Defraggler leads to BOOTMGR IS MISSING

[BigPaul]

After leaving Defraggler running for the first time, I returned to my laptop (Win 7 Ult) a few hours later to find that it had tried to restart and was displaying 'BOOTMGR IS MISSING Press Ctrl + Alt + Del to restart' which had no effect when so doing. I have tried to read the hard drive by removing it and inserting it into an external docking station but it is not recognised. Can you help me recover my drive and its contents?

[redhawk]

Is your copy of Windows 7 preinstalled or do you have an install CD??

 

Richard S.

[DennisD]

This might help as another option:

 

http://windows7themes.net/bootmgr-is-missing-in-windows-7.html

[BigPaul]

I have the install dvd as well as graphics card cd

[redhawk]

Have a look at the link DennisD posted that should hopefully solve your bootmgr problem.

 

Richard S.

[BigPaul]

I thank you both for your interest but, unfortunatley, this advice does not even find an operating system to repair so I am no further forward. I have since tried to read the drive by assembling it in another machine but it is not recognised, either in bios prior to loading the operating system or disc manager once the o/s has loaded. Where can I go from here?

[DennisD]

Hi Paul.

 

I popped in my suggestion in case you didn't have the disks available.

 

As you do have them, I think Richards idea would have been similar to the instructions found at the following link, which apply in the situation of no drive being found with an Operating System:

 

http://forums.techarena.in/operating-systems/1128154.htm#post4259623

 

There are other options, such as "Paragon Rescue Kit 10 Free Edition", which is a rescue package you download and burn to CD, boot your computer with it, and follow any instructions to repair various boot problems.

 

But first I would go with using the install disk to carry out a repair.

[redhawk]

It sounds like the partition table is damaged, unfortunately performing a "Startup Repair" would probably be ineffective.

If you boot the Windows 7 and access "System Recovery Options" could you select "Command Prompt" and type the following in the little black box:

 

C:

CHKDSK C: /F

 

Do you get any error messages such as: cannot find drive, cannot mount, invalid parameter??

 

Richard S.

[BigPaul]

Greetings carried out your advice and it returns that no drive is present - so I can do nothing at all.

 

As this is an SSD drive costing ?500 I am reluctant to give it up.

 

Paul

[Aethec]

Maybe try this: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/fixing-bootmgr-is-missing-error-while-trying-to-boot-windows-vista/

[BigPaul]

Thank you for this advice. Regrettably it does not work because no drive is shown. No drive, no repair - but I appreciate your interest.

 

Paul

[hazelnut]

What about burning the win7 recovery disk mentioned here and giving that a try?

 

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/itprovistasetup/thread/28c16295-3f4b-4048-9e82-f6064476abd1

 

I really hope something works in the end for you.

[DennisD]

There's also similar problems at the following link, which may contain suggestions different to what's already been put forward.

 

Worth a read as it involves a new install of Win7 on a Solid State Drive.

 

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?72096-BOOTMGR-is-missing-(out-of-no-where)

 

EDIT: Some important info for you Paul, explaining the reasons why you don't ever need to defrag a Solid State Drive.

 

http://www.ghacks.net/2009/01/03/should-you-defragment-a-ssd/

[mr don]

After leaving Defraggler running for the first time, I returned to my laptop (Win 7 Ult) a few hours later to find that it had tried to restart and was displaying 'BOOTMGR IS MISSING Press Ctrl + Alt + Del to restart' which had no effect when so doing. I have tried to read the hard drive by removing it and inserting it into an external docking station but it is not recognised. Can you help me recover my drive and its contents?

 

Check what file system your computer is showing by slaving the drive off to another computer. If you need help doing this, let me know.

 

Sometimes, computers will go from NTFS or Fat32 etc to RAW, which will show a "blank" drive.

 

If it goes to "blank" mode, there is a utility called Handy Recovery which will be able to recover your data, including password protected user accounts. It has a trial you can use to verify it can see the files. It is able to see corrupted, deleted, or messed up partitions, or even recover just the files from the folders you select to another drive. If this turns out to be your problem, I do recommend recovering the files you need (music, pics, vids, documents, progs etc) first.

 

Normally, windows will show a "RAW" drive as needing formatting. If you format, you could very well possibly destroy chances of recovering the data. Recuva is a very good data recovery utility, but the last time I tested, it was unable to see a "RAW" mode drive. It can see NTFS/FAT32 etc, but not RAW. If you cannot detect a drive is there, you cannot recover off it. Period.

 

Handy Recovery is one utility that I know can & does read hard-disks & recover data when most other utilities will fail to. If you do find out this is your problem, believe me, it is well worth the money. I do not usually advocate payware, as there are so many freeware, but in this case, it does what I have not found in other utilities, pay or freeware.

 

If it turns out your drive is NOT in RAW mode, you may be able to load into a command prompt using your W7 disk. Once you are able to load from the DVD to a command prompt, type in sfc /scannow & hit enter. This will test your computer files to see if they have altered their filesize or date & attempt to replace them with factory defaults.

 

Additionally, if you have a harddisk that is going down the tube, running a utility like Defraggler may cause it to encounter bad sectors & lock up the drive or lose data on those sectors. I tried to partition a drive around bad sectors as a test before, but it seems that even if you have other areas that are "good" that when a drive starts failing, you better back up & move to another drive.