Question System crashed and now stuck with bootmgr missing ?

[Noxxny789]

Sorry. English isn't my first language.
I use Windows 11.

Yesterday I was playing game on my computer when suddenly my system got stuck (crashed) so I held the power button down for a few seconds to reboot. But the system didn't start normally and instead now ok stuck in "bootmgr is missing" screen.

I went on the internet for help and found a way where I can boot the system from a bootable USB and then access CMD to use commands to restore the bootmgr file.

Now the main issue : CMD opened with X: instead of the usual C: so I switched it to C: and then when I put in "dir" command to see the files in my C: drive they were my D: drive files.

For clarity I have 3 drives. C: for windows, D: for normal files and E: for games.

CMD is detecting my D: drive as my C: drive now, no changes with E: but then I maybe the system somehow changed my drive labels. So now D: should be windows. But when I went to switch to D: in CMD, it freezes and nothing happens.

If my Boot drive dead?

 

[Lutfij]

For clarity I have 3 drives. C: for windows, D: for normal files and E: for games.
So 3 physical drives? The OS is on a drive of it's own? If so, the it's possible that the drive your OS was on, has conked out.

 

[Noxxny789]

For clarity I have 3 drives. C: for windows, D: for normal files and E: for games.
So 3 physical drives? The OS is on a drive of it's own? If so, the it's possible that the drive your OS was on, has conked out.

Yes I have 3 drives. I started with two one ssd for boot and an hdd for normal files. And I started working from my computer so I ran out of space and have add another ssd drive.

Windows was installed on a dedicated ssd drive yes.

Pls don't say it's cooked 😭

 

[Misgar]

Now the main issue : CMD opened with X: instead of the usual C: so I switched it C: and then when I put in "dir" command to see the files in my C: drive they were my D: drive files.

I've not tried this myself, but I suspect the bootable USB drive is configured to start up with a drive letter near the end of the alphabet (in your case X: to avoid confusion with other drive letters.

When you start Windows, the boot drive is normally assigned drive C:, but you're not booting from your Windows SSD, so it's possible your Windows drive will be assigned a different letter (in your case D: or maybe E:.

To avoid confusion, disconnect all physical drives that are not strictly necessary. The only drive that should be plugged in is your Windows SSD. That way, when you boot from USB, the only logical drive(s) visible should be USB (X: and the logical drives on your Windows SSD.

Sometimes when booting from a different drive, hidden partitions on the Windows drive become "visible" if they are assigned a (spurious) drive letter. I find this happens when I have multiple Windows boot SSDs in one PC.

Checking the 120GB Windows 10 boot SSD in this computer, I can see four partitions in Easeus Partition Master:-

1). 499MB Recovery (hidden)
2). 100MB FAT32 EFI System (hidden)
3). 16MB Other (GPT) (hidden)
4). 118.64GB Drive C: (visible)

Just to make life interesting, Windows Disk Management shows only three partitions (499MB, 100MB and 118.64GB). The 16MB GPT partition is not shown in Disk Management.

CMD is detecting my D: drive as my C: drive now, no changes with E: but then I maybe the system somehow changed my drive labels. So now D: should be windows. But when I went to switch to D: in CMD, it freezes and nothing happens.

As you may have gathered, drive labels can change when you boot from a different drive, e.g. from USB. You need to work out what all the various drive letters mean.

At the X:\> prompt, type in dir D: and see what comes back, You should see a list showing the directory structure of Drive D: (when applicable). If drive D: is a mis-labelled hidden system partition, you won't see any files.

Repeat and type in dir E: at the X:\> prompt and check the directory structure of Drive E:.

If you see Program Files, Program Files (x86) and Windows folders, you'll know you've found your "C:" drive, even if it has a different label.

It should be possible to work out which drive letter is associated with your visible Windows partition, but it is quite likely the bootmgr "fix" will have to be applied to the hidden 100MB EFI System partition.

As this article explains, when you boot Windows from a GPT formatted disk, the BIOS loads files from the EFI System partition first, the boots into Windows from Drive C: in another partition.

https://www.diskpart.com/articles/efi-system-partition-4348.html

If you cannot get the bootmgr fix to work, you could try an "In-Situ" Upgrade to (hopefully) keep all your programs and data.

I've performed in-situ upgrades ion the past, but I've never tried this in Windows 11. I seem to remember booting from a USB Windows ISO and selecting the appropriate option (keep existing data), but I might be mistaken.

