BOOTMGR is missing Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart

[bherber]

Workstation Z420:

System crashed (Power Supply failure).  Have replace power supply and system is starting and running but will not boot.  Have tried using original "System Recovery" media, and original "Operating System DVD / Windows 7 Professional SP1" installation disk to boot from.  Have also run the UEFI Hardware Diagnostics that are built in to the BIOS.  No matter what I do, after the machine reboots I get: "BOOTMGR is missing.  Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart", and it just loops back.  I can use the ESC key to get into the System Setup Utility, and I've checked the Boot Order menu and it looks the same as it did before the crash.  I've also tried selecting "Apply Defaults" and Exit.    Nothing I do seems to force a boot from either of the two DVD drives.

After replacing the power supply I was not able to get into the BIOS at all, so I tried 1) removing the power cord; 2) pressing ON/OFF switch for 30 seconds, and 3) removing the battery on the motherboard and letting it sit for an hour.  That is how I got back into the BIOS.

Any help appreciated

[DGroves]

Windows Boot Manager (BOOTMGR), is a small piece of software, that is loaded from the volume boot code that is a part of the volume boot record that is written to the hard drive during the OS install. It enables you to boot Windows 10/8/7 or Windows Vista operating system.

while you can try to repair the corrupted "boot manager" a OS reinstall will work however you will lose your data on said drive

this tutorial might allow you to recover the boot manager

https://neosmart.net/wiki/bootmgr-is-missing/

[bherber]

Thanks for your comment, but as I mentioned I've tried to do an OS reinstall, and the system is not recognizing any of my bootable CD/DVD's for recovery or OS installation.  It just comes back to the same error.   In this case I don't mind losing whatever is on my C: drive because I did a full system backup just a couple of days before the power supply went out.

In short, "been there, done that."

But thanks,

B>

[DGroves]

most windows installs are from a USB key nowadays,.... are you using a usb key or a optical disk?

HP z440 windows reinstall images can be downloaded from the HP site

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/caps-softpaq/CloudRecovery/crsupportedplatform.html

if the the issue is the OS reinstall media (USB key or Optical media) will not load then the problem is with the  media

(try making another windows install usb key or a different optical disk) or the physical usb port/optical drive is bad

if the restore media loads but fails during the windows setup where it asks which drive to install the operating system and also gives you the option of removing any existing partitions on the selected drive ,......

if you can not remove the existing partitions,  and get a error then the drive is  non functional  and the hard drive is defective and needs to be replaced

[bherber]

I just created a bootable USB Flash Drive (Win10 22H2) to see if it will boot and install Win10.  That didn't work either.  Same exact error message.  So I've tried both DVD/bootable media, and FlashDrive/bootable media.  It's not loading-then-failing, it's not loading at all; both DVD and Flash drive.

Update 2:  I happened to have ordered a brand new, off the shelf, still-in-the-box 2TB Seagate hard drive thinking it was a crashed hard drive BEFORE I figured out it was the power supply.  So after attempting to boot from the Flashdrive and failing, I replaced the C:/ drive with the brand new/never used hard drive...  Same result.  No matter what I do I cannot get anything to boot, DVD or Flashdrive.

[DGroves]

do a cmos reset by removing the power cord, pressing the pwr button for 10 sec then clear cmos by the reset button or remove cmos batt for 10 sec

replace items power on and enter bios reset date/time if date/time is already correct then cmos reset failed

oce cmos date/time is correct power off connect a bootable usb key power on a enter bios, does the key show under the bios storage menu? if not you motherboard may have problems

[bherber]

Thanks, but in my first message I outlined that EXACT process that I had followed:

"After replacing the power supply I was not able to get into the BIOS at all, so I tried 1) removing the power cord; 2) pressing ON/OFF switch for 30 seconds, and 3) removing the battery on the motherboard and letting it sit for an hour.  That is how I got back into the BIOS."

So, "been there, done that."

I'm not ready to declare it a "hardware error/bad motherboard."  There must be a way to force it boot from something, Obviously, bootable CD/DVD doesn't work, and now I've tried Flashdrive...   I'm still looking.