Virtual machine with OS Server 2008 R2 “Bootmgr is missing” error

A virtual machine with operating system 2008 R2 shows the following error during startup:

„BOOTMGR is missing Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart“

It is relatively easy to fix this error – here is a short how-to. This article was published about five years ago on my first blog written in German. But as I was in need of the solution today, I decided to quickly translate and repost it here (Olden but Golden if you need it…).

How to Fix “Bootmgr is missing”:

 

• connect the OS installation disc (.iso) to the CDROM (if necessary change the boot options to boot from CD)
• start the VM and boot into the OS setup
• click “next” in the upcoming “Install Windows” wizard (Language)

• In the next window select “Repair your Computer” to open the “System Recovery” Wizard

• If your operating system is listed, select “next”. If no OS is listed, change the selection box to “Restore your computer using a system image that you created earlier”. It’s no problem if you do not have a system image. All that we want is to access a command prompt. And this is possible in the next window independent from the options above.

• Select “Command Prompt” here:

• Now we can fix the MBR error. Just use the following commands in the order specified below:

change to C: and execute:

BCDBOOT C:\Windows

BOOTREC /FIXMBR

BOOTREC /FIXBOOT

BOOTREC /REBUILDBCD

BOOTREC /SCANOS

 

• Now type “Exit” to close the command prompt and reboot the server. It should boot now without any problems!