Boot mgr is missing press ctrl +alt+del to restart

moziconnect09 · 19 Sep 2010

hi night hawk no originally it was 495 gb then i saved the os on 30 gb leaving me with 465 gb which i use for file storage.

i tried inserting the installation cd and going to the install windows 7 menu and when it gets to select driver/ partition on which to install the os again only 465 gb is shown.
i used the windows software to partition it from the start then once it was up and running went into disk management from the start up menu and made the 465 active.

and greg rocker i think you may be right the partition with the os may have been deleted or corrupted somehow as this was prior to me installing my anti-virus software. and the computer shut down while in the middle of using it.

i tried what you posted on the other thread the partition wizard shows just the 465 gb and tried running the recovery bootable cd but its not booting i will try putting it on a usb and see then update you on whats happened

thank you once again

moziconnect09 · 19 Sep 2010

FIRST OFF let me apologise i am very sorry as i did originally note i am a newbie as far as computer hardware is concerned.Remember i said the partition with my os is missing and only 465gb is showing?
also remember i said i have 2 SATA HARD DRIVES INSTALLED 500GB EACH turns out the one wit the os and my storage files which shut down while i was using my pc is the entire drive that has gone missing and my other unused one is the one now showing up.

i found this out by trying to reinstall window s7 on the 465gb showing once i got into start> disk management the other missing disk is shown but however named as disk 0: with a red arrow pointing downwards in a cirlce.
it wont initialize when ever i try to and keeps saying incorrect function?

is there any ting i can do to recoevr the data on it or initialize it ? or better yet whats wrong with it as it shows up in disk management and my bios? when i try updating the driver says the driver tools are up to date.

please help thank you in advance.

Night Hawk · 19 Sep 2010

This is why I was mentioning a possible corruption of the partition table. When the av program installation was inprogress and you saw a sudden shutdown you may have seen a drive fail on you?

Since the drive is being seen it sounds more likely that the partition table may be toast resulting in turning the entire drive into "raw material" but not available to reinstall Windows onto. When in the Disk Management tool look at the left side to see if the drive is seen as "online" or "offline".

If offline right click on the small square and select online and then right clcik on the main volume to select the Add New Volume option. This will bring up the wizard for that where you then select a drive letter available like F or G leaving D and E set aside for the optical drive.

moziconnect09 · 19 Sep 2010

hi i believe you may be right from the started , it does not say offline but however says NOT INITIALIZED and wen i try to initialize a window pops up saying INCORRECT FUNCTION
when i try selecting the offline option the same window pops up what do i do now?

and thanks for the quick reply i really do appreciate alot.

Night Hawk · 19 Sep 2010

First check the drive's data cable even try another. The drive is being seen but a shaky cable will prevent it from a normal use. Make sure the plug at the board end is down fully.

I had one drive I thought was toast that kept disappearing and found the cable was the problem after cleaning the case. I either bumped the cable or a blast of air from the air cleaner had lifted it slightly!

A simple swapover of the cable "known to be good" from the other drive would also show if that's where you problem is. If you suddenly see Windows making the attempt to load without the other drive plugged in you found the problem.

If not on the other hand you may have to use a live method for data recovery if the drive itself is where the problem is. A drive diagnostics tool from the manufacturer would be another thought if swapping the cables doesn't see results right off.

moziconnect09 · 20 Sep 2010

HI i have just finished swapping the cables with the ones from the other hard drive and guess what it still does not work i take it there is no problems with the cables but with the drive itself.

i ran a system diagnostics using f9 at the hp welcome screen all other hardwares ram, cd/dvd rom , etc are working fine and seem to pass the test first time however when it gets to the secound hard drive on the other hand once it reaches 93% it goes back down to 70% this happened twice and then test cancelled , then it moved on to the next one.

so i guess the question now is how do i go about doing this:

"" If not on the other hand you may have to use a live method for data recovery if the drive itself is where the problem is. ""

once again thanks in advance ...

gregrocker · 20 Sep 2010

Try to copy out your data using this method: Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console

If this method using the Win7 DVD or REpair CD fails, then burn to CD Paragon Rescue Disk to attempt to Recover Partition, then Recover Data: Rescue Kit Free Edition | PARAGON Software Group - free partition software, hard disk partitioning

Run the HD maker's full diag/repair CD scan on each HD plugged in separately. Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.

then run from DVD/CD: Disk Check

Night Hawk · 20 Sep 2010

Did you try only having that one HD plugged in by itself to isolate it? With the second drive unplugged that would force the first to made the default hard drive. With a known to be good cable plugged and not seen that's not so good and suggests a problem with the drive or port on the board itself.

If the drive is still found unusable your options start to become limited for data recovery since that would point to a problem drive. Bad sectors or even heads gone would still tend to see a drive listed in the bios, post screen test, and even in the DM with 7 on the second drive but...

not good!

For the Windows methods that would be setting up the second working drive as the new OS host drive and installing a data recovery software(partition recovery programs run about $70!). Freewares like Recuva won't work for this being on a separate drive to start with where the if so factor regarding the partitions are in question.

For the live disk method the best while not always familiar to many is booting up with a live Linux distro(Debian based) like ubuntu, Puppy, or Knoppix in order to first see if the drive is viewable and perform copy and paste operations in order to save files from the effected drive onto your new host OS drive there.

The live cd option is a working OS on it's own and has it's own file browser if you are able to see the two partitions mounted. If the drive is still working and not toast the live distro will be able to see right onto and access the otherwise invisible partitions in many cases.

Note if the partition table was squashed you are limited even further to the dreaded DrFreeware Fedora based open source nightmare data/partition recovery tool which mixes "everything" together including system files all renamed into endless folders. On one machine it was tried on try going through over 1,100 folders named data 1, data 2, ...

The last professional option is a data recovery service equipped to open the drive casing up in a controlled environment to recovery everything savalageable from hte platters directly for anything the servoce was able to recover. $$$$ along with more for replacing the drive!

The live distro option is less costly for burning a live cd or even unpacking or custom installing a distro onto a usb flash drive. An old discussion on how to go about creating a live recovery stick or other option for live data recovery can be looked over in the thread for this. Using the "Other OS" For a USB Rescue Device?

One last thing to note here would be hearing any lclicking sounds from the drive itself. That would point to failure where the arm for the heads is slapping up against the main spindle for the platters where either a data recovery service would be the obvious or simply scratch off recoverying anything.