BOOTMGR not found

[Stan Brown]

Computer: Dell Inspiron 1764 (no Windows disk or Dell recovery disks)
System: 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium SP1
Full backups on external USB hard drive (Acronis TI2011)
Available: bootable DVD of Acronis TI2011 (full)

The story:

My hard drive crashed, and I thought it would be no problem since I
had a full Acronis backup from the night before. But after a
successful Acronis restore, when I try to boot I get "BOOTMGR is
missing -- Press Ctrl-Alt-Del to restart". No way to get into the
recovery console.

What I've tried:

1. Ubuntu 32-bit boots fine from CD, and qparted says that the C
drive is bootable. I read advice on the Web to put the C partition
right smack at the start of the physical drive, and that's where it
is.

2. Advice on the Web says to do a repair install, which I would do if
I had a Windows disk. A friend has a Dell OEM disk of 32-bit Windows
7 Professional, but it declines to do the repair because it says the
Windows versions don't match. It *did* install successfully (putting
my 64-bit Windows as Windows Old), and 32-bit Win 7 Pro seems to run,
but Dell's site won't let me download 32-bit drivers because my
service tag is for a system with 64-bit Windows installed. And I
really don't think I can live with VGA screen resolution and no
touchpad driver. :-)

3. I then re-recovered my 64-bit Win 7 Home Premium, but apparently
the 32-bit Windows 7 install didn't create a boot record because when
I try to boot the recovered hard drive I again get "BOOTMGR is
missing".

4. In Acronis, when I browse to my backup of C, it gives me the
option to recover either or both of the C partition and the "MBR and
track 0". I checked both and Acronis said it was successful, but the
hard drive wouldn't boot. I then tried restoring *only* "MBR and
track 0", and again got the success message, but booting from hard
drive again gave "BOOTMGR is missing".

Questions:

(a) Should C maybe *not* be right at the start of the hard drive?
Maybe if there was some empty space before the first partition,
Acronis would not just give a success message but actually restore
the MBR? If so, how much empty space should I have?

(b) Any way to use an Ubuntu bootable disk to create a proper MBR
that Windows will accept? I'd rather not install Ubuntu in a
separate partition, because I like running it in a virtual machine
under Windrows, but if that's what it takes to get Windows working
I'm willing to do it.

(c) Howtogeek.com recommends buying a Windows repair disk from

http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/download-windows-vista-x64-recovery-
disc/

Has anyone done this? I'm a little leery because of the possibility
of malware, and also I wonder if it's legal. I hold no brief for
Microsoft, but I don't want to buy pirate software. I'd be annoyed,
too, if I laid out $9.75 and it didn't work.

(d) Other suggestions? Surely someone before this has restored a
Windows system successfully from an Acronis backup. (As I write
these words I realize that I haven't yet posted to an Acronis forum.
I guess that's my next step, but I'll bet someone here in the Win 7
newsgroup has the requisite knowledge.)



--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
Shikata ga nai...

[Stan Brown]

My apologies -- I posted without noticing that I had clicked on the
wrong newsgroup name. I'll try to cancel it, but we know how much
good that will do.

[Erland Sommarskog]

Stan Brown (the_sta...@fastmail.fm) writes:
> My hard drive crashed, and I thought it would be no problem since I
> had a full Acronis backup from the night before. But after a
> successful Acronis restore, when I try to boot I get "BOOTMGR is
> missing -- Press Ctrl-Alt-Del to restart". No way to get into the
> recovery console.

Sounds awful, but wouldn't Acronis's forums be a better place? Or
will you publish the correct answers in five days? :-)

--
Erland Sommarskog, Stockholm, esq...@sommarskog.se

[Jan Krohn]

On Oct 30, 8:32 pm, Stan Brown <the_stan_br...@fastmail.fm> wrote:
> Has anyone done this?  I'm a little leery because of the possibility
> of malware, and also I wonder if it's legal. I hold no brief for
> Microsoft, but I don't want to buy pirate software.  I'd be annoyed,
> too, if I laid out $9.75 and it didn't work.

You don't have to pay for Windows reinstallation disks. They're
available from Digital River free of charge. It's malware free and
legitimate. You'll find the direct links here on my website:
http://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology-science/microsoft/14-windows-7-direct-download-links

I've also included some proofs that Digital River is indeed authorised
to provide these downloads.