Most of the online help pages perform this in-situ upgrade after booting into Windows from the SSD, but that's not possible in your case, so you'll have to try booting from a Windows ISO on USB.

https://www.howtogeek.com/windows-in-place-upgrade/

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html

If you have any doubts, exit from the program without making any changes. It's better to leave things as they are and seek more help, rather than lose all your files.

Pls don't say it's cooked

These days, if Windows gets badly scrambled on any of my computers, I just wipe the boot drive and reinstall Windows from scratch, or from a Macrium Reflect image. I don't keep any important data on my C: drives, so all I lose is 4 to 5 hours setting up Windows and loading all my apps.

If there's anything really important on your C: drive and you can't get it to boot, disconnect the drive and install a fresh copy of Windows on a new SSD. Then reconnect the non-bootable drive and copy any important files over to the new boot drive.

 

[TerryLaze]

Sorry. English isn't my first language.
I use windows 11.
Yesterday I was playing game on my computer when suddenly my system got stuck (crashed) so I held the power button down for a few seconds to reboot. But the system didn't start normally and instead now ok stuck in "bootmgr is missing" screen.

I went on the internet for help and found a way where I can boot the system from a bootable USB and then access CMD to use commands to restore the bootmgr file.

First step should always be to go into bios and to make sure that it didn't get reset.
Your issue could simply be that the active boot drive changed in the bios.

 

[Noxxny789]

I've not tried this myself, but I suspect the bootable USB drive is configured to start up with a drive letter near the end of the alphabet (in your case X: to avoid confusion with other drive letters.

When you start Windows, the boot drive is normally assigned drive C:, but you're not booting from your Windows SSD, so it's possible your Windows drive will be assigned a different letter (in your case D: or maybe E:.

To avoid confusion, disconnect all physical drives that are not strictly necessary. The only drive that should be plugged in is your Windows SSD. That way, when you boot from USB, the only logical drive(s) visible should be USB (X: and the logical drives on your Windows SSD.

Sometimes when booting from a different drive, hidden partitions on the Windows drive become "visible" if they are assigned a (spurious) drive letter. I find this happens when I have multiple Windows boot SSDs in one PC.

Checking the 120GB Windows 10 boot SSD in this computer, I can see four partitions in Easeus Partition Master:-

1). 499MB Recovery (hidden)
2). 100MB FAT32 EFI System (hidden)
3). 16MB Other (GPT) (hidden)
4). 118.64GB Drive C: (visible)

Just to make life interesting, Windows Disk Management shows only three partitions (499MB, 100MB and 118.64GB). The 16MB GPT partition is not shown in Disk Management.



As you may have gathered, drive labels can change when you boot from a different drive, e.g. from USB. You need to work out what all the various drive letters mean.

At the X:\> prompt, type in dir D: and see what comes back, You should see a list showing the directory structure of Drive D: (when applicable). If drive D: is a mis-labelled hidden system partition, you won't see any files.

Repeat and type in dir E: at the X:\> prompt and check the directory structure of Drive E:.

If you see Program Files, Program Files (x86) and Windows folders, you'll know you've found your "C:" drive, even if it has a different label.

It should be possible to work out which drive letter is associated with your visible Windows partition, but it is quite likely the bootmgr "fix" will have to be applied to the hidden 100MB EFI System partition.

As this article explains, when you boot Windows from a GPT formatted disk, the BIOS loads files from the EFI System partition first, the boots into Windows from Drive C: in another partition.

https://www.diskpart.com/articles/efi-system-partition-4348.html

If you cannot get the bootmgr fix to work, you could try an "In-Situ" Upgrade to (hopefully) keep all your programs and data.

I've performed in-situ upgrades ion the past, but I've never tried this in Windows 11. I seem to remember booting from a USB Windows ISO and selecting the appropriate option (keep existing data), but I might be mistaken.

Most of the online help pages perform this in-situ upgrade after booting into Windows from the SSD, but that's not possible in your case, so you'll have to try booting from a Windows ISO on USB.

https://www.howtogeek.com/windows-in-place-upgrade/

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html

If you have any doubts, exit from the program without making any changes. It's better to leave things as they are and seek more help, rather than lose all your files.


