"Bootmgr is Missing" Question

Hi, Gene.

My impression is that the boot loader resides on the System partition.

Yes, the "boot" versus "system" labels are counterintuitive - and have been
for a very long time, maybe longer than Microsoft has been around. But
things are much clearer for me since I got the terms straightened out in my
head. Now, the only time they confuse me is when some poster reverses them.
To keep them straight in my mind, I memorized the line from Ed Bott and
other writers:

"Those unfamiliar with such terms might think it strange that we BOOT from
the SYSTEM partition and keep the operating SYSTEM files in the BOOT
volume." (I added the emphases.)

For years, I referred to KB 314470, but Microsoft re-wrote that after WinXP
and changed a lot of the language. You can still read the information he
http://smallbusiness.support.microso...n-us/kb/314470, but you'll need
to remember that it was written for WinXP. Post-XP, of course, we no longer
use NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM and Boot.ini, except in a dual-boot configuration,
where they are retained and used ONLY when booting into a pre-Vista Windows.

As the article says, "The system volume can be the same volume as the boot
volume. However, this configuration is not required." This means that the
SYSTEM partition MUST BE a Primary Partition, marked Active and on the
device currently designated in the BIOS as the boot device; in Win7 and
later this might (or might not) be the reserved partition with no "drive"
letter. The BOOT volume can be any volume (primary partition or logical
drive in an extended partition) on any HDD in the computer.

(For my new 120 GB SSD, I created a 10 GB partition, marked it Active, and
made it the System partition, assigning it Drive letter Z:. Then I let Win8
make the rest of the SSD my Boot Volume, format it, assign the letter C: and
put the full C:\Windows folder tree there.)

My computer is quite happy with Disk 0, Partition 1 (Drive Z as the System
Partition and Disk 0, Partition 2 (Drive C as the Boot Volume. And WinXP
SP3's Boot Volume is still Disk 1, Partition 3 (Drive Q, but I haven't
booted into that in months.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010)
Windows Live Mail 2012 (Build 16.4.3508.0205) in Win8.1 Pro


"Gene E. Bloch" wrote in message
...

On Wed, 27 Nov 2013 12:33:41 -0600, Char Jackson wrote:

On Wed, 27 Nov 2013 03:11:02 -0500, "...winston"
wrote:

Char Jackson wrote:
On Tue, 26 Nov 2013 22:26:27 +0000 (UTC), Dave
wrote:

I'm glad all you folks can offer such helpful advice when we really
know
nothing about what is going on:
1. What was the original hd layout. My Dell has a small Dell utility
partition, a recovery partition then the main os partition, which I
later
split. The machine boots to the recovery partition (marked active)

What's the purpose of booting to a recovery partition?


The bootloader is on the Recovery Partition which includes the
instructions to load Windows.

It also provides the ability to use the F8 option to recover to factory
condition.

Interesting, thanks. Like the OP, I also have a Dell, but the bootloader
apparently wasn't on the recovery partition because I blew that partition
away without causing any boot issues.

My impression is that the boot loader resides on the System partition.

Or do I meant the Boot partition? Probably not, but Microsoft's
nomenclature is confusing in this area. It's not of any day-to-day
importance to me, so I don't bother to keep it straight...

Either way, not the Recovery partition.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)