How to Make a Windows Vista Repair Disk If You Don't Have One
If you bought your computer with Windows Vista pre-installed, you most likely don't have a regular Windows Vista repair disc. What you do have is some crappy disc from the manufacturer that totally wipes your computer back to factory settings. What if you just want to run Startup repair off the Vista install cd without losing all your settings?
It turns out that Microsoft is going to let you create your own Vista repair disc when Service Pack 1 comes out in a month or so. If you can't wait that long, the nice people over at Neosmart have created their own Vista Repair Disc available for download.
The file is an ISO image file… if you are familiar then skip to the link, otherwise we've also got instructions on how to create a CD from the ISO file.
Burn Vista Recovery Disc ISO to CD
You may already have a tool to do this such as Nero, but the best tool available for burning ISOs is ImgBurn, a freeware utility that does nothing else but burn ISO images, and it does it well.
Open up ImgBurn, and then click on the "Browse for a file" button, selecting the file you downloaded from Neosmart.
Put a blank CD into the drive, and then click the big Write button.
That's about all there is to it… you now have your very own Vista Recovery CD.
This is great! My husband had a problem on his Vista system and the only choice we had was to wipe it clean. Now if it happens again, I have an alternative. Thanks Geek!
Hi,
Won't that wipe out any hardware specific drivers that are installed .
Philippe
ImgBurn = DVDDecrypter? I thought the project was dead :O
Nice, is there a similar one for XP? Also, is this legal?
@Alekz: I was wondering the same thing. I looked and it appears what happened was that the author of DVD Decrypter decided to keep developing the program but without any of the DVD copy protection cracking stuff that got it into legal trouble.
Do I download both of the files on the website or just one?
Just the option labeled "Download Windows Vista Recovery Disc".
You don't need to worry about the "Download Windows Vista Recovery Disc Torrent" option.
That is just an alternate option for people with a BitTorrent client to use.
any one know i can uncompress my bootmgr in vista
I'm going to apologize upfront if this post gets too lengthy but I am here to say this procedure worked wonderfully. I bought a Toshiba laptop back in July for basic web surfing integrated into my home theater. I have a younger brother who doubles as my favorite charity. Long story short, he's now the owner of the laptop.
Last Friday he grew impatient when Windows Update was doing its thing and thinking something was wrong, he disconnected the power cord and then pulled out the battery. Upon the next boot he got BOOTMGR IS MISSING. Of course he shows up to my house with the laptop but no recovery discs. Googling I found this site and went to work. And it worked impeccably but with one difference. When I booted into the disc, I went into System Recovery Options then selected "Repair your computer" the message came back stating nothing was wrong. I was relieved because that told me the OS was OK but I was still getting BOOTMGR IS MISSING. Did the ctrl alt del and went through the process again but this time selected "System Restore" and restored it back to the day before he did his deeds. Voila'!!
Once I had it stabilized I went into Windows Update and reinstalled all the failed updates. The system is running smooth.
Thanks everyone.
Frank
@Frank: How long did your brother wait for Windows Update? If it was under an hour then you should tell your brother that it is normal for Windows Update to take 30-60 minutes to install updates depending on certain factors like the speed of the computer or if a lot of updates are being installed.
You can also tell him that in times where things to take to long and it appears to be hung there normally isn't a need to unplug the laptop and remove the battery. If you just hold the power button down for up to 10 seconds or so the laptop will just turn off without checking with Windows Vista first.
jd, When I went into the Update History the 2 attempts that failed were about 20 minutes apart. He has been told (via The Riot Act) that when the Updates are active to leave the thing alone, just walk away. I did tell him about the power down you mentioned but now that you mention it I'm going to tell him again.
He's learned his lesson and I promise he wont be pulling the battery out anytime soon.
I also had my fun with him acting like he had destroyed the computer. (I fixed it when he wasn't around.) He called rather curious to what was happening and I BS'd and BS'd and BS'd some more. Had him convinced that he was an idiot (which he's not) and that he had ruined the computer (which he hadn't).
Fun fun fun fun…..
Hi! This worked… sorta. It boots the computer (a Lenovo 3000 N200 notebook), but it just sits there on a black screen. Nothing! I can see the mouse cursor and move it around, but nothing else goes. Any ideas?
This is wonderful. Thank you so much for getting my computer started so easily.
It feels good to know that one now has a tool to repair errors in a much easier way than having to go through the painful formatting process. Thanks a lot geeks and keep it up.
Hey
do any of you know if I can possibly burn it onto a DVD instead of a CD? I don't have any CDs in my house. thnx.
~Cassie
Hi Cassie
You can burn DVD/CD both on a DVD W(Writer)
and thanks for an amazing post! really good tips.
I need to make a recovery disk in case i need it
Hi Diane…
The process is completely depicted above and what it is for… making the recovery disk…
Then why have you asked some thg as such…
Do u need some another way of that as depicted above… plz clarify..
Cheersss
well to cut the long story short, i have new laptop(acer ) that HAD vista and i tried to get rid of the bastard, to find my self without computer, i did all as suggested previously but cant get it to work. i had special EISA partition that i got rid off and when i try to install XP it shows message of non existing HD, so i tried to get back to vista and now its this problem with BOOTMGR? did all according to the explanation with recovery disc and ImgBurn
any suggestions?
I just want to say.. OMG truly OMG thank you so much if someone has a computer they know how scary these problems can be. i followed your guidelines to the T! Everything is back up and running great. I was freakin out so much because i just finished a massive download for Age of Conan then as i was about to check out the beginning content it said you need to install vista SP1 for the best graphics and stability. Well when i did, it cut out right at the end of updating, you know that screen that says 3/3 downloading at 98%. Next thing i know my computer is restarting with a bootmgr is missing error. I was like O..M…G this is not happening to me. So i get on my laptop look on line for a fix and you popped up
. Seriously i want to thank you again so much