These days, if Windows gets badly scrambled on any of my computers, I just wipe the boot drive and reinstall Windows from scratch, or from a Macrium Reflect image. I don't keep any important data on my C: drives, so all I lose is 4 to 5 hours setting up Windows and loading all my apps.

If there's anything really important on your C: drive and you can't get it to boot, disconnect the drive and install a fresh copy of Windows on a new SSD. Then reconnect the non-bootable drive and copy any important files over to the new boot drive.

Can you also expand on the possibility of my Windows boot drive being changed to D: and being unresponsive.

Because when I realised my drive labels might have changed, I checked all my drives using the "dir" command. My original D: drive is not C: and has all the files. E: drive remains the same and has all the files.

If my Boot drive is indeed changed to D: from C:, what can be the reason when I use the dir command on D: drive, the CMD become unresponsive. Does this mean D: drive is not faulty (my Windows boot drive)

 

[Noxxny789]

First step should always be to go into bios and to make sure that it didn't get reset.
Your issue could simply be that the active boot drive changed in the bios.

I did check and made sure the Windows Boot drive is set to priority #1

 

[SkyNetRising]

I held the power button down for a few seconds to reboot. But the system didn't start normally and instead now ok stuck in "bootmgr is missing" screen.

Either boot sequence in BIOS changed or
your boot drive (drive containing bootloader) is damaged/dead.

Note bootloader drive isn't necessary the same as windows OS drive.
If you installed windows with multiple drives connected, then
it's quite possible, you have bootloader on one drive and OS on a different drive.

Now the main issue : CMD opened with X: instead of the usual C: so I switched it to C: and then when I put in "dir" command to see the files in my C: drive they were my D: drive files.
CMD is detecting my D: drive as my C: drive now, no changes with E: but then I maybe the system somehow changed my drive labels.
So now D: should be windows. But when I went to switch to D: in CMD, it freezes and nothing happens.

In windows installation/recovery environment drive letters get mixed up.
This is perfectly normal.

If my Boot drive dead?

Possible.

Get another new/empty drive.
Physically disconnect all your old drives.
Install windows on new drive.
Reconnect old drives and
Start diagnosing from there.

so I held the power button down for a few seconds to reboot.

BTW - it's not a good idea to do this. SSDs often have problems afterwards.
It's better just to turn off PSU switch or disconnect power cable.

 

[shaester_123]

The biggest way people lose data is their habits . I assume my OS drive will konk 5 min from now . Data is first stored on my computer . Then taken off in chunks and written to a thumb drive - cheap kbps ultra slow ultra cheap stuff . Then you take that data and store it on a bigger drive . When the chain breaks . You are stuck in the kbps zone , but you still got your data . Restoring won't be a short process , but you won't lose anything .

 

[Noxxny789]

The biggest way people loose data is there habits . I assume my OS drive will konk 5 min from now . Data is first stored on my computer . Then taken off in chunks and written to a thumb drive - cheap kbps ultra slow ultra cheap stuff . Then you take that data and store it on a bigger drive . When the chain breaks . You are stuck in the kbps zone , but you still got your data . Restoring won't be a short process , but you won't loose anything .

Ngl I'm not worried about loosing data even a bit. I have 3 drives seperately in the first place so I can manage my data and also if one drive dies I'll have stuffs somewhere else.

I just need help with if I can fix my Boot drive from my current problem or do I need to buy a new drive 🙁

 

[shaester_123]

Ngl I'm not worried about loosing data even a bit. I have 3 drives seperately in the first place so I can manage my data and also if one drive dies I'll have stuffs somewhere else.

I just need help with if I can fix my Boot drive from my current problem or do I need to buy a new drive 🙁

Hard rives are consumables with a shelf life . 2 years in use , 5 years average , and 8 years if stored well .

 

[TerryLaze]

If my Boot drive is indeed changed to D: from C:, what can be the reason when I use the dir command on D: drive, the CMD become unresponsive. Does this mean D: drive is not faulty (my Windows boot drive)

Could just mean that the data on the drive got garbled...but with the system telling you it doesn't find the boot manager it means that nothing on the drive is readable which is pretty close to 100% sure that it's a broken drive.
In any case you would have to boot into windows or any other os on any PC and run diagnostic software on the drive and it will tell you if it's completely broken or if you "only" have to deep level format it.

Usually the drive maker will have a test tool on their website, but you can also use cryastal diskinfo or any tool that can read out a drives s.m.a.r.t. info.