bootmgr missing, then won't boot from cd, what next?

Interestor said:

Volume C the os is active: yes

Did you make it active and then problems started? Because C doesn't have bootmgr and you didn't delete it.... it wasn't active. Try this

Code:

diskpart
sel vol e
active
exit

Is E active now? Try to reboot normally

Interestor said:

No I didn't make C active intentionally. I was using the Disk Magement in windows, trying to absorb that little 3gb partition D: I did change its name there to P:.

I put the computer to sleep and when I tried to turn it back on, it gave the bootmgr missing error.

I made E: (the recovery) active and rebooted. It started up and even began where I put it to sleep.

Is there anything else I should do to stabilize the situation?

You rock BTW, saved me from an emergency. THANK YOU!

You mean hibernation instead of sleep I assume. All is working now? I didn't mark C active ;-) Mostly likely you did it by accident.

Please post screenshot of disk management. And tell me exactly what you want with 3GB partition

What you did:

• bootrec/fixmbr: rewrites master boot record code. That only searches for active parttiton and jumps to that boot sector. No actually change... it was fine already
• bootrec/fixboot: bootsector of active partition is repalce by win7 bootsector. that bootsector loads bootmgr. Bootsector was fine already (all partitions formatted by win7 have that boot sector by default). It did try to load bootmgr.... which didn't exist on C
• bootrec/rebuildbcd: rebuilds the bootmenu on active partition. Since it wasn't there on C (most likely) it was created from scratch on C.

So still no bootmgr on C. That's what happened.

You didn't touch F whatsoever. All should work fine now.

You likely deleted the Dell Recovery partition which was Active and held the System Boot files. Too bad you didn't ask before randomly ruining your install.

Sounds like you're booting a Recovery disk and not Reinstallation DVD. If you don't have a Reinstallation DVD then download the one in Step 5 of Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start, burn to DVD using the tool provided, boot to Repair console to Mark OS Partition Active, then run Startup Repair - Run up to 3 Separate Times. This should work unless you bollixed the boot with the commands your ran.

If not we need to see a disk picture with Partition Wizard bootable CD, which will also give you the chance to clean up the mess you've made resizing the OS partition into the deleted space, mark Active C, Rebuild MBR, then if necessary run the 3 Startup Repairs again.
Partition Wizard Resize Partition Video Help.
How to set partition as Primary with partition manager?
Partition Wizard Rebuild MBR Video Help.

What do you mean by "ended up using the recovery partition for this save?"

I don't know how I could have been more specific, providing the disk and illustrated tutorials for each step to mark C Active then run 3 separate Startup Repairs with reboots to start Win7?

If you cannot do this then we need to see the requested picture of Partition Wizard bootable CD drive map to see what's been done.

Interestor said:

Thank you Kaktussoft for your help.

Making the recovery volume E: active did the trick. Will that setting cause confusion for the computer? Should I go back in and make C: active?

I copied bootmgr and bootmgr.efi from the dvd to C: just in case.

E was active in the past!! It still has bootmgr file and bootmenu (file /boot/bcd [hidden stuff]). It did even resume from hibernatition after you fixed it.

C doesn't have bootmgr and most likely doesn't have /boot/bcd as well. Just make C active and do a startup repair... this will place bootmgr and bootmenu on C. But why???