Windows 7 "BOOTMGR compressed" HELP

[Micha3l]

Hello,

I have run into an issue here where I am unable to boot my system anymore. It began when I decided to give the disk compression tool a whirl since I thought it may speed up my system a bit...1st mistake. Since it takes about a million and 15 days to complete I cancelled the operation...2nd mistake. Now when I reboot my system I get the error message BOOTMGR compressed press Ctrl + Alt + Delete to restart. OK, I've seen boot errors before, just pop in a recovery CD and we're good to go, right? Apparently not in my case. My system refuses to boot from CD-ROM. I do have it set to boot first from CD-ROM in my BIOS so that is not the issue. I also noticed something else in my POST screen, it shows my that I have NO Primary or Slave disks! The BIOS either does not see them or will not recognize them for some reason anymore. I have tried multiple recovery disks and have tested them on clean systems and they contain the bootable data need to start my system so I am at a loss here as to what to do. My computer was working fine and dandy just before I tried to mess with the compression tool, so I don't think it's a hardware issue.
I do not have a new copy of Windows 7 nor do I really wish to purchase one if my system will not see it. But I will buy one if you truly believe it will do the trick, I suppose I could always install it on another computer if I needed too since I really wouldn't be installing it on this one, only repairing it correct?

My specs are as follows:

Originally it was a Acer Aspire M5640 that came pre-installed with Vista but I installed Windows 7 & a while ago and have since lost the original CD when I moved or it was stolen but that's a moot point now, it's gone.
I have also installed a new motherboard in my system last year when the old one died on me.
The motherboard is a Gigabyte S-Series Model# GA-73PVM-S2H
Processor is a Intel Dual Core
250 GB SATA HD
Super Multi Drive
3GB DDR2 Memory

If all else fails I just want to be able to save some photos on the old drive to a new drive if I can't fix this one, I am assuming a generic SATA to USB cable will work to transfer files even if the boot manager is corrupted?

 

[Saltgrass]

You can download a Windows 7 .iso file to burn and try to boot to that.

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I do not know of software you could boot to which would allow you to uncompress the drive, others might.

You may have two possible choices. Use the Install DVD to load another, temporary install of Windows 7 and use it to uncompress the drive. Whether or not you have that capability is up to you.

The second option, which I may be testing, is to boot to a command prompt and use the compact command. But for me to test, I would like to have your exact setup. Did you install Windows with the small system partition? Did you just compress the C: drive or do something to compress the entire hard drive? Specifics would certainly help, if I am to test.

 

[Micha3l]

@Saltgrass- Thank you for your help. Let me clarify a bit on what I have done so far. Windows 7 was installed over my original Vista OS which had two partitions of equal size, one named C drive and the second named D drive. I wish i had more complete details but since i can't access my computer, i am at a loss for specifics here, next time i will be more detail oriented in inventorying what my system has just in case this should ever happen again. I do believe that I was mistaken when I said I used the built in Windows 7 compression tool, I may have been referring to the Defrag tool to save space since I don't remember W7 having a general compression tool, whichever it was, I stopped it before it was completed. Currently I am unable to boot to anything other than the BOOTMGR compressed POST screen, it will not let me get past that. I can't boot to a command prompt nor any sort of recovery screen. I will try to download the Windows ISO to see if that will work and update you on my progress after that. Again, thank you for your help.

You can download a Windows 7 .iso file to burn and try to boot to that.

Link Removed - Not Found

I do not know of software you could boot to which would allow you to uncompress the drive, others might.

You may have two possible choices. Use the Install DVD to load another, temporary install of Windows 7 and use it to uncompress the drive. Whether or not you have that capability is up to you.

The second option, which I may be testing, is to boot to a command prompt and use the compact command. But for me to test, I would like to have your exact setup. Did you install Windows with the small system partition? Did you just compress the C: drive or do something to compress the entire hard drive? Specifics would certainly help, if I am to test.

 

[Saltgrass]

Windows 7 does show a "compress this drive" type option under the drive properties. But I would not think it would allow for you to compress the system files...

The defrag is a different thing. If you stopped it mid way through, there may not be a way to predict what condition your files are in. A system restore may not be available, or end up causing corruption on your system .. but don't know for sure.

You can try running a SFC /scannow command from offline, but you still need to get into some type of command prompt. I might understand why the F8 option and Windows 7 recovery CD may not work, but you should be able to get into the install DVD. I suppose running a chkdsk might also be an option.

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I would not think Windows would allow you to stop the defrag or whatever, in a condition that would leave your system unbootable. How did you stop the process, in a supported manner, or a system shutdown?

Edit: I also found this, if it might help.

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[Micha3l]

Update on my progress.
The Windows 7 ISO failed to boot up, as usual it will go no further than the POST screen where it tells me that BOOTMGR is compressed. I can't even get to a command prompt to run chksdsk. It is dead in the water. I think if I get no further in the next day or so my only option will be to just pack it up and look for a new PC. I at least hope that I am able to retrieve some of the pictures on my dead HD, I will try the using the SATA to USB option and see if I have better luck at least with this chapter of my dilemma.

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

The first thing I would do is download an ISO file for Ubuntu and create a bootable disk.
Boot into Ubuntu and copy all of your important stuff to an external hard drive or USB sticks (depends on how much stuff you have).

I have a Ubuntu disk I keep handy for times like this, it has booted every computer I've tried it on.

Once you have all of your data safe, then insert the Windows disk and chose custom install if it will get that far.
It should overwrite the old install including the boot manager, and install a clean copy of Windows.
If it won't work at least your data is safe.

Home | Ubuntu

Clean Install Windows 7 - Windows