How-To Geek

Ok everyone...I know there are several topics on this but I am having a huge amount of trouble. I recently tried to wipe my dell laptop to its factory image. It's a dell XPS M1530 laptop. I got halfway through the reformat and it restarted and now when I try to start it up.. I get the Bootmgr is missing message.

Now I have tried to boot from the dvd drive...with a burnt iso image dvd...which i got from this forum.. and it doesnt recognize that vista is the OS.
And so I try to install vista with this. but it gets halfway through and says cannot be completed.

I really need a way to just wipe the computer clean...and start 100% new.

If you have any ideas. plz try to give good step by step instructions... im only decent when it comes to this tech stuff.. thanks everyone!

Hi! I know I'm new here, but I ran into a similar problem about 6 weeks ago and I think I can help.
My instructions probably won't be terribly clear, you should probably do a little more research, but this should give you a good start. (And seeing as you have posted here, I am assuming that won't be a problem.)
My guess is that Bootmgr was corrupted during the reformat process. Try using your Windows boot CD as a repair disc (there should be a 'fix your computer' option when you boot from the disc- it depends on what you are booting with).
Navigate your way to the command prompt. Here you will fix bootmgr.exe. There are several code inputs that I've found. I'm not sure which on will work on your system. You can try looking at this page or this one.

After the MBR is repaired you will want to format your hard drive again... completely this time. ;)

Hello,

I recently built a new computer and installed windows 7 on it. I used a backup program to create an image and then I wanted to make sure that it worked and ran the restore from image. After that the computer would no longer boot stating that the "BOOTMGR is missing". I then tried to fix it with the windows installation disk. It found nothing wrong and started windows(Note I did not remove the installation disk, but during the boot process it asks me to hit enter to boot from the DVD/CD. If I do not hit enter it boots windows 7 fine.) I then restarted the PC with the installation disk removed and I recieved "BOOTMGR is missing" error message. So I tried to fix it again with the installatioin disk. This time I removed the disk when I restarted the computer and it wouldn't boot windows again.

I have several physical hard drives in the computer and I tried a different one to boot from, even though this one just was a spare for me to store data, and viola it booted windows 7. Im not sure how the bootmgr moved to a different hard drive, but it did. The only thing I can think of is that my spare drives are old IDE drives and they are on channel 0 and my main hard drive is SATA and it is on channel 1. Somehow during the the restore process it moved the bootmgr to the hard drive on channel 0.

Hope this helps.
Justin

Justin and everyone else,
Ya i hear that this problem is very common, even more on vista. The problem is, is that Im on a laptop and only have one HDD. So i have no idea what I am doing wrong, i cant fix it from the recovery disk that i burned. I cant fix it through the command prompt. So If I could just reinstall vista completely that would be the route I would choose.
When I try to install it from the recovery disk I made. i type in my code and it trys to install, then it says that I am missing install.wim

So in conclusion...does anyone know where I can download vista install disk that i could burn. or even windows 7 if im allowed to.. since thats what im running on this laptop. I just want to get it working lol

when you say same version? like home or business? and I know that would be the easiest way...and thought of this originally but we just moved to the middle of no where, and dont know anyone around us that would have it. Microsoft doesnt have it available for download? this has been the world's biggest headache.

also Im new to the forums. so i dont know the rules on what to discuss and what not to. I have seen torrents of the installation disk. but I do not want to run into the risk of them being cracked or loaded with viruses.

P.S. I think my head is going to explode...

Germ, its fairly new. its a dell XPS M1530 so maybe a year old. And the recovery partition I cant access anymore..thats what I was originally in. when (tried to wipe it to the factory image) and it restarted and started this whole bootmgr missing mess.

Ive been surfing for hours. and finally stumbled accross Windows AIK? which contains the install.wim and all that....so fingers crossed.

ya.. i changed my mind on that. Im sure I could get one to send a private torrent, although im new to torrent-ing, if thats the term. im gonna try the thing I got from microsofts site.

if that does not work. how would they make the correct files that I need? Do they need to just copy the files that are located in the HDD. and turn them into ISO files? zip it and send it? Ill let yall know if this works.

Thanks LH. I appreciate the help

at 1.4 GB i'ts not an install disk.

sigh im still having trouble with it.. I dont know. what size should I be looking for?

germ-x. I don't think I've heard of an "install assist disk" before. Please could you enlighten me ?