14 replies to this topic

[cardie]

The other night I was trying (yet again) to get the 150GB partition that had dissapeared off my HDD.
After doing numerous things the computer had to restart and when it did it said 'bootmgr.???' missing.
So I read a bit on the internet and created a back up boot disc which just allows me to do things like attempt to repair and command prompt etc. So ive tried everything and can only get as fas as getting the computer to say 'reboot and select proper media device etc' which doesnt do anything apart from (until I put the disc in) taks me to the the windows installer thing. I went on the system recovery options and checked to see the drives the computer picked up. It picks up 2 HDDS. One called 'Local Disk C:' which far as I no was the disc with all the windows files on. The computer wont open the disc and when I right click> properties, it says there is no storge on the drive. E.g. (0MB in total on the drive) saying basically that it is empty. Another one is called 'Boot X:' and that has 33.6MB with most of it filled and contains windows files which it wont let me see because the wizard is searching for driver files.

Apart from that I am at a complete loss and cannot risk losing all the stuff on that HDD, If i do then fair enough but I still need the drivers off it from the computer.

If anyone knows what to do or how to help please do as It would be much apperciated.

Also when I use the command prompt it goes to X:\sources>, if i type C: it just says the file or directory is corrupted. Whether this is true or not is beyond me but there must be a way of fixing this.

Cheers

Edited by cardie, 02 April 2010 - 07:30 PM.

[roderz]

Sounds like the FAT table has got shagged somehow

Have you tried doing a "chkdsk c: /f /x" on all partitions from the command promt using the recovery console?

[cardie]

Sounds like the FAT table has got shagged somehow

Have you tried doing a "chkdsk c: /f /x" on all partitions from the command promt using the recovery console?

I'll try it tomorrow, had enough of it for now.

Anything Ive tried checkdisk earlier and it just said file or directory is corrupt.... Can this actually be fixed in anyway? Say if I take it to shop would they be able to do it or is it a format job and put some shit drivers on?

[jim2311]

On first reading your problem it sounded like you picked up a malicious virus that may have wiped your hard drive.
Quote “After doing numerous things” unquote…hm I wonder what they were.
You need to know for certain if the HDD has been wiped or is faulty. (Obviously)
If you took the HDD from one computer and put it into another that could be the reason for the missing Boot.
If you have somehow disabled the HDD in the BIOS settings then no Boot will be found.
You could use the HDD as a slave in another computer to enable you to view its contents. However, if it has been infected that could be dangerous.
If you have the Windows OS disk you could try using the repair option and see if that helps. I’ve never needed to use it myself so I don’t know what it can achieve.
If you have to do a clean install of windows (format with NTFS) you should be able to source the correct drivers on the net. It’s the loss of your data that sucks.
The above is probably not much help,it’s one of those situations where it’s better to have the computer in front of you to investigate rather than give advice.

[cardie]

On first reading your problem it sounded like you picked up a malicious virus that may have wiped your hard drive.
Quote “After doing numerous things” unquote…hm I wonder what they were.
You need to know for certain if the HDD has been wiped or is faulty. (Obviously)
If you took the HDD from one computer and put it into another that could be the reason for the missing Boot.
If you have somehow disabled the HDD in the BIOS settings then no Boot will be found.
You could use the HDD as a slave in another computer to enable you to view its contents. However, if it has been infected that could be dangerous.
If you have the Windows OS disk you could try using the repair option and see if that helps. I’ve never needed to use it myself so I don’t know what it can achieve.
If you have to do a clean install of windows (format with NTFS) you should be able to source the correct drivers on the net. It’s the loss of your data that sucks.
The above is probably not much help,it’s one of those situations where it’s better to have the computer in front of you to investigate rather than give advice.

Ah, I wish I had of just f*****g left it now....

It will not be a virus, I wasnt using the internet at the time so rule that one out.
Cheers though i'll try again from the above and hope I get some where, when I got the PC there was no Windows Disc with it (which is a bit odd) but then again there wasnt one with the laptop when I got that either.

Cheers.

[d0uga1]

Ah, I wish I had of just f*****g left it now....

It will not be a virus, I wasnt using the internet at the time so rule that one out.
Cheers though i'll try again from the above and hope I get some where, when I got the PC there was no Windows Disc with it (which is a bit odd) but then again there wasnt one with the laptop when I got that either.

