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I have a "Recovery" partition which I mistakenly thought was redundant after reinstalling everything to C:. "Recovery" was previously the "Active" partition. I set C: as the "Active" directory in disk manager (I am using Windows 7). When attempting to boot, the laptop now returns "BOOTMGR is missing".
I can go to BIOS and mess around with some stuff, but haven't found a way to change the active partition. I can disable various SATA drives (four are listed) and doing that sequentially changes the error message on booting, but no combination lets it boot.
I am travelling and don't have a USB key or bootable CD with me. I do have an external HD, but this other computer that I'm on right now (which is unusably slow) doesn't recognise it.
I think that the easiest solution will be to get hold of a USB key, make it bootable, and sort out the active partition from DOS. Any glaring shortcuts, alternative solutions or likely obstacles I'm missing?
Edit: I now have a USB key, can boot to DOS and run fdisk, which I expected to enable the active partition to be set. Unfortunately fdisk will not set NTFS partitions as active, and I haven't found any alternatives that run from DOS and will set NTFS partitions as active. At this stage it looks as though I will need to get Windows CDs as Olivier mentioned below.
4That's probably the best method or installing the boot loader to the drive instead of any partition (which I believe is almost always done by default on windows). But again, that requires either a USB or CD. Either of which are nearly universally available nowadays (gas stations even have low end flash drives oftentimes). In the bios, have you checked that the correct drive is the default boot option? A bit more risky is popping out the C drive putting it in another box (maybe using the external enclosure) and fixing there. – nerdwaller – 2013-02-23T20:42:29.197
Yes, the correct drive is the default boot option. For that matter I have tried changing the order and nothing unexpected / promising seems to happen. Thanks nerdwalker – Levi – 2013-02-23T21:47:24.270
Does your laptop have a network boot option? You might be able to get what you need from the other computer. – None – 2013-02-24T00:04:59.597
I am not sure whether my laptop has a network boot option. There is nothing obvious listed in the bios. I've been searching for half an hour and not found clarity (partly because it takes a minute or two for each page to open on this other computer). Heading out to get a USB key now. Thanks Radoo – Levi – 2013-02-24T09:56:17.840