Find yourself receiving "BOOTMGR is missing, Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart" message? Don't stress! Its easier to fix than you think. Here's how:
SOLUTION 1
- Get your Vista installation DVD and pop it into your drive.
- Then restart your computer.
- Set your computer to boot from DVD or CD in your BIOS.
Vista will ask you for language and keyboard layout information, after which you will be asked if you want to re-install Vista or repair your existing installation.
Select Repair. After which Vista's System Recovery Tool will start.
Select Startup Repair and let Vista do its thing! That really is all there is to it!
If that doesn't work try this:
SOLUTION 2
If the previous method does not resolve the problem, you can rebuild the BCD store by using the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment. To do this, follow these steps:
- Get your Vista installation DVD and pop it into your drive.
- Then restart your computer.
- Press a key when you are prompted.
- Select a language, a time, a currency, and a keyboard or another input method, and then click Next
- Click Repair your computer
- Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next
- In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Command Prompt
- Type bootrec /rebuildbcd and then press ENTER
• If Bootrec runs successfully, it will present you with the installation path of a Windows directory. To add the entry to the BCD store, type Yes . A confirmation message appears that indicates the entry was added successfully.
• If Bootrec cannot locate any missing Windows installations, you must remove the BCD store, and then you must re-create it. To do this, type the following commands in the order shown below: (Remember to press ENTER after each command)
bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup
ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old
bootrec /rebuildbcd
- Restart the computer.
Troubleshooting is merely the methodical application of common sense and technical knowledge to the inevitable problems that crop up in a fallen world. If common sense can be codified (and perhaps it can with AI) then it starts with answers to simple questions like: Why? How? What? In this article I'll try to distill the issues, tools and procedures of troubleshooting Windows XP/2003 boot problems into a small amount of easily digestible information that you as a system administrator can write on the back of a note card or store in your PDA for easy access when the proverbial poop hits the fan. Let's begin with the Why question.
Why do startup problems happen?
Windows may fail to start for a variety of reasons, and generally speaking in order of decreasing likelihood here they are:
- Hardware failure
- Bad driver
- Corrupt file or volume
- System misconfiguration
- Virus infection
Let me elaborate. A common reason systems fail to start is because some element of the system's hardware has failed. This could range from the simple (someone kicked the power cord out of its socket) to the obvious (smoke emitting from the machine) to the mysterious (something transient that happens only when the moon is full or during sunspot minimum). Next most common is when you update the driver for some piece of hardware (or the BIOS for that matter) and the system won't boot afterwards. After that comes those mysterious messages we'll talk about shortly that usually indicate some key operating system file has somehow become corrupt or gone missing. Misconfiguration is another possible source of boot problems, but this is somewhat rare as in most cases you'll still be able to boot but one or more services may fail to start or your applications may not function as expected. Finally, virus infection can cause a system to fail to boot, but I've listed this in last place because I'm assuming you've got an antivirus solution in place and you're keeping the antivirus signature files updated, right?
Now that we know why Windows may fail to start properly, let's ask the logical next question: How can we know which of these underlying causes is the one that might be preventing Windows from successfully booting?
How to diagnose startup problems
Here is where we need to apply our brains and use a bit of common sense to determine what the cause of startup failure might be. Think of the previous list above as a list of disease-causing viruses, and now you have to play doctor and figure out which virus the patient (your sick computer) actually might have. For if you skip this step and try blasting the patient with every possible remedy in your doctor's bag, two things may happen:
- One of the remedies you try may actually make the patient worse and indeed could prove fatal.
- You'll waste a lot of time and the recovery of your patient will be delayed, and your boss may get upset with you as a result since her business is losing money due to downtime.
So careful diagnosis is a step you should always take time for and never avoid, and just like in the medical profession such diagnosis usually begins with your senses. For example, do you smell something burning? Better unplug your system immediately and wait for things to cool off, then open the case and inspect the damage. Do you hear your CPU fan making a slow grinding sound? Power down your system and replace the fan before your processor burns out and needs replacing. Is your video display flickering? Maybe try reseating the video card after checking if the video cable is seated properly.
