If the boot loader to your Windows Server 2008 machine gets corrupted or deleted for whatever reason, it really is a painstaking process to get it fixed. The boot loader to my machine got deleted somehow while I was resizing partitions. After scouring the web, I could not find anything on rebuilding the boot loader for Windows Server 2008. All I could find were instructions to restore a Windows Vista boot loader, but luckily, the process for Server 2008 is similar.
If you are getting a “bootmgr is missing” error upon startup or something similar, repairing the boot loader will probably fix the problem.
Due to the lack of recovery tools on the Server 2008 installation CD, the boot loader must be rebuilt manually.
For this guide, I’m going to assume your installation has a drive letter of C:.
Insert the Server 2008 installation CD into your DVD-ROM. Restart your computer and boot from the CD.
Choose to repair your computer, then open the command prompt.
At the command prompt, use the following commands:
c:
cd boot
bootsect /nt60 c: /force /mbr
bootrec /rebuildbcd
After using the “bootrec /rebuldbcd” command, you will be prompted to accept a Windows installation. Accept the installation, then wait for the process to finish. Once it’s done, reboot your comptuer and you should have a boot loader ready to go.
If you do not have a “boot” folder in the system C: drive, then copy the “boot” folder form the Windows installation CD to the C: drive. Use the following command which assumes E: is your DVD-ROM
mkdir c:\boot
copy e:\boot\* c:\boot\
Afterwards, just use the boot restore commands to rebuild the bootloader.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
That’s awesome! You just saved my day! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Cheers
Jens
Sweet! Glad it helped.
Truly awesome. Saved me a lot of time to have to rebuild after having resized my VMware partition using gparted
good tips
Unfortunately did not work for me; when i try coomand “bootsect /nt60 c: /force /mbr” i get bootsect is not recognized as an internal or external command but command “bootrec /rebuildbcd” works but does not prompt for windows installation and scans all disks but cannot find a windows installation.
Do you, in fact, have a “C:\boot” directory? That’s the directory that the bootsect command is found in. If you don’t have a “C:\boot” directory, follow the second part of the guide to copy the boot directory from the Server 2008 CD to your C:\ drive.
mkdir c:\boot
copy e:\boot\* c:\boot\
Then cd into the “C:\boot” and try the bootsect command again.
yes i do have a c:boot directory; i looked at copying the boot folder from installation cd but can only find it under windows on the installation cd.
Hmmmm, and you’re using a Server 2008 DVD to boot from, correct? If so, you may have a different disk than I do with different directory structures. I would check make sure that you see a “bootsect.exe” file in the boot folder on the DVD. If you do, copy the contents of that whole folder to your C:\boot directory and give it another shot.
this worked now and i run bootsect command it was on a g: drive which i copied over to c: but system is still not booting. i may need to re-install; it is a shame that there is no repair function available.
THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!
There is no bootsect.exe on my Windows Server 2008 CD (x86).
I just booted to the CD/DVD command propmt, ran
bootrec /rebuildbcd
and rebooted. It ran CHKDSK etc., and once completed, rebooted and all OK.
Whew!
Thanks, this stuff saved my pc. I didnt have the bootsect command available either, but copying sorted the problem.
Thanks
We run Win Server 2008 within vmware. Had to add some disk space and resized using PartitionMagic Iso. Boy, rebooting scared me no ends .. the server refused to boot. No amount of hunting MS site helped me .. then I came by this post and tried the steps mentioned here. Lo and behold it worked like a gem and Iam a safe man again!!!
PS: ALthough my system had the c:\boot folder, bootsect.exe was not present and I copied it from the DVD.
Thanks a million.
Glad it helped! Haha, leave it up to Microsoft to document their own procedures, right?