Missing Windows 7 Boot Manager Fixes

Missing Windows 7 Boot Manager Fixes
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Have you ever started your computer up to see an error saying, “BOOTMGR is missing”? Well, this guide will show you how to fix it and possibly prevent it.

How to Access the Boot Manager

When your computer starts up you will often see a pre-welcome screen, somewhere on it there will be something like, “Press F2 for Setup Utility,” or “Press F12 for Boot Manager.” If you’re simply looking how to access the Boot Manager just press F12. A screen will come up with several boot options such as HDD, CD/DVD, USB Memory, FDD and LAN. If you are looking on how to fix the “BOOTMGR is missing” error scroll down to the “Boot Manager Related Problems” section of this article.

What the Boot Manager and What It Does

The boot manager is a file that’s been installed into the BIOS (basic input/output system). When the BIOS loads up if there was an OS installed into a certain spot, such as your HDD (harddrive), it will automatically load from the HDD and right into that OS. Alternately, when you have a CD/DVD in the CD/DVD player in your computer or laptop it will also load that up too if the CD/DVD is set to the first slot. This applies to the same to anything else on the list such as USB Memory.

Different Boot Managers

If you’re a Windows user then you know that over the past 20 years Windows Operating Systems have changed a lot from when they started. While Boot Manager was only released in Windows Vista, all it has really done is replaced several files that did the same job (such as NTLDR on the older Operating Systems). The people over at Acronis Inc has a nifty multi-boot manager that supports many Operating Systems such as Windows 7 and Linux. If you would like to learn more about Multi Booting Windows 7 then check out “How to Multi Boot Windows 7”

Sometimes when your Windows 7 starts up you may get a message saying that “BOOTMGR is missing” If it is missing, it won’t be that hard to find. Often times, the way your computer is booted up got changed somehow and this is simply a fluke. To fix this you must restart the computer or laptop that is displaying the message; press F2 until you see an underscore flashing in the left upper corner. Then a blue and gray screen will pop up. Use the arrow keys to move the display over to the BOOT part. Now use the Enter to access the boot line up, use F7 and F8 to change the order. Most of the time if you’ve simply installed Windows 7 to a HDD then the HDD must be in the first spot. For example: If you’ve just installed Windows 7 from a disc, then your computer may have CD/DVD setup as the first to load, and you must change it to HDD before it will actually boot Windows 7.