Cheers.

what version of windows was it vista, xp or below


try this for vista to repair the bootmgr file

Get your Vista installation DVD and pop it into your drive.
Then restart your computer.
Set your computer to boot from DVD or CD in your BIOS.
Select Startup Repair and let Vista do its thing!
That really is all there is to it!

or this if the above fails

you can rebuild the BCD store by using the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment

Get your Vista installation DVD and pop it into your drive.
Then restart your computer.
Press a key when you are prompted.
Select a language, a time, a currency, and a keyboard or another input method, and then click Next
Click Repair your computer
Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next
In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Command Prompt
Type bootrec /rebuildbcd and then press ENTER

If Bootrec runs successfully, it will present you with the installation path of a Windows directory. To add the entry to the BCD store, type Yes . A confirmation message appears that indicates the entry was added successfully.

If Bootrec cannot locate any missing Windows installations, you must remove the BCD store, and then you must re-create it. To do this, type the following commands in the order shown below: (Remember to press ENTER after each command)

bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup

ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old

bootrec /rebuildbcd

Restart the computer.

now if its xp try this

Put your Windows XP Install CD into your CD-ROM drive.
Reboot your computer.
Let your system boot off of the CD.
Let the Setup go through the first part of the Installation procedure.
When you come to the screen in which it says "Welcome to Setup." press Enter to Setup Windows XP.
Press F8 to agree to the End User License.
Let the Setup search your system for previous versions of Windows.
When the Setup is finished searching your system, select your Windows XP Installation and press the R key on your keyboard to start the Repair Procedure.

This is the part that might make you nervous . The Setup will delete all major system files and then replace them with new copies.

You will have to download all of the updates from Microsoft Windows Update again because it replaces the files.

Don't worry, your user data is still intact. Nothing has been lost, nothing has been deleted. Your data is safe, just the OS has been repaired

other than the above id say the windows installation was totally knackered and a format of the hd would be your best bet
for the files on the hd that you wanted to keep try attaching it to another pc as a slave device and see if you can explore the hd to possibly backup the files you wanted to keep. (or go buy a cheap/2nd hand 20gb hd from somewhere like money traders/cash converters and install windows on that then check to see if you can repair the big hd using the computer management in admin tools in the control panel.

hope this helps

Attached Files

•  admin tools comp mngt.JPG   62.72KB   7 downloads

[cardie]

what version of windows was it vista, xp or below


try this for vista to repair the bootmgr file

Get your Vista installation DVD and pop it into your drive.
Then restart your computer.
Set your computer to boot from DVD or CD in your BIOS.
Select Startup Repair and let Vista do its thing!
That really is all there is to it!

or this if the above fails

you can rebuild the BCD store by using the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment

Get your Vista installation DVD and pop it into your drive.
Then restart your computer.
Press a key when you are prompted.
Select a language, a time, a currency, and a keyboard or another input method, and then click Next
Click Repair your computer
Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next
In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Command Prompt
Type bootrec /rebuildbcd and then press ENTER

If Bootrec runs successfully, it will present you with the installation path of a Windows directory. To add the entry to the BCD store, type Yes . A confirmation message appears that indicates the entry was added successfully.

If Bootrec cannot locate any missing Windows installations, you must remove the BCD store, and then you must re-create it. To do this, type the following commands in the order shown below: (Remember to press ENTER after each command)

bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup

ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old

bootrec /rebuildbcd

Restart the computer.

now if its xp try this

Put your Windows XP Install CD into your CD-ROM drive.
Reboot your computer.
Let your system boot off of the CD.
Let the Setup go through the first part of the Installation procedure.
When you come to the screen in which it says "Welcome to Setup." press Enter to Setup Windows XP.
Press F8 to agree to the End User License.
Let the Setup search your system for previous versions of Windows.
When the Setup is finished searching your system, select your Windows XP Installation and press the R key on your keyboard to start the Repair Procedure.

This is the part that might make you nervous . The Setup will delete all major system files and then replace them with new copies.

You will have to download all of the updates from Microsoft Windows Update again because it replaces the files.

Don't worry, your user data is still intact. Nothing has been lost, nothing has been deleted. Your data is safe, just the OS has been repaired

other than the above id say the windows installation was totally knackered and a format of the hd would be your best bet
for the files on the hd that you wanted to keep try attaching it to another pc as a slave device and see if you can explore the hd to possibly backup the files you wanted to keep. (or go buy a cheap/2nd hand 20gb hd from somewhere like money traders/cash converters and install windows on that then check to see if you can repair the big hd using the computer management in admin tools in the control panel.

hope this helps

Its on vista.

