what happen to me was I accidently marked one of my iScSi drives as active so the server failed to boot. What worked for me to fix it was:

1. Boot from your Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 DVD.
2. Repair
3. Command Prompt
4. rename c:\boot\BCD bcd.old
5. Bootrec /RebuildBcd
6. dispart
7. select disk 0
8. select partition 1 (the 100MB partition)
9. active
10. exit
11. reboot server and remove DVD

• Proposed as answer by Travis Marshall1 Friday, September 23, 2011 7:51 PM

Hey Guys....I had the same issue, It came up after I did windows update (June/10/2010)

I went into the repair mode as mentioned below using the Windows 2K8R2 CD but could not locate the Boot or BCD folder, Also it did not see any Windows OS installed on any of the partition. So I just jumped ahead and booted using Win-7 Ultimate X64 CD and did a repair. It said that an error was found and rectified and needed a reboot. After reboot I could see the OS in the list. I clicked next and selected the Windows Fix option. A quick reboot after that and I was good to go!!

• Proposed as answer by VTerrg Tuesday, May 21, 2013 9:47 PM

thanks, my problem replication software error...

Hey Guys....I had the same issue, It came up after I did windows update (June/10/2010)

I went into the repair mode as mentioned below using the Windows 2K8R2 CD but could not locate the Boot or BCD folder, Also it did not see any Windows OS installed on any of the partition. So I just jumped ahead and booted using Win-7 Ultimate X64 CD and did a repair. It said that an error was found and rectified and needed a reboot. After reboot I could see the OS in the list. I clicked next and selected the Windows Fix option. A quick reboot after that and I was good to go!!

IMPDP can I just say that I LOVE YOU MAN!! You just saved my bacon with that little fix. I had a production server that wasn't booting and I didn't have the boot folder like you mentioned, but your suggested fix worked perfectly!!

I had other options like using my backups to restore the server, but I really didn't want to go there. You saved me a load of time and since I'm in on a Sunday doing this, I really appreciate it!! Thanks again.

Just to add to GeorgePR's very helpful rundown, you don't actually need to reboot into a Windows 7 DVD, you can run exactly the same utility on the Server 2008 R2 disc by executing this path in a command prompt:

X:\Sources\Recovery\StartRep.exe

Also, this only works if the original hidden System volume is corrupt, or files are missing.  Otherwise you'd have to recreate the boot structure manually.  If anyone who needs them I can list the steps, but try the above first, it's MUCH faster and easier.

• Proposed as answer by Irish Chris Monday, February 14, 2011 1:55 PM

I've been having this problema and i've tried all the options and still getting the BOOTMGR missing error, so any steps to take would be very helpful

Have found this problem with Win7 and 2008 servers. First thing to check: Is there a hidden boot partition. (ie. A partition with no drive letter assigned to it). 
A lot of OEM's will create a small hidden boot partition. So check in Dislkpart. and if there is one, make this partition active. Some people mistakenly make their C: partition active when no bootmgr is present on this volume. 

• Boot from DVD, and enter the recovery command prompt
• Diskpart
• List Disks
• Select Disk 0
• List Partitions (look for small partition possibly around 100MB ususlly partition 1)
• Select Partition 1
• active
• exit
• reboot

Hope this helps someone.

• Proposed as answer by ScottCochran Monday, May 14, 2012 2:45 AM

Hi,

Ran into the same problem and tried all the "recommended" fixes.  Was 100% sure that the install was ok but it was just something with the boot setup and nothing recommended worked...

After doing a bunch of testing and reading put a combination of suggestions together and this is what worked for me.

You will need a Windows 7 x64 DVD.

1. Boot from your Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 DVD.
2. Repair
3. Command Prompt

Note: I only had one drive and that drive was set for C: as  the boot so the setup was fairly basic... if your setup is more complex you may want to consider this a bit more... but it should still work.

4. rename c:\boot\BCD bcd.old : this will backup your bcd file just in case you want it.
5. Delete c:\boot\bcd
6. Restart your computer
7. Remove your WS2008R2 DVD and install the W7x64 DVD.
8. Boot from the DVD and do a repair.
9. It will offer to repair automatically accept.
10. Reboot and this is the "trick" boot the DVD again and do a repair.  Keep doing this process until it does not find anything wrong.
11. Your server should boot again.

Good luck.

This fixed it for me, thanks Irish Chris!

