Bootmgr is missing

[dillon239]

I'm pretty stumped here. I've tried everything I can think of so I thought I would look for some help.

I recently got an m.2 drive over my ssd it was small and I needed something bigger. I cloned over to it but something went wrong and I just couldn't get it functioning correctly. So I reinstalled windows on that drive.

Now long story short I got all programs reinstalled. I deleted all data off the other disk now my pc won't boot. It says bootmgr missing. Its like it was using the old installation to boot no matter what drive I select in bios I get that error.

I also tried to repair the boot with boot rec with recovery but get element not found. I really dont want to have to reinstall a 3rd time. Anyone got any tips.

I was debating trying to reinstall Windows to an empty drive and manually copying over its boot files to my main install. But I don't know exactly where they are located. However if there is a better way that would be even better.

 

[SkyNetRising]

You need to recreate bootloader partition. It was located on the old ssd.
Since you wiped it, you can't boot your pc anymore.

Just reinstall with only m.2 drive connected. It will be way easier, than explain, how to recreate bootloader.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

+ 1 "Just reinstall with only m.2 drive connected."

Which is what you should have done when you decided to do a fresh Windows install the first time on your M.2 drive, unless you are setting up a dual-boot system (which evidently doesn't apply to you).

 

[dillon239]

I would rather attempt to recreate the boot partition than reinstall again. If no one cares to explain that's fine. I'll look it up thanks for the input though.

 

[SkyNetRising]

I can try explaining, but it's not trivial.
Before you begin, leave only m.2 connected (all hdd-s/ssd-s disconnected).
You need to:
1. determine boot mode used (UEFI or legacy/CSM);
2. boot from windows installation media, go to command prompt;
3. use diskpart to shrink windows partition by 100MB;
4. create new partition in freed up space: for uefi - efi system partition (fat32), for legacy/csm - primary active partition(ntfs);
5. use repair boot files option from windows install media;
6. use "bootrec /rebuildbcd" to recreate BCD store.
7. change boot sequence, so that pc boots from m.2.

That's about it.

One more thing - I'm not sure your m.2 drive supports booting in legacy/csm mode. It is possible, that UEFI is only option.
In this case, if your m.2 is partitioned in mbr format, then reinstall will be unavoidable.

 

[dillon239]

I can try explaining, but it's not trivial.
Before you begin, leave only m.2 connected (all hdd-s/ssd-s disconnected).
You need to:
1. determine boot mode used (UEFI or legacy/CSM);
2. boot from windows installation media, go to command prompt;
3. use diskpart to shrink windows partition by 100MB;
4. create new partition in freed up space: for uefi - efi system partition (fat32), for legacy/csm - primary active partition(ntfs);
5. use repair boot files option from windows install media;
6. use "bootrec /rebuildbcd" to recreate BCD store.
7. change boot sequence, so that pc boots from m.2.

That's about it.

One more thing - I'm not sure your m.2 drive supports booting in legacy/csm mode. It is possible, that UEFI is only option.
In this case, if your m.2 is partitioned in mbr format, then reinstall will be unavoidable.

Actually now that you mention it maybe this is why it never worked properly from the clone because it was legacy boot not uefi ( I believe)

I wonder what would happen If I tried one of two things backup the entire windows partition reinstall Windows on the m.2 As with the uefi setup. Then copy all files from the windows install over the fresh one.

Or b I debated just setting aside a small partition and install Ubuntu just to get the grub boot loader in theory i don't see why that wouldn't let me get into the windows and I could try to backup / image the windows install.