BOOTMGR missing - Unable to fix it

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joshua_ray

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May 8, 2013
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Background information:
I recently bought an SSD and installed Windows 7 Professional onto it. Everything was working fine until I did a restart after installing my network/graphics/mobo drivers.

When I boot my PC without the install CD in i get the BOOTMGR is missing message but when I boot WITH the install CD it boots up fine.

Tried:
Initially I tried a simple boot repair but it tells me there is nothing wrong, because there isnt anything wrong when the install CD is in I guess.

Secondly i tried the bootrec.exe options, but that didnt work because when I tried to 'cd boot' it tells me the system cannot find the specified location.

Viewing another thread on this website some suggestions were to remove any USB boot options in my BIOS, I did that and it made no difference.

Last I tried disconnecting the HDD that had my old Windows 7 Ultimate installed onto it, but when I do that my PC no longer detects my SSD.

Ive been working for hours trying to get this all working and I really do not want to have to leave my install CD in the drive all the time to get my PC to boot properly.

 
Solution
A
I think you will have to re-install W7, because the W7 disk installs the boot partition first. What I don't remember clearly is when you first put the disk in it asks you how you want to install, regarding the fact that you can install without wiping the entire disk when you are doing a dual OS boot on the same disk, but you want it to wipe the disk and install fresh. I think the safest and easiest way to do this is to un-format the drive ( this puts the SSD back to new ) and let the W7 disk do it for you. To un-format chose "Delete Volume" in Disk Manager, which for you is the entire drive.

I just read this in my Samsung SSD Magician software regarding the secure erase of the SSD:

There are two kinds of Secure Erase procedure...
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joshua_ray

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I had a USB option in the boot order but I removed it. Now its just optical > SSD. When I dont have an OS DVD in the tray it gives me the BOOTMGR missing error, which means I cant boot from anything.

My mobo is: Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3R-B3 Motherboard
 
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avjguy2362

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Jun 21, 2012
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It worked fine until you installed the drivers network/graphics/MB. So the BIOS itself should not be the problem. Not likely the graphics or Network drivers. Perhaps the MB SB drivers. You can get into Windows with the Win7 DVD in the drive. Have you tried system restore. There may be one restore point before you installed the drivers. You may have to use the device manager and roll back or unistall the MB SB driver, it will default back to the original Windows driver. You might want to uninstall all of the drivers you installed and then re-install them one at a time and see if one of them is causing the problem. Although it is not likely the problem, I would still see if there is a newer BIOS available and update it, can't hurt!
 
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joshua_ray

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So I did a system restore after I installed my network drivers and before I installed my mobo drivers and that has not fixed the problem[strike], in fact, it has seemingly made it worse. Now it gets to the Windows 7 logo and reboots. :/[/strike] FIXED

Some more information for you, I installed Windows 7 Professional onto the SSD the first time around, and I attempted to change the location of my Users folder and that went askew. I did a reformat of my SSD and then re-installed windows onto it. Which was all fine and good until I did a reboot. I have no guarantee that it was the drivers that caused the problem because I installed network + graphics + mobo drivers + various programs (steam, avg, skype, teracopy) all in one sitting before doing a restart which was when i started getting the issue.

Worst comes to worst I can just do a re-install of Windows. I dont have any valuable files on my SSD, I just wanted to fix the problem as the actual install of Windows is seemingly fine.

p.s I did a system restore for as far back as I can, before I installed my network drivers (which was the first thing that I installed on the new OS) and that has not fixed the problem either. By not fixed I mean that it now lets me login again but I still get the BOOTMGR is missing error on boot (without the install DVD).

Bottom line is from the looks of things going back to a point of "fresh install" doesnt fix the problem. Which means that the problem must lie somewhere outside of the OS?
 
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avjguy2362

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Jun 21, 2012
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You said" I did a re-format of my SSD and installed W7. That may be part of the problem. If you are going to try re-installing w7 again, wipe the disk and leave it unformatted. Check in Disk manager, to make sure there is nothing left on the SSD. Normally when you install W7, the W7 disc formats the disc for you and creates the boot partition. I believe in most cases you can overwrite what ever is there and W7 is installed fine, but there are still some weird issues with SSD's that create problems. Before you do anything, there should be a 100mg boot partition ( System Reserved ) first, before the W7 partition in "Disk Manager". Check to make sure it is there. IF not, I think this is the problem.
 
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joshua_ray

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Alrighty youre onto something, I cant see a 100MB boot partition called System Reserved. Now how do I fix this problem?
 
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avjguy2362

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Jun 21, 2012
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I think you will have to re-install W7, because the W7 disk installs the boot partition first. What I don't remember clearly is when you first put the disk in it asks you how you want to install, regarding the fact that you can install without wiping the entire disk when you are doing a dual OS boot on the same disk, but you want it to wipe the disk and install fresh. I think the safest and easiest way to do this is to un-format the drive ( this puts the SSD back to new ) and let the W7 disk do it for you. To un-format chose "Delete Volume" in Disk Manager, which for you is the entire drive.

I just read this in my Samsung SSD Magician software regarding the secure erase of the SSD:

There are two kinds of Secure Erase procedure. The first is a quick Secure Erase of a secondary drive, such as when the SSD is the 2nd drive and is connected using either SATA or eSATA. This can take place while Windows is running because it will not affect the OS files. The other procedure is a Secure Erase of the boot drive, which contains the Windows OS. This must be completed with a DOS-bootable USB Drive.

To the best of my knowledge Windows "Disc Manager" will un-format the drive and effectively wipe to new, but perhaps SSD's are different than HD's in the way they must be erased. There is a lot of free software out there to do this. You might want to look at your manufacturer's site first.
The thing is, you don't have the boot partition, so the W7 Disk manager's "Delete Volume" should work anyway.
 
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Solution
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avjguy2362

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You should boot in your old W7 Ultimate and use the Disk manager from your older version to do this or use the DOS boot from USB. I had a "Duh" moment and realized you can't erase the windows partition even without the boot partition, because you are essentially erasing itself except for what ever is running from memory, but of course it would instantly crash. I would fear something may not be finalized in the "delete volume" Therefore it is only safe to do this from another machine or OS or through the DOS bootable USB. Sorry. If you already looked for SSD software to erase your SSD, then you will be fine as I am sure they will force you to do this.
 
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joshua_ray

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:(
I deleted the volume from my initial install of Windows just as you said, and then re-installed Windows 7 onto it while it was an "unassigned partition." Yet I still cant see a system reserved partition under disk management. What is going on....

 
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joshua_ray

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Finally!
I disconnected all my other HDD's, deleted my SSD volume from the install cd boot and did a re-install.
It has now correctly partitioned the System Reserved partition and the main partition.
The system now boots correctly without the install CD in the drive.
 
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avjguy2362

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Awesome! Good to know. Thanks for telling me. I was starting to get the impression that separate secure erase software would be needed, but since yours worked straight from the W7 disk, I now know that is not necessary. There was a lot of conflicting information regarding the necessity to secure erase on other posts I was reading after my last post to you. Anyway, congrats!
 
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