This, in conjunction with the Diskpart/mark active suggestion above fixed my problem.  I got into my corner through an unusual path though, so I thought I post it here for future search users to hopefully find.  I wanted to install SBS 2011 (based on 2008 R2), which I just purchased but didn't yet have the media for.  I downloaded SBS from MSDN and extracted it to a spare SATA drive and set BIOS to boot from that.  I was installing to a RAID 0 array on a Promise 5805 controller hosting 3 other RAID 5 partitions.  The controller and the arrays were detected fine.  I let SBS create the partition on the unpartitioned RAID 0 space, and the install went fine too... until I rebooted without the install hard drive in the system.

Apparently when booting the install media from a hard drive, Windows failed to mark the SBS drive as Active or to setup the MBR, so that I'd get an "insert valid boot media" type message if I attempted to boot without the install drive plugged in.  To fix, I did the following:

Remove SBS install drive and boot from from Win7 DVD as indicated above.  It ran its repair and rebooted.

Booted from Win7 again, ran diskpart, set to active as indicated above.

Booted to run Win7 repair, but it said it couldn't repair my version of Windows.

Booted SBS install HD, and NOW it could see and repair my boot problems.

I suspect I could have short-circuited the above steps if I had figured out earlier that the partition wasn't marked as active and run diskpart from SBS's repair shell, then gone straight to the SBS repair.

Still, this thread and the steps above are what ultimately got me to a solution, so thanks!

To any would be installers, hoping to install from a hard drive, A - dont'.  B - if you do anyway, be sure to check to make sure that your partition is active, and install from your bootable drive from USB rather than SATA or eSATA.  On a different machine, I did it that way and didn't have this problem - probably because Windows treats USB drives differently... I dunno.

George,

Saved my bacon.  Granted it was a DEV / LAB machine, but saved me a good 4 hours of rebuilding.

JPorche's solution worked like a charm for me... issue resolved in minutes.

1. Boot from your Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 DVD.
2. Repair
3. Command Prompt
4. rename c:\boot\BCD bcd.old
5. Bootrec /RebuildBcd
6. dispart
7. select disk 0
8. select partition 1 (the 100MB partition)
9. active
10. exit
11. reboot server and remove DVD

Thanks a lot!

In my case.. i had expand the C:\ drive using a third party tool.. during which the system reserved partition got a drive letter as C: and the original C:\ as D:\.. thus the system was not booting.. i tried to remove the letter and i ended up in deleting the system reserved partition itself and then landed in BOOTMGR missing issue...

I tried the bootrec commands but didn't work.. finally tried

X:\Sources\Recovery\StartRep.exe

which worked like a charm..

Thanks!

• Proposed as answer by FlokAty39 Thursday, July 28, 2011 12:59 PM

I had this same problem.
Ran all the suggestions but nothing worked.

Silly me left a usb memory stick (or flash drive if you like) in the server and restarted it, then had this problem.

Removed this usb stick and all was ok.

So I guess the first thing to check is if someone didn't leave a memory stick in the server...

Hope this helps.

• Proposed as answer by FlokAty39 Thursday, July 28, 2011 12:52 PM
• Unproposed as answer by FlokAty39 Thursday, July 28, 2011 12:58 PM

hi

the same error occurred on the server of the laboratory here where I work, and all the solutions mentioned here, none worked, but I used two commands listed in different solutions that worked, the solution follows from the first command:

1) Bootrec / RebuildBcd

2) Restart the computer

Note: make the first two steps until the system appear in the list.

3) Recovery / StartRep.exe

Thanks

good luck

Worked like a charm. I didn't have to rename the old BCD, I just put in W7 disk, it told me it needed to restart to fix the startup errors and upon restart it booted properly.

Thanks for the solution!

DELL PE110 / SBS 2008

I know this is an old post but JPorche you just saved my ace. I wanted to thank you for sharing that information, otherwise I might be looking at another career.

John

Use a windows 7 CD/DVD it will prompt recocery then recover it ,I have tested it worked !!

I did the same thing, accidentally marked one of the drives as active on a Windows 2008 R2 server.

JPorche's solution worked for me.

Thank you

Thanks George, followed your steps and now I got my server up and running again...

Thanks again for your post.

Cheers!

Noel, thanks for mentioning this.  This worked for my Dell R710, with one variation: the active partition needed to be #2, the one used by Windows as the system drive (c:).  Using partition #1 did boot, but to a DOS-style command prompt :)

Thanks again.

Wow. Thanks. Exactly this was what happened to me too. The mouse was just too closed to the keyboard, moved a bit against the keyboard and accidentially I "clicked" a different drive as active :-) and forgot it until I restarted the machine couple of days later.

Your version did it. But I did not need step 4 and 5 ;).

Thanks

Cheers.

 

hi

the same error occurred on the server of the laboratory here where I work, and all the solutions mentioned here, none worked, but I used two commands listed in different solutions that worked, the solution follows from the first command:

1) Bootrec / RebuildBcd

2) Restart the computer

Note: make the first two steps until the system appear in the list.

3) Recovery / StartRep.exe

Thanks

good luck

 

I had  a problem with mountpoints and drive letters being assigned to a NON OS partition (SQL database partitions! - on the surface looked harmless!), however once removed the drive letter from the SQL partitions, the O/S wouldn't boot, got the standard error message "BOOTMGR" missing..

- mounted / attached ISO O/S disk to cdrom and booted from Recovery image

- Recovery option

- wouldn't list any recognized installed O/S

- Dropped to command shell

- ran Bootrec /Fixmbr and Bootrec / fixboot

- rebooted - same problem, BOOTMGR not found

- Repair again, this time it 'found' the O/S

- Dropped to command Shell, and went from x:\Sources to x:\Sources\Recovery

- ran StartRep.exe

This ran successfully and on reboot - FIXED the O/S

Previous to this did various items like:

removed other SAN LUN's assigned to the image (4) - no change

delete image reference, and re-imported it - no change

create new vmware image, and use existing image location - no change

VERY pleased that the recovery StartRep.exe worked and allowed the O/S to now boot and all is well.

Thanks so much!

Dave

I have tried putting the dvd in and then running the recovery console via the command prompt.  I only have the options for "system Image Recovery", "Windows Memory Diagnostic" and Command Prompt.

I ran Bootrec /RebuildBcd, Bootrec /FixMbr and Bootrec /FixBoot

None of it works and I still get the error.  How do I fix this (I have no windows restore point)?

and How do I get it to automatically create restore points?

It is a Virtual machine and the only snapshot is with windows is open, but when restarted it still has the issue.  Is there a way to solve the issue from inside windows itself?

reboot from win 7 and repair it it will work .

Thank You

Kalvinder

• Proposed as answer by Kalvinder Tuesday, May 01, 2012 10:29 PM

Thank you Noel.

you just made my day . Jipeeh !

Karen

Thanks Noel!  I accidentally set a new partition I created on an iSCSI drive as active.  Your steps fixed me right away!

Thanks,

Scott

Resolved: Noel's option worked for me, thanks very much!! This was a simpler, and less potentially destructive fix than the other options (plus I do not have the Win7 DVD). I had made the bootmgr change during the config of the SBS windows server 2011 backup not working, and followed the advice to change the volume to active, but that was a big mistake, so I came across the "bootmgr is missing  Press ctrl+Alt+del" error and server would not come up.

A lot of OEM's will create a small hidden boot partition. So check in Dislkpart. and if there is one, make this partition active. Some people mistakenly make their C: partition active when no bootmgr is present on this volume. 

• Boot from DVD, and enter the recovery command prompt
• Diskpart
• List Disks
• Select Disk 0
• List Partitions (look for small partition possibly around 100MB ususlly partition 1)
• Select Partition 1
• active
• exit
• reboot

Hope this helps someone.

Well this may have worked IF the BOOT folder was there!  However it did provide a lead since it was not and especially since startrep.exe failed.  But on a server that has Dell Drivers your Windows 7 trick doesn't make it happen.

But again - I appreciated the lead so after looking down the list here a bit I found

bootrec /rebuildbcd - the recreates the boot folder!  Aha

Now booting to Windows 2008 CD, repair, command prompt  cd x:\sources\recovery\ 
and finding STARTREP.exe - it ran successfully and thank God, 3 hours later the server is up.

Just to add to GeorgePR's very helpful rundown, you don't actually need to reboot into a Windows 7 DVD, you can run exactly the same utility on the Server 2008 R2 disc by executing this path in a command prompt:

X:\Sources\Recovery\StartRep.exe

 

Also, this only works if the original hidden System volume is corrupt, or files are missing.  Otherwise you'd have to recreate the boot structure manually.  If anyone who needs them I can list the steps, but try the above first, it's MUCH faster and easier.

Hey Chris... Its too quick. Thank you very much!!!

Hi 

It very simple just do the following to bring your windows 2008 R2 Server.

1) Boot from your Windows Server 2008 R2 X64 DVD.

2) Go to Repair.

3) Command Prompt.

4) X:\Windows\Boot\DVD\EFI> ren BCD BCD.OLD

5) Go to X:\

6) X:\Sources\recovery\StartRep.Exe

7) After i repair just restart it will be ok.

