Missing Boot Manager in Vista

Question

I am in really deep trouble here and would need advice.

A message just pop up on my screen and I had to restart my laptop. Upon restarting the Boot Manager got corrupted.

I am running Windows Vista 32 bit by the way.

I got onto Google with a friend's PC and found two basic ways of fixing it. The first one that requires Windows to automatically fix it using Startup repair ends up with the error message:

Startup REpair cannot repair this computer automatically

The second option that requires me to rebuild the BCD scans my system and finds the operating system on drive D:\Windows which I believe should be C:. If I hit Y(yes) for the rebuild process to take place I get the message

The required system device cannot be found

I then try the second option which requires me to recreate the BCD Store. It ends up with an error message that says:

The store export operation has failed. The requested system device cannot be found

Proceeding from there is meaningless since the system device cannot be found.

I somehow believe the device cannot be found because it's identifying the Windows installation on D: instead of C: but how to change that I have no idea.

I don't know how it happens to identify an operating system on D: when there's none there.

How do I go about fixing the Boot Manager?

I have very important files on my system and can't afford to reinstall Windows. I really need to fix this.

Answer 1

You might have already done this I couldn't ascertain from your post for sure so I will try anyway. Put your Vista install disc in the drive reboot (boot from the disc) and select "repair my installation" or something like that and it should do it. I had to do it 2x once and then it fixed it. Good luck! :)

Answer 2

Try the following command when you boot into repair mode with the CD.

Open the command prompt and:

bootrec /rebuildbcd

Answer 3

This site has complete instructions on the repair of the Windows Vista/7 bootloader. The first part talks about the automated repair (which didn't work for you), but scroll down and you'll find advanced repair options: http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/how-to-repair-the-windows-vista-bootloader/