector. To address your concern, we suggest that you follow the troubleshooting steps provided on this article. It provides detailed instructions on how to resolve the error "Bootmgr is missing" on your Windows 7 device.

If further assistance is needed, don't hesitate to reply on this thread.

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Darleen, thank you for responding!  I have tried the methods provided in the article, but I will go through them again for you, to see if any of my results are meaningful to you.  I will greatly appreciate any further comments suggestions you may have.  Note:  I do not have the original Win 7 Home Premium installation DVD, if that matters; however I am using a Win 7 HP installation DVD, and the hard drive I am trying to make bootable was created with Win 7 HP.  Note 2:  In every case, with all of the methods, the end result was the same:  “BOOTMGR is missing…”

Method 1: Run Startup Repair from Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) –

-      On the initial “Install Windows” screen, I clicked on “next”, then clicked on “repair your computer” on the 2nd screen.

-      I was taken to the “System Recovery Options” window. Where it displayed “Microsoft Windows” operating system was found.  When I chose the “use recovery tools…” option and clicked “next”,  I received the message “This version of System Recovery Options is not compatible with the version of Windows you are trying to repair. Try using a recovery disc that is compatible with this version of Windows.”  (I don't know how to find a "compatible" version of Win 7 HP)

-      When I chose the other option, “Restore your computer using a system image that you created earlier”, it did not find a system image (since I was not able to backup the Recovery partition earlier when creating the system image).  However, I was able to cancel this window and get to the “Choose a recovery tool” window.

-      I clicked on “Startup Repair”, and got the response “Startup Repair cannot repair this computer automatically.”

-      I had already unsuccessfully tried the “System Restore” option in the System Recovery Options window (see Method 3 from your article below).

-      I then tried the “Command Prompt” option (see my comments under Method 2, below)

Method 2: Rebuild the boot configuration data (BCD) from Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) –

I used the command prompt option in “System Recovery options” to do the following:

Bootrec /fixmbr   (successful)

Bootrec /fixboot   (successful)

Bootrec /RebuildBCD  (sometimes it finds Windows, sometimes it does not)

When RebuildBCD did not find Windows, I tried each of the following, yet even when it would find windows and I would “Y” to add it to the table - that never solved the problem of a missing BootMgr.

Attempts used to get RebuildBCD to work right:

Attempt 1

Bcdedit /RebuildBCD

 

Attempt 2

bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup

c:

cd boot

attrib bcd -s -h -r

ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old

bootrec /RebuildBcd

 

Attempt 3

bootrec.exe /fixmbr

bootsect.exe /nt60 all /force

 

Attempt 4 – a “nuclear” option too lengthy to show here.  It did not work either

 

Method 3: Run System Restore from Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) –

I got the following result:  “Windows cannot find a system image on this computer”

Method 4: Use Startup Repair on a computer that has a preinstalled recovery option on your computer –

(The F11 Recovery option does not work on this computer with this system image produced version of Windows that is missing a recovery partition.)

 

 

 

 

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We appreciate your response. Since you are still experiencing the issue after running the troubleshooting steps on the article that we've provided, the last option that we have to address these errors is to perform clean installation on your Windows. Visit this article published by Greg Carmack for the detailed instructions on how to perform clean installation for Windows 7.

We are here to help if you have other concerns.

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Have you considered the possibility that your hard drive has failed? 

Laptop/desktop?

Age?

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Yes, the original hard drive was failing, but I was getting the message on a good drive that I was trying to restore to.

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As it turned out, part of my problem was trying to test the restored drive in a different computer.  When I went through the whole process again, I first installed Windows 7 onto the good hard drive, then I used Macrium Reflect to delete the OS partition and restore the original OS partition.  When I tried to run the hard drive on a different computer, I got the "BootMGR is missing" message; however, when I ran the hard drive on the original comuter that the bad hard drive had come from, it worked beautifully!

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Did you copy an image made on the failing drive on to the good drive?   If you did, you copied the corrupted sectors on to the newer drive.

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Last updated April 21, 2025 Views 325 Applies to: