Let me first start by rather sarcastically stating that I
loooooooooove Windows Vista....
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BOOTMGR IS MISSING OR CORRUPT! PRESS CTRL+ALT+DELETE TO REBOOT
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I recently went through the hassle of having to deal with this. ^
Because the PC I was using was an HP a6000n, it came preassembled for me from HP and already had a copy of Windows Vista Home Edition on it.
Now the problem is that EVERY COMPANY that sells preassembled home computers (Acer, Compaq, Dell, Gateway, HP....) is only packaging them with Vista anymore. And none of them give you the OS installation disks.
How is this a problem?
System recovery.
They all come with a recovery partition or a recovery program to aid you in fixing your OS incase of a critical system failure instead of the install disks themselves, and all of those programs demand you have the install disks to work, because on top of having the basic installation software on them, they also have the files that makes all those recovery programs work.
So here's what this little guide of mine is going to be for:
Saving you $200.
You like your money?
I like mine.
I don't want to shell out 2 days pay just to get a new set of OS disks for an OS I already own.
Do you?
Didn't think so, so keep reading.
First a few thing quick things:
This guide will explain nothing more than how to create a boot disk for Windows Vista. You aren't getting a free copy of Vista here. The disk you will be making will only contain information Vista needs to help it repair or replace missing/damaged files in it's boot program.
This has nothing to do with dual loading XP and Vista. If you want help on that then please check out the techie forum. They know a lot more about pcs there than I ever could. I just lucked out and found a workaround to a problem I was having, and I felt like sharing it so I could bug Ex Libris into giving me the forum title "Guide Contributor". >.>
You will need a few things to do this, and it might take a few minutes, maybe longer depending on the PC you are using.
I'm going to attempt to explain this fix in as plain and simple terms as I possibly can for ease of use so if you're a tech junkie and know it all already bare with me here, and if you're a simpleton who only knows how to turn on your pc, hit the forums, and play Co*... well I hope you can understand this cause if not I failed miserably.
If you for any reason run a Vista based computer and do NOT have the install disks then I would STRONGLY suggest you take the time to make a boot disk just in case.
WHAT YOU WILL NEED!
1) You will need access to a second computer. Bug mom, dad, crazy Uncle Larry... whoever has a pc that will let you cruise the net and download a few things
2) You will need a DVD-ROM drive capable of writing on blank disks. (DvD-R)
3) You will need a bit torrent program.
If you don't currently have one then here ya go,
it's free and reliable.
4) You will need an image burning program to transfer the files from your PC to the cd you'll be burning later. If you don't have one of these yet either then
here's another freebie for ya.
Now on to the meat and potatoes of this thing.
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The problem quite simply is with your boot manager.
It's been messed up, partially deleted, or corrupted somehow.
Normally this would require you to use the Windows Vista Install disks, but for the sake of argument let's just say you dont have them.
1st things first then, you're going to need to download the boot file. It's about 130 - 140 megs depending on if you're using Vista x64 or Vista x86. If you're not sure which version you're on, grab one of both and put them on separate disks clearly marked / labeled.
The boot file comes as a torrent to help cut down on band with and download times and can be found
here.
Quick warning:
Do
[u]NOT[u] download it to the disk you'll be using to make your boot disk. This will result in errors when you move on to the next step. Instead save it to some other out of the way area of the computer you're using, or better still make a folder especially for it somewhere.
Next:
Bring up your torrent application and unpack the file you just downloaded. If you're using utorrent that means going to file > add torrent > (open it up from where ever you saved it to) highlighting the torrent from the torrent list window, and hitting the little green play button.
It may or may not prompt you on where you want to save the file once it's been unpacked.
Image Burning:
When you unpacked the boot file you turned it into an .iso file.
This isn't and ordinary executable file. It requires an image burning program to be used so fire up that image burner and get ready to make a disc.
If you're using the IMGBURN program I linked to at the top then click the button that says "Write Image to Disc".
On the next screen look in the area titled "Source".
Click on the area that says "Please select a file..."
Now just select that file you unpacked with your torrent app, and start burning.
Yay the hard part is over!
Kind of.
Now that we have the disk(s) we get to use them on the PC that's suddenly decided it doesnt want to work for you anymore.
When you start your PC up, go ahead and pop out your DVD-ROM tray and insert the disk.
Head into your BIOS and set the PC to boot from the DVD-Rom drive.
This should get you up and running enough to head into the recovery area where you can get your computer to basically fix itself using the boot info from the disk.
Now wasn't that a fun waste of time?
Once again, I can not stress this enough, there is NO operating system information on these disks. They will not be able to help you reformat any drives or install a new copy of the Windows Vista OS. These disks merely store the boot information that enables computers on Windows Vista to start up. Trying to reinstall Vista with these disks or reformat your main drive with these disks will effectively kill your PC, and then you will end up having to go out and buy those Vista OS disks anyhow, so
please be very careful in the restoration program about exactly which fix(es) you're trying to make.
Edit: Didn't really like the leaving the guide off right there with just the bootdisks made and the whole process of repairing the bootfiles left undone so I decided to add
this link to neosmart's guide on how to actually use the disks.
I'd attempt to explain the process myself in a nice simple manner, but they did a very good job writing thiers up already.
<3
