windows 7 Bootmgr is missing Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart

[Flogger23m]

Hello,

Got this message after starting up my PC today. Upon start up (Win 7 Pro 64bit) I got this error:

Bootmgr is missing Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart

Never seen this before.

There are some options here:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2622803

My question is do these methods retain my files/programs assuming they work successfully? Anyone else have to fix this problem and what were you results? Any other precautions I should take before trying any of the suggestions there? There is data I need on the drive so ensuring it does not get over written is very important.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[GokAy]

You can use them all, none will touch your data.

Our own tutorial - http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219533-troubleshooting-windows-7-failure-boot.html

 

[Flogger23m]

Thanks for the prompt reply. From my understanding a repair install will reset Win 7 to default (meaning I need to redownload updates ect.). Will option two of rebuilding BCD give the same results without spending the extra time of re-downloading updates?

I am hoping this is a correctable software & not a hardware issue.

 

[GokAy]

"Repair install" should be something considered later and you have to start it from the desktop. But I believe you wanted to ask "Startup Repair"? That one only tries to correct startup issues, won't affect updates/data/programs. Rebuilding BCD also doesn't affect those. Method 3 in MS article can affect programs (will delete them) that were installed after the restore point was created.

What make/model is your HDD? You can check its health with drive manufacturer's tools.

 

[gregrocker]

It explains in Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start how to rescue your files if you don't have them properly backed up which is the same as saying they have no value. A hard drive can die at any time.

Instead of throwing darts why not work through the steps in that tutorial which sequence repair in order and include everything that can possibly be done to start the OS, leading up to if necessary running Recovery or doing the vastly superior Clean Reinstall Windows 7

 

[Flogger23m]

Seems like the issue fixed itself upon the next start up. Any reasons why the issue may show up and then work on the next boot attempt? Hard drive shows good health according to various HDD checking software (WD, Crystial Disk + HDD Tune).

Now, I have had an issue for roughly the past month. It may or may not be related. Every time I try to shut down my PC, an update has been trying to install. 1 out of 1 updates. The only exception is when my PC actually has new updates, which it has obtained multiple times. These seem to install fine as the next day the 1 out f 1 updates tries to install every time I shut down the PC.

Looking further into this, it appears to be update:

KB2876229

However, it is labelled as "Update for Skype for Windows Desktop 7.0". Every time I start up Skype I choose to decline the update (dislike the new version). However, do you think that it is Skype that is trying to update itself every time I shut down Windows?

Not sure if this screen shot is useful:
http://i.imgur.com/NBwVBT2.jpg

 

[Mattmatick]

I spent the past 2 days chasing my tail trying to figure out why "BootMGR is missing". I made a cold image of a working Windows 7 partition: 200GB C: drive plus the 132MB system partition using, Acronis True Image 2011 Home, but when I restored it to the same drive (including the "Disk Signature") I got the BootMGR missing error. There are many reasons this error could happen, and many posts on the internet with many solutions, some quite complicated, but none applied to me: I made a cold image of a working windows system, it should restore OK.
As it turns out, the problem was quite simple to fix: I had to make the 132MB system partition ACTIVE: TrueImage made the C: partition active. I should have used Clonezilla Live, never had these issues with Clonezilla Live.
To fix it: I booted Linux Mint from USB flash drive, started a terminal session, used command "sudo gparted" to bring up gparted, and made the 132MB system partition active (BOOT). (I'm sure you could do the same using Windows tools like DiskPart, but Mint is easy an nice).
Then I rebooted, and it worked. The lesson learned: True Image does not seem to properly restore the partition flags.

 

[gregrocker]

The #2 step in Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start is to confirm the Partition Marked Active is correct and then if necessary run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times.

By totally ignoring the tutorial as though I hadn't even posted it, even after I reminded you about it, you wasted all of that time since everything possible to start unbootable Win7 is there, and the fix you needed was in the second step! So this is one of the more absurd examples out of thousands of someone not doing the work, but while wasting hours searching for a fix that was under your nose!

As to the Update that's failing repeatedly, right click it to hide it after Checking for Updates. Install all the rest. If this fails run the Update troubleshooter and if necessary reset Windows Update components

 

[Mattmatick]

Thanks for posting the tutorial: I missed it, just like I missed that the partition was not marked active: something I knew for years, but easy to overlook when you simple expect the restored cold image to come back with everything imaged including the flags , since I restored the partitions, the MBR and the disk signatures. But yes, active flag is an obvious forgotten step so I just hope this post ends up helpful to someone.