BOOTMGR is compressed

[bobarotti]

Well, I have searched Tom's and can't find this exact problem so here goes. I am running the system below. I was anyway. After reading in PC Mag about the usefulness of compressing your files, I decided to try it. Supposedly it was only gonna compress the things I hadn't used for 6 months or better. Ha! It compressed everything which I could live with if I had to. Unfortunately, the next time I restarted the computer I got the following error after the memory check. "BOOTMGR is compressed. Press cntrl-alt-del to restart." It keeps coming right back to this same msg.
Not finding a solution here, I googled the error msg and on cybervaldez.com found the following solution:

Boot from your Windows Vista DVD and select Repair your Computer -> Command Prompt, in the command prompt, execute the following commands by
typing them and pressing enter for each line:
c:
expand bootmgr temp
attrib bootmgr -s -r -h
del bootmgr
ren temp bootmgr
attrib bootmgr -a +s +r +h
Reboot.(If the 2nd line fail, go back to 1st line and replace C with the drive letter of where your windows is installed.)

My Vista disk wasn't handy so I pulled out my Active Boot Disk, which lets me boot to a control prompt, and carried out the previous instructions. Not only did it not work, now I can't get the computer to boot from any CD or DVD in either DVD unit. Help!!!!


My system:
Compaq case (Reused from a previous incarnation)
Asus M3N78-VM micro ATX Motherboard (Using onboard graphics and audio for now)
AMD Athlonx2 7750 CPU
4 GB (2x2gb) Gskill DDR2 PC2 800
Western Digital 160GB SATA HDD
HP DVD burner (Reused)
Lite On DVD burner (Reused)
Ultra 500 watt power supply
19" Hanspree LCD monitor

 

[bobarotti]

Okay I fixed it and thought I should pass along what I did in case anyone else needs it. As I couldn't find anything else helpful using my original search terms I searched simply "bootmgr" and found several entries on Tom's. I decided to stick with the ones re missing bootmgr as it seemed this would lead to a way to reinstall or repair mine. The following two were most helpful;

1) http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/274601-31-couldn-find-bootmgr . Look at saint19's reply as follows:
Open "System Recovery Options" on the repair disk, or OS disk. Open up the Command Prompt.
Try typing the following commands in order: "bootrec /fixmbr", "bootrec /fixboot", "bootrec /rebuildbdc".

This seemed like good advice but again I was unable to boot from either dvd burner after my first failed experiment. So I happened to notice the following.

2) http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/236678-44-bootmgr-missing-unable-boot-vista . Look at Anonymous's re the DVD burner as follows:
i just had the same issue and after mucking around in the bios still no go...
i then disconnected dvd drive, reconnected and all worked fine from then on...

This made no logical sense but worked for him and therefore I disconnected my primary DVD burner and the system booted from Vista disk now in the secondary one. (I had tried the 2nd one earlier without success) I was able to get to command prompt and carry out saint19's instructions and the system booted almost all of the way....Hmmmmm???? What now. I rebooted to the restore console via the Vista disk and repaired the computer and bingo bango bongo.....fully functioning computer.

 

[bobarotti]

Oh yeah after that I also reconnected my primary DVD burner without ill effects.

 

[Jonmor68]

I'm glad to see you got it sorted out, hopefully learned from your experiance.
With large drives being so cheap now it's not worth messing with compression which saves little and uses overhead resources, not to mention possible problems as you found out.
Even when drives were small and expensive, it really wasn't worth the trouble.

 

[Keiki646]

insert the Windows 7 Disc, wait until it load up and you will see on the left bottom of the screen
fix computer, select the drive and Options" Open up the Command Prompt
.
Try typing the following commands in order:

Bootrec/fixboot
(Hit Enter)

Bootrec/fixmbr
(Hit Enter)
then reboot your computer