OK let's assume its not such a simple and obvious problem. Instead, say you get a black screen with one of the following dreaded messages when you try and boot your system:
- "NTLDR is missing"
- "A disk read error occurred"
- "Invalid partition table"
- "Error loading operating system"
- "Could not read from selected boot disk"
- "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt"
Or you might get a blue screen (called a STOP screen) with some obscure message on it. Or if you're lucky you might make it all the way through the Windows splash screen to the logon box and then suddenly get a dialog box saying "One or more services failed to start". Or your mouse pointer might freeze and your system hang either before or immediately after logon. How can you match these symptoms to the underlying condition that might be causing them? First let's look at some possible "black screen" messages that can occur after the BIOS POST routine finishes but before the Windows splash screen appears:
Symptom
Probable Cause
- "Invalid Partition Table"
- "Missing Operating System"
- "Invalid Partition Table"
Master boot record is corrupt due to hard disk errors or virus infection
- "NTLDR is missing"
- "A disk read error occurred"
- System hangs after BIOS POST finishes
Boot sector is corrupt due to hard disk errors or virus infection
- "Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem"
- "Could not read from selected boot disk"
- "Check boot path and disk hardware"
Boot.ini file is corrupt, missing, or needs updating.
- "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt"
Boot volume is corrupt or the referenced system file is missing.
In addition to these error messages, a variety of other startup problems can occur including:
- Blue screens. These are typically caused by hardware failure or driver problems but can also be due to virus infection.
- Hung system. These are typically caused by buggy drivers or by registry corruption but can also be due to virus infection.
- Dialog box saying "One or more services failed to start". This is typically caused by misconfiguration or registry corruption but can also be caused by application incompatibility of some form.
So what should you do to resolve such problems?
How to resolve startup problems
Like a doctor's mysterious black medical bag full of medical instruments (at least in old movies on TV) the system administrator also has a set of tools provided by Microsoft for resolving startup problems like the ones in the table above. In a nutshell, here's a quick inventory of the main tools:
- Last known good. Restores the HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet portion of the registry its version during the last successful logon to the system.
- Safe mode. Starts Windows with a minimal set of drivers and creates a record of which drivers load in %windir%\Ntbtlog.txt.
- System Restore. Windows XP only feature to restore system to previously saved configuration.
- Recovery Console. Boots to a command line that allows you to run various commands, see this article by Johannes Helmig for more info.
- Automated System Recovery (ASR). Restores the boot volume from backup, see this article by Johannes Helmig for more info.
- Repair. Run Windows Setup from your product CD and select the option to try and repair your installation.
Which tool should you use to address each of the symptoms we described earlier? Assuming there is no obvious hardware problem (no funny smell) and you've already asked yourself the Golden Question ("What was the last thing I did to this system?") then here's a quick outline that maps the type of knife (may be several in order of severity) to the kind of surgery (underlying problem or visible symptom) you need to perform on your system:
Problem/Symptom
Tool(s) to Use
Corrupt master boot record
Recovery Console (fixmbr)
Corrupt boot sector
Recovery Console (fixboot)
Corrupt or missing boot.ini
Recovery Console (bootcfg /rebuild)
Corrupt system file
Recovery Console (chkdsk)
Restore from ASR backup
Perform a Repair install
Corrupt registry
Recovery Console (chkdsk)
System Restore (XP only)
Restore system state from backup
Perform a Repair install
Blue screen
See this resource first
Last known good
System Restore (XP only)
Safe mode (roll back suspect driver using Device Manager)
Hung system
Last known good
System Restore (XP only)
Safe mode (roll back suspect driver using Device Manager)
"One or more services failed to start"
Don't logon! Reboot and select last known good, log on, undo the last configuration steps you performed.
Safe mode (undo last configuration steps you performed)
Nobody wants to setup their hard drive as one giant data dump. Dividing your drive into multiple partitions makes mutitasking easier. Keeping different types of data such as work documents, mp3s, video files, etc in a partition separate from the operating system can greatly increase your computer’s performance. And if you are planning on using multiple operating systems then you will absolutely need multiple partitions.
What Is Partitioning ?
A partition can be assumed as a container, like one drawer of a file cabinet. Each partition uses a file system to store and name data. Windows 98 used FAT32 which allowed greater maximum partition sizes and stored data more efficiently than the FAT16 file system of DOS and Windows 95. Windows NT introduced NTFS file system, which offers better data security and efficient memory handling. Windows 2000 and XP can read and write to both NTFS and FAT32 partitions.
Partitioning Your Hard Drive Using FDISK
Follow these simple steps after runnning FDISK command in command prompt to partition your harddrive:
- First, to view a list of all drives available on your system select (5).
- Press (4) to view partition information on the drive, then select the new hard drive.
- Select (1) to create a partition, then on the next screen choose (1) to create a primary partition on that drive.
- Select (y) if you wish to use all the space on the drive for this one partition(which we don’t want to), or (n) if you wish to make more than one partition on the drive now or later. If you selected (n), enter the amount of space you wish to use for the primary partition.