You sure this will work, as it picks up the HDD with 2 partitions (C: and X:) C: wont open and says its corrupted and the X: is (I think) some sort of a back up which is usless.

[Matty.N]

yeah if bootmgr is corrupt a vista dvd will do it

i gotta do it to mine as i can get on xp but the vista option isnt on the boot screen

[cardie]

yeah if bootmgr is corrupt a vista dvd will do it

i gotta do it to mine as i can get on xp but the vista option isnt on the boot screen

Ive made a back up vista DVD but its only for back up there fore I dont think it has vista on it itself....

[cardie]

what version of windows was it vista, xp or below


try this for vista to repair the bootmgr file

Get your Vista installation DVD and pop it into your drive.
Then restart your computer.
Set your computer to boot from DVD or CD in your BIOS.
Select Startup Repair and let Vista do its thing!
That really is all there is to it!

or this if the above fails

you can rebuild the BCD store by using the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment

Get your Vista installation DVD and pop it into your drive.
Then restart your computer.
Press a key when you are prompted.
Select a language, a time, a currency, and a keyboard or another input method, and then click Next
Click Repair your computer
Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next
In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Command Prompt
Type bootrec /rebuildbcd and then press ENTER

If Bootrec runs successfully, it will present you with the installation path of a Windows directory. To add the entry to the BCD store, type Yes . A confirmation message appears that indicates the entry was added successfully.

If Bootrec cannot locate any missing Windows installations, you must remove the BCD store, and then you must re-create it. To do this, type the following commands in the order shown below: (Remember to press ENTER after each command)

bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup

ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old

bootrec /rebuildbcd

Restart the computer.

now if its xp try this

Put your Windows XP Install CD into your CD-ROM drive.
Reboot your computer.
Let your system boot off of the CD.
Let the Setup go through the first part of the Installation procedure.
When you come to the screen in which it says "Welcome to Setup." press Enter to Setup Windows XP.
Press F8 to agree to the End User License.
Let the Setup search your system for previous versions of Windows.
When the Setup is finished searching your system, select your Windows XP Installation and press the R key on your keyboard to start the Repair Procedure.

This is the part that might make you nervous . The Setup will delete all major system files and then replace them with new copies.

You will have to download all of the updates from Microsoft Windows Update again because it replaces the files.

Don't worry, your user data is still intact. Nothing has been lost, nothing has been deleted. Your data is safe, just the OS has been repaired

other than the above id say the windows installation was totally knackered and a format of the hd would be your best bet
for the files on the hd that you wanted to keep try attaching it to another pc as a slave device and see if you can explore the hd to possibly backup the files you wanted to keep. (or go buy a cheap/2nd hand 20gb hd from somewhere like money traders/cash converters and install windows on that then check to see if you can repair the big hd using the computer management in admin tools in the control panel.

hope this helps

Been through everything you said and still, all has failed.

[Matty.N]

you'll need a proper Vista Install DVD to get the start up repair thing

will look like this



click repair & this will appear



then start up repair

sure you can get a vista DVD off a torrent or whatever

[cardie]

you'll need a proper Vista Install DVD to get the start up repair thing

will look like this



click repair & this will appear



then start up repair

sure you can get a vista DVD off a torrent or whatever

Ill try and get hold of a proper disc.
I have tried this but it didnt work.

[MrGreedy]

Ideally, if your hard drive starts playing up like this you ought to run some data recovery tools on it before doing anything else. Otherwise, every time you access the disc, it could be overwriting data permanently. I've used Foremost on linux before. That was quite good. It can recover some types of files even if the catalog and indexes are corrupt or missing.

[cardie]

Ideally, if your hard drive starts playing up like this you ought to run some data recovery tools on it before doing anything else. Otherwise, every time you access the disc, it could be overwriting data permanently. I've used Foremost on linux before. That was quite good. It can recover some types of files even if the catalog and indexes are corrupt or missing.

I take it you buy this on DVDs?

As i can get the windows recovery thing to run but when I look at the HDD it says theres nothing on it. So how would a CD get round it? lol.

[Matty.N]

linux can be run using ram only

not sure if apps can be installed & ran but i'd assume so