Hello

I'm having trouble with my laptop as I can't log in. There's a message saying BOOTMGR is missing. Any ideas what I can do to remedy it?
Highbury

Do you have the windows install disk or a recovery disk? You may need it to rebuild the boot manager to boot the machine.

cdad, thanks for your reply. I cannot find the disk. Any othr idas? I am very concerned not to lose the stuff I've got stored there.
Highbury

Have you tried booting to Safe Mode? What OS is on the laptop?

Many thanks for the suggestions. What I have been told by a guy who has looked at my laptop that when he inserted a Windows 7 disk and run "start up repair" he found no operating system to repair. He thinks that the Windows system files have corrupted and that there isn't anything on the hard drive. Therefore I have lost everything including all my work and I am despairing because although I was backing it up every day, we cannot find it on the separate hard drive that I have (Buffalo). I cant believe 2 things have stopped working and that I cant get my work back. I thought it was impossible to lose stuff on pcs. I would welcome ideas.

How did you do your backups?

Hi,

The backup hard drive is Buffalo which is wireless. My laptop was set up so that it automatically backs up whenever I open my laptop.
Highbury

That doesn't tell me very much. Did the software come with the Buffalo drive? Many backup software tools use special backup utilities. To restore files you may need to use that same software. So once you rebuild your PC, you can install the software and then see if you can read the backups.

You might try contacting Buffalo for support.

Unless the hard drive it totally corrupted then there should still be information on it. If you are allowed to reinstall the OS without formatting it first then you should be able to recover what you had before the crash. The folders should remain and the windows will be renamed widowsold. There is software out there that a tech should have and be able to use to boot the machine and check to see what it left on it.

Indeed cdad is correct; windows.old will remain persistent, and hold all the old files after a non-destructive reinstall. Take it to a reliable technician who knows something about file recovery. They should be able to get most or all of your personal data back, and test the hard disk to see if it is still a reliable medium to install Windows on to. If that fails take the backup drive to a recovery company.