- By selecting (n) it means that you do want to create multiple partitions, you must now make a secondary partition using the rest of the free space.
- Press (1) to create another partition, then (2) to create an extended DOS partition. While it gives you an option to use less than full amount of space on the disk here but any space which is not allocated now can no longer be used by FDISK unless you erase the existing partitions. So accept the default (maximum available) size for the extended partition, then press ‘ESC.’ This will take you to the menu for creating logical drives in the extended partition.
- To create a logical drive which are represented by drive C: or D: etc, simply fill in the amount of space you require the drive to have.
After you finished performing all this procedure, Exit from FDISK, reboot to windows.
Partitioning Your Hard Drive In Windows 2000/XP
To start partitioning in Windows 2000/Xp environment, right click My Computer and select Manage, once you enter into the Manage screen, from here select Disk Management.
This main screen will show you the existing drives with the new ones. At this instance Windows usually open up a wizard to help partition and format your new drive. If it does not, right click the new drive in the lower pane and select initialize drive.
Now you can partition your drive by following these steps.
- Right click on the new drive and select new partition, then it will launch the partition wizard.
- In this step it will then prompt you how much drive space you want to allocate to the new partition.
- If you choose not to use the full amount of space for the first partition, you can create additional partitions in the same way up to a maximum of four partitions per disk.
- Now it will ask for a drive letter which Windows will use to represent partition as C: or D: etc.
- Once you’ve created the partitions, you’ll have to format the newly created partitionswhich Windows will prompt to do automatically.
- Once formatting is complete, reboot your computer, and you’re done.
Hard Disk Partitioning and Formatting Procedure
This procedure describes how to set up a new, empty hard disk so that it is ready for an operating system to be installed on it. This process includes partitioning and formatting and results in a bootable hard disk. The procedure covers configuring the hard disk as a single large partition or splitting it into multiple, smaller partitions. The procedure provides specific instructions for using the FDISK program and is based on the Windows 95 OEM SR2 (Windows 95B) FDISK version with FAT32 support.
Warning: This procedure is intended to be used for setting up a new hard disk containing no information on it. Do not follow these steps if your hard disk has already been partitioned and formatted, or data loss will likely result.
Procedure Overview:
- Difficulty Level: 2 (Low).
- Risk Factor: 1 (Very low). This assumes that the hard disk has no data on it.
- Hardware Required: None.
- Software Required: Boot disk containing the FDISK.EXE and FORMAT.COM programs.
- Time to Perform: 5 to 20 minutes, depending on the size and speed of the hard disks.
- Preparation / Warnings:
- To be safe, always run FDISK from DOS only.
- Be extremely careful when using the FDISK program, as one incorrect keystroke can result in major data loss. In particular, in a system with multiple hard disk drives be careful to make sure you are working on the right physical disk or you may accidentally end up disturbing the contents of the wrong drive. Beware that DOS drive letters can change after creating or deleting partitions, and that with multiple hard disks the partitions may be lettered in an unexpected sequence. See here for more details on this.
- Do not perform this procedure until the system is in good working order. Resolve any hardware conflicts or other issues before commencing.
- I assume that the system has been turned on and booted from the floppy disk.
- FDISK uses binary megabytes when displaying drive and partition sizes, not decimal megabytes. See this explanation of the difference for details.
- All commands in DOS or within FDISK require you to press {Enter} to select them; I'm not going to repeat it a zillion times within the procedure below.
Procedure Steps:
- Check Version Number: At the DOS prompt, enter the following command: "ver". The system will respond with the version of DOS/Windows you have booted. Make sure that this matches whatever you want to install on the hard disk. For Windows 95 OEM SR2 the version number will be "4.00.1111".
- Plan Partitions: Decide how you want to partition your hard disk. In particular, for large hard disks under Windows 95 OSR2, decide if you want to set up your hard disk with a single large FAT32 partition, or several smaller FAT16 partitions. (You can of course mix these). I provide instructions for doing either of these, but cannot tell you how to set up your system. You must decide based on what makes sense for you. For assistance in making this decision, and more general information on partitioning, cluster sizes and related issues, refer to this section. Most people today prefer to set up a new system using a single FAT32 partition.
- Run FDISK.EXE: From the command prompt, enter the command "fdisk". If you have a disk large enough to warrant the use of FAT32, you will be asked if you want to enable "large disk support". Enter "Y" if you want to enable FAT32, or "N" if you do not want to enable FAT32. If you do enable this, any partitions over 500 MB that you create will be FAT32. Note that if you do not enable FAT32, you will not be able to put your entire hard disk into one partition if it is greater than 2 GB in size.
