What does BOOTMGR MISSING mean when you turn on your pc?

The Boot Manager file may be corrupted or as it says missing. You must reinstall the operating system. Use the hidden recovery partition if it (still) exists or the recovery media that shipped with the computer. If no recovery media came with the computer, you must contact the Vendor and order them. You will in all likelihood have to pay for them.

Hi Kandace
this means that your pc cannot find the initial files which tell it to run windows. This could be due to your hard drive being faulty, it could be that the computer has "forgotten" which drive it should be reading from or alternatively, it could be that your pc is set to boot from the cd/dvd drive as its first option. Check to see if you have a disk in the drive, eject and remove the disk and try starting the computer again. Hope this helps.

What version of windows? This could mean the hard drive is getting ready to fail. You may be able to repair it using start up repair.

If bootmgr is missing..your computer wont turn on....you have to now reinstall the operating system.
you can try with the inbuilt system recovery..or you can use a os cd to do that.

You need an OS disc or the recovery disc to fix the bootmgr error. Fixing that error require accessing recovery console which came with the OS disc or recovery disc of your computer. The only solution is to get an OS disc or recovery disc.

1. Error: BOOTMGR is missing:

• The following error opens when attempting to start the PC:

??¢ If you recently installed an additional hard drive, turn off the computer and remove the drive before using the following steps:

??¢ Open HP System Recovery:

??¢ CAUTION: Do not perform a system recovery! Stop at the first recovery screen.

- Press the F11 key repeatedly while the computer is starting.

- If you have a recovery disc, turn on the PC and insert the first recovery disc into the drive. Use the disc to enter the system recovery.

??¢ Select Microsoft Startup Repair tool and wait for repair to find and fix errors. When finished, restart the computer; even if the startup repair tool finds errors but cannot fix them.

??¢ If the error message persists, open the recovery manager screen as was done in step 1.

??¢ At the recovery manager screen, press ALT + D.

??¢ Enter the following text at the command prompt: bootrec /rebuildbcd

??¢ If bootrec displays "Add installation to boot list?", press y .

??¢ After bootrec completes successfully, the computer displays "The operation completed successfully".

??¢ To close the command prompt, enter the following text: exit

??¢ At the Recovery Manager screen, select Microsoft Startup Repair tool (again) and wait for startup repair to find and fix errors. When finished, restart the computer.

??¢ The error should no longer open. If it does, perform a system recovery, making sure to backup important files.

??¢ If you removed a hard drive before using these steps, replace the drive. If the error occurs again, make sure the additional hard drive is not set as an active drive. Only the main bootable drive should be set as active.

There are a number of possible causes for BOOTMGR errors, including the most common "BOOTMGR is missing" error message.

The most common reasons for BOOTMGR errors include corrupt and misconfigured files, hard drive and operating system upgrade issues, corrupt hard drive sectors, an outdated BIOS, and damaged or loose IDE cables.


i strongly suggest formatting your hard disk drive, and reinstalling the recovery CDs

if you dont have them, get Dell to send them to you -- it will cost you money

you need to get hold of the recovery disks that came with your laptop and do a recovery install to replace the bootmgr, if you do not have these post me back

Means pre-installion is missing. Which means yoou either have to Reinstall a fresh copy of your windows or your can reinstall your windows by just repairing the files. Its always good to make a recovery disk after every install. If you haven't tried it already restart your pc press f8 as the scene pops up and go to Last good configuration.

You can often fix it right back up using the original Vista installation disk it has a System Recovery Tool. Set your computer to boot from DVD in the BIOS), insert the disc and restart.