Retail laptops and Bootmgr,boot\BCD\ errors, how do you approach

[styrafoam]

I have seen a few of these laptops and after seeing how they react that I am wondering how everyone handles them. Specifically when manufacturers partition the hard drive into 4+ partitions and the windows DVD can't find the installation.

Its usually a simple process to get the manufacturer's factory restore to run from the bios, but of course that isn't ideal. Any time i approach one i pull the drive and run chkdsk with a surface scan from a secondary computer. After that it seems to be pretty up in the air, or there is just a trick i haven't learned yet. The last one i looked at was getting a boo\bcd error 0xc00000e9, and the windows dvd refused to boot. The system would hang at the glowing windows emblem. I somehow managed to get lucky with a shot in the dark by copying the boot\bcd files from the os partition to the boot partition and retrying the dvd. DVD found the installation and repaired startup, laptop boots all user files intact, I don't have to back up 21 gigs of pictures and 10 gigs of itunes library.

 

[Bubbaleone]

Use EasyBCD for a simple way to export/import/backup/repair the BCD store, and the expedient and reliable way to boot an optical drive, or USB flash drive, is to select it from the boot menu (tap F11, F12 key at startup) rather than from the BIOS boot order.

 

[styrafoam]

Use EasyBCD for a simple way to export/import/backup/repair the BCD store, and the expedient and reliable way to boot an optical drive, or USB flash drive, is to select it from the boot menu (tap F11, F12 key at startup) rather than from the BIOS boot order.

I'll be sure and give this one a whirl next time it comes up, thanks!