If you decided to place your entire hard disk into a single partition, then follow this step:
- Partition Hard Disk (Single Partition): Follow these steps to set up your hard disk:
- Select from the FDISK menu "1. Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive".
- Select "1. Create Primary DOS Partition". FDISK will verify drive integrity. Then it will ask if you want to use the maximum available size of the disk for the primary partition and set it active. Enter "Y". The system will allocate the whole disk to the partition, and that's that.
- Press {Esc} to exit FDISK.
If instead you want to set up your hard disk with multiple partitions (or if you don't have Windows 95 OEM SR2), follow this step. In order to make the process easier to follow, I am going to use an example below. In the example, a 3100 (binary) MB hard disk is being partitioned into four partitions of 1000 MB, 800 MB, 700 MB and 600 MB respectively:
- Partition Hard Disk (Multiple Partitions): Follow these steps to set up your hard disk:
- Select from the FDISK menu "1. Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive".
- Select "1. Create Primary DOS Partition". FDISK will verify drive integrity. Then it will ask if you want to use the maximum available size of the disk for the primary partition and set it active. Enter "N". The system will show the size of the entire disk in MB.
- Enter the size of the primary partition. In our example, this would mean entering "1000". The system will tell you that it has created the primary partition, and will assign it the drive letter "C:".
- Press {Esc} to return to the FDISK menu.
- Select "2. Set active partition". Select partition 1. FDISK will report that it has set partition 1 active.
- Press {Esc} to return to the FDISK menu.
- Select from the FDISK menu "1. Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive".
- Select "2. Create Extended DOS Partition".
- When prompted, press {Enter} to select the entire remaining area of the disk for the extended DOS partition. FDISK will report that it has created the extended DOS partition.
- Press {Esc}. FDISK will automatically prompt you to create your first logical DOS volume within the extended DOS partition.
- Enter the size of the first logical partition (the second partition overall). In our example you would enter "800". FDISK will create the partition, label it "D:", and then say "Logical DOS Drive created, drive letters changed or added". Don't touch anything, just wait, and FDISK will prompt you for the next volume.
- Repeat the previous step for the remaining partitions (in our example there would be two more partitions to create, the 700 MB and 600 MB ones). When all of the partitions have been created, FDISK will report "All available space in the Extended DOS Partition is assigned to logical drives".
- Press {Esc} to exit FDISK.
Continue with the procedure:
- Reboot: Reboot the system using either the Reset button or the "three-fingered salute" ({Ctrl}+{Alt}+{Delete}). Make sure the floppy disk is in its drive, since you still need it. Note that you may get "Invalid media type reading drive C" errors while rebooting. This is normal at this stage.
- Format Primary Partition: From the "A:" DOS prompt, issue the following command: "format c:/s". Do not forget the "/s", as this is what will make your C: drive bootable. You will get a "scary" warning message such as "WARNING, ALL DATA ON NON-REMOVABLE DISK DRIVE C: WILL BE LOST. Proceed with Format (Y/N)?". Since of course there is no data presently on drive C:, just enter "Y" and the system will format the hard disk. The program will show you its progress as it formats and at the end will prompt you for a volume label. Enter one if you wish.
- Format Additional Partitions (if necessary): If you set up multiple partitions, format the additional partitions now. This is done in almost the same way as formatting the primary DOS partition, except that you leave off the "/s". So normally you would be entering "format d:", "format e:" and so on, until all the partitions have been formatted. The prompts should be the same as in the preceding step.
Warning: If you have a second hard disk in the system and it has a primary DOS partition, that partition is probably assigned D: because DOS assigns letters to all primary partitions before any logical partitions. Be careful of what you format.
- Remove Boot Floppy: Eject the boot floppy from the floppy disk.
- Reboot: Reboot the system using either the Reset button or {Ctrl}+{Alt}+{Delete}. The system should boot up from the hard disk this time, and stop at the "C:" prompt. Note that if you get an error such as "NO ROM BASIC, SYSTEM HALTED" or "No boot device found" at this stage, this means you forgot to set the primary DOS partition "active". Reboot from the floppy, run FDISK again and use option 2 to set the primary partition active, then reboot. If you get an error like "No operating system", this means you probably forgot the "/s" parameter when formatting the C: drive. Put the floppy disk back in the drive and then return to step 5. See the Troubleshooting Expert for more help with any errors you may encounter.
