Binary War

Not what you want to see when trying to boot Windows Vista Server…oops, sorry, I mean Windows Server 2008.  :-)

Unfortunately, this is what I encountered recently after a Windows Server 2008 virtual machine rebooted following some routine Windows Updates.  After some time spent troubleshooting, it did not appear that any of the updates themselves had caused the problem.  The type of backup system in use for this server allows me to boot virtual copies of the backups from any 15 minute interval in the previous 2 days.  I was able to boot a virtual copy of this server from the backups before the updates were installed.  It had the same “bootmgr is missing” error.  And the server had rebooted successfully 5 days ago, so something in the past 5 days after that last reboot caused this problem.

Research (googling) on the ‘bootmgr is missing’ error led me to this Microsoft KB article pretty quickly:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927391

Here is the content of that article:

Cause:

This error occurs when either of the following conditions is true:

• The Windows Boot Manager (Bootmgr) entry is not present in the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store.
• The Boot\BCD file on the active partition is damaged or missing.

Resolution:

Method 1: Repair the BCD store by using the Startup Repair option

You can use the Startup Repair option in the Windows Recovery Environment to repair the BCD store. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Put the Windows Vista installation disc in the disc drive, and then start the computer.
2. Press a key when you are prompted.
3. Select a language, a time, a currency, and a keyboard or another input method, and then click Next.
4. Click Repair your computer.
5. Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next.
6. In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Startup Repair.
7. Restart the computer.

Method 2: Rebuild the BCD store by using the Bootrec.exe tool

If the previous method does not resolve the problem, you can rebuild the BCD store by using the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Put the Windows Vista installation disc in the disc drive, and then start the computer.
2. Press a key when you are prompted.
3. Select a language, a time, a currency, and a keyboard or another input method, and then click Next.
4. Click Repair your computer.
5. Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next.
6. In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Command Prompt.
7. Type Bootrec /RebuildBcd, and then press ENTER.
   • If the Bootrec.exe tool runs successfully, it presents you with an installation path of a Windows directory. To add the entry to the BCD store, type Yes. A confirmation message appears that indicates the entry was added successfully.
   • If the Bootrec.exe tool cannot locate any missing Windows installations, you must remove the BCD store, and then you must re-create it. To do this, type the following commands in the order in which they are presented. Press ENTER after each command.
     Bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup
     ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old
     Bootrec /rebuildbcd
8. Restart the computer.

Method 3: Rebuild the BCD store manually by using the Bcdedit.exe tool

If the previous method does not resolve the problem, you can rebuild the BCD store manually by using the Bcdedit.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Put the Windows Vista installation disc in the disc drive, and then start the computer.
2. Press a key when you are prompted.
3. Select a language, a time, a currency, and a keyboard or another input method, and then click Next.
4. Click Repair your computer.
5. Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next.
6. In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Command Prompt.
7. Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
   cd /d Partition:\Windows\System32

   Note Partition represents the letter of the partition on which Windows Vista is installed. Typically, this is partition C.

8. Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
   bcdedit /enum all

   In the Windows Boot Loader section of the output from this command, note the GUID that is listed for resumeobject. You will use this GUID later.

9. Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
   bcdedit -create {bootmgr} -d “Description“

   Note Description represents the description for the new entry.

10. Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
    bcdedit -set {bootmgr} device partition=Partition:

    Note Partition represents the letter of the partition. Typically, the letter is C.

11. Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
    bcdedit /displayorder {GUID}

    Note GUID represents the GUID that you obtained in step 8.

12. Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
    bcdedit /default {GUID}

    Note GUID represents the GUID that you obtained in step 8.

13. Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
    bcdedit /timeout Value

    Note Value represents the time in seconds before the Windows Boot Manager selects the default entry that you created in step 12.

14. Restart the computer.

If you are booting from a Server 2008 install disk, when you use the “Repair your computer” option, the available options look like this:

You can access the repair option on a Server 2008 disk by choosing “command prompt”, then running  “x:\sources\recovery\StartRep.exe”.

I did this and it worked like a champ!  It found an error, corrected it, and the server was back up and running 10 minutes later.

I have also done this on Server 2008 using a Windows Vista install disk.  Slightly risky, but the server was down anyway, and I was in a pinch.  That also worked.  Along the same lines, I would guess that a Windows 7 install disk would work for Server 2008 R2 if you had no other option.  But don’t hold me to that!