Good Luck Guys,

MustafaM

Guys,

Just in case of the above not working for you, as it was for me, try this solution which did fix the Missing Bootmgr

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2501318

Thanks

I marked the C drive as Active Partition and did this to myself... You're instructios were what lead me to get my new server back up and running again.

Mahalo!

Hello Chris,

I just wanted to thank on that issue.

As you rightly pointed out, it saves much more time to try "StartRep.exe" before anything else. Oh, boy, I can tell you that did the trick !!

It's a shame because I am currently pursuing the Windows Server certificate and there is no mention of that command. 

Many THANKS :-)

Had the same issue but my fix was different.

Apparently the bcd store in my windows 2008 r2 installation was in the 100 MB active/system hidden partition.

The problem was that this partition did not mount with the OS. I ran the command mountvol /E and restarted. When the OS came back up I typed bcdedit and saw all the information in the store. I got this fix from the following article:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/windows-7-windows-server-2008-r2-service-pack-1-sp1-installation-error-0x800f0a12

Just as a side note I experienced this issue when using vmware converter to copy a VM from ESX 3.5 to ESXi 5.

Don't know what the heck happened to my c:\boot directory so I skipped that step but everything else worked 

Thank you!

I really don't see the point in popping in the windows 7 CD. There is a repair settings on the Windows 2008 R2 CD. Head to:

X:\Sources\Recovery and run StartRep.exe

This runs a repair, you may have to do it more than once. That's about as easy as it gets. No need for a bunch of other CDs. Tell me what you think. Here's my post about it at my site:

http://danblee.com/bootmgr-is-missing-press-ctrlaltdel-to-restart-on-windows-2008-r2/

God Bless You Guys!!!!   You just saved my butt!!!!  I can't thank you enough :D

Many, many thanks George. Your method also works for Server 2008 x86. Two things differed from what you specified:

1. There was no C:\boot directory to be found on the crashed windows drive.

2. Rather than not finding any issues on the last boot with the Windows 7 x86 DVD, the recovery tool crashed and informed me that it could not fix the drive. This turned to be quite frightening until I attempted to reboot the server and it came back to life.

As an extra step, I ran a chkdrv C:\ /f /r on on the crashed drive before attempting to erase the c:\boot directory. I figured it couldn't hurt.

Why does MS do not include the recovery tools on the Server 2008 boot DVD is beyond me.

Buy this man a Bell's!

Thanks George, it worked for me too.

Hi trey5498

Alter days of trials I succeed to boot after applying imagex on a partition I found the solution and I decided to share it with people who have the same issue I provided it as a youtube video for the sick of simplicity here is a link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3sgxweCqeM&feature=youtu.be

Thank you 

All the above solutions did not work for me.

What worked for me is.

Reboot with Windows 2008r2 DVD

click on repair

select command prompt

run chkdsk/f

it will repair all the errors. after that i reboot and system boot as normal.

Hi there!

it seems it doesn't really work. doesn't see C: disk or other except X:\>sources , I could somehow enter D: DISK ,by prompt command.The essence of problem is system can't see driver where initially was installed boot system or bootmgr so it says it missing and it is necessary to activate. My problem is when I give command select disk it doesn't display me 100 MB recovery disk or other except X. I need to overcome it , do you have any suggestions except startRep ? I ve got to recover win server 2008 r2 on dell r620 powerEdge which has external 4 integrated disk which one of them activated accidentally I guess. So I need to reactivate one which hold bootmgr. Very beginning I shinked C: disk to have extra separate space to install EMS U31 netnumen network management system by Veritas app. and after reboot system as it required and reached current result @bootmgr missing@

Thanks 

Just to add also, first kill any update pending by doing this:

1. Insert the Recovery/Install DVD into the computer 
2. Boot off of the DVD. When you first start your computer, the first screen you see should give you the key combination to press to enter a 'multi-boot' menu. On Dell's this key is F12 but it varries by each manufacturer. Once you find it and are at the multiboot menu, choose to boot of CD/DVD 
3. When prompted (after it has booted to the CD/DVD) choose "repair my computer" and enter the command prompt 
4. Type X: (with colon) and press enter 
5. Then type cd x:\windows\winsxs and press enter 
6. Then type del pending.xml and press enter 

That should kill any pending updates.

Then you should run:

X:\Sources\Recovery\StartRep.exe

7. Restart your computer

Thats works for me!

• Edited by JFAR_1 Saturday, November 22, 2014 3:41 AM to correct order of steps

Thanks George,

It works like a charm. And you don't need to rename the BCD it still working. I had this problem when I restore my server from Symantec.