Next: CD-ROM Driver Installation Procedure
Step-By-Step: Partition Your Hard Drive
Stan Miastkowski, PC World
Dec 26, 2001 5:00 pm
Editor's note (1/12/10): For more-current advice, see "How (and Why) to Partition Your Hard Drive."
No matter the capacity of your PC's hard drive, chances are that it's set up to function as one giant data dump. Though that's fine for most users, dividing your drive into multiple partitions (additional drive letters) can make life easier: At the least, keeping all your data--such as documents, worksheets, and images--in a partition separate from the operating system and applications simplifies backups and can increase your PC's performance.
And if you plan on using multiple operating systems (adding Windows 2000, trying out XP, or even installing Linux), then you'll absolutely need multiple partitions.
Think of a partition as a container for data, like one drawer of a file cabinet. Each partition uses a file system to store and name data. Windows 98 and Me use the FAT32 file system. FAT32 allows for greater maximum partition sizes and stores data more efficiently than the FAT16 file system used by DOS and the first versions of Windows 95.
Windows NT introduced the NTFS file system, which uses space more efficiently and offers better data security. Windows 95, 98, and Me can't "see" the data in an NTFS partition; however, Windows 2000 and XP can read from and write to both NTFS and FAT32 partitions.
If you're starting with a new, blank hard drive, partitioning is easy. The installation routines of Windows NT, 2000, and XP give you some control over partitions. Other versions of Windows come with FDISK, a basic partitioning utility that you copy to a bootable floppy.
But if you want to have extensive partitioning options, you'll need a utility such as Partition Commander ($40) or PartitionMagic ($69). They offer such options as changing the size of partitions and converting from different file systems. And, given enough free space, they preserve the data stored on your drive.
1. Check, optimize, and back up your drive(s)
First, select Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, ScanDisk, click Thorough, and check theAutomatically fix errors box. Then click Start.
Next, defragment each drive by selecting Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter.
To use Windows 9 x's or Me's built-in backup utility, select Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Backup and follow the directions. (If the utility isn't there, then for Windows 9 x, check Start, Settings, Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, Windows Setup, Accessories, and for Windows Me, run Msbexp.exe from the Addons/MSBackup folder on the Me CD.) In Windows XP Professional, selectStart, Control Panel, Performance and Maintenance, Back up your data.
2. Plan for partitions
Before you run the partitioning software, decide how you want to organize your hard drive(s). Consider the size of the drive, whether you want to simply segregate data from the operating system and applications or create a more complex structure, and whether you want to run more than one OS. Read your partitioning software's manual for suggestions. Major partitioning utilities also have wizards that lead you through the process.
3. Run the software
Once you've decided how to set up your partitions, follow the directions to install and run the partitioning software. Although the software won't let you make incorrect choices, you should check and double-check the new partitions to make sure you've allocated all the drive's space. Creating and moving partitions may take 30 minutes or more, depending on how full your drive is. The software will also format the new partitions for you.
4. Reboot and reorganize
Once the partitions are created, reboot your PC to complete the process. You can then move your data around or install a new operating system. If you plan to store all your data in one of the new partitions, you'll have to tell your applications where to save files in the future. Usually, you can set this from the Preferences menu or File Locations tab in each application.
5. Problems?
If you have problems accessing or using the new partitions, use the emergency disks that came with the partitioning software to double-check that the partitions were created and formatted. If they still don't work, then it's time to contact tech support.
Stan Miastkowski is a PC World contributing editor.
CARA MEMPARTITION EXTRNL HDD :
Kalau selama ini utk buat partisi selalu pake Partisi Magic, akhirnya baru tahu deh ternyata dari Windows (XP) sudah disediakan fasilitasnya. Caranya :
1. koneksi HDD ext yg akan kita partisi (sebaiknya kondisi kosong)
2. Click icon my computer, lalu pilih manage –> Disk management
3. HDD akan tampak berikut kapasitasnya (misal 320GB)
4. Pilih HDD yg akan di partisi
5. Click kanan, pilih delete partisi
6. Tentukan jumlah partisi yg akan kita buat (maksimal 4 partisi)
7. Click kanan –> New partition
8. Tentukan kapasitas partisi (misal 100Gb –> ditulisnya 100000)
9. Next s.d selesai (jgn lupa pilih quick format, kalo lupa bakalan lama proses formatnya)
10. Pilih partisi berikutnya, ulangi langkah 7 s.d 9 sampai HDD sudah terformat & terpartisi semuanya
