Solved Urgent issue, BOOTMGR is missing - any help appreciated!

[spotify95]

Hi,
Apologies if this is in the wrong subsection - please move this if necessary.

My Acer Aspire 5742 has just given me a BOOTMGR is missing, press Ctrl-Alt-Del to restart error upon startup.
I restarted the system from an hour ago and the system was running fine.
The plan is to factory reset using the Acer tools on the hard drive.

I pressed F8 on startup to see what the recovery tools are, and it showed the Acer Recovery system tools for factory resetting the laptop. I saw that there was an option to factory reset, but I didn't want to do it at the current time (as there is not long enough left in the day to perform a factory reset). I will factory reset the machine another day.
Upon restart (when coming out of the recovery tools) it now shows the bootmgr is missing error.

From what I have seen online, I need a Windows 7 DVD to boot off and go into the "repair your computer" setting - however, the laptop did not come with a Windows 7 DVD (it's all on the partition system somewhere), the laptop is too old to get a Windows 7 DVD from Acer, and I have no other way of booting into Windows 7.

I do have Macrium Reflect and PartitionWizard available to use, would that be of any help? I just need to be able to boot into Windows so that I can factory reset the machine.

Thanks for your help!!

 

[luxie]

Either BOOTMGR does not exist, or you are booting from wrong partition. You can check active partition flag using diskpart and copy this file from C:\Windows\Boot\PCAT using any file manager on livecd/liveusb. Or you can use Emergency Boot Kit as explained here: Fix BOOTMGR is Missing Error

 

[samuria]

You need to check the hard drive for errors as that can casue it as well

 

[spotify95]

Either BOOTMGR does not exist, or you are booting from wrong partition. You can check active partition flag using diskpart and copy this file from C:\Windows\Boot\PCAT using any file manager on livecd/liveusb. Or you can use Emergency Boot Kit as explained here: Fix BOOTMGR is Missing Error

I'm sure that Bootmgr does exist because it was booting fine until I went into the recovery console. And I didn't change anything in the recovery console either.

I'll have to check the partitions later on and see if that is the issue, failing that it will be the emergency boot kit. Though I've just checked and only the demo is free, the full version required is $40?

 

[torchwood]

Hi Spotify,
well if you want a clean install medium,
note your factory reset probobly only has W7, and loads of bloat!
here you go
W7 Home prem SP1 OEM English.
download from the link burn to a disc - install
(remember to change boot order to cd first)
(approx 55 updates after)


https://software-download.microsoft...1486565495&h=9564ad1ce684b547d8afb18a84d68cb4

BIG NOTE -- UNPLUG ALL OTHER DEVICES WHEN INSTALLING

Roy

 

[spotify95]

Hi Spotify,
well if you want a clean install medium,
note your factory reset probobly only has W7, and loads of bloat!
here you go
W7 Home prem SP1 OEM English.
download from the link burn to a disc - install
(remember to change boot order to cd first)
(approx 55 updates after)


https://software-download.microsoft...1486565495&h=9564ad1ce684b547d8afb18a84d68cb4

BIG NOTE -- UNPLUG ALL OTHER DEVICES WHEN INSTALLING

Roy

Hi, thanks for the info and thanks for providing that link.

I have downloaded the ISO and will burn it to a DVD later this evening, then will boot from it and see what happens.
Hopefully I'll be able to recover the system or reinstall windows, otherwise there'll be problems
(I suppose if all fails then I could turn it into a Linux laptop though I'd prefer Windows 7)

 

[spotify95]

Hi Spotify,
well if you want a clean install medium,
note your factory reset probobly only has W7, and loads of bloat!
here you go
W7 Home prem SP1 OEM English.
download from the link burn to a disc - install
(remember to change boot order to cd first)
(approx 55 updates after)


https://software-download.microsoft...1486565495&h=9564ad1ce684b547d8afb18a84d68cb4

BIG NOTE -- UNPLUG ALL OTHER DEVICES WHEN INSTALLING

Roy

Excellent, it worked! Thank you very much for your help, I have managed to create my Windows install disk. One startup repair later and I am able to boot back into Windows again, which gives me enough time to compare what programs I have left to install on my other Windows 7 laptop (HP 15 series) before I factory reset the thing using Acer's tools. (I am a bit nervous going for the complete OS reinstall option as I had problems with drivers before when I had to install Windows 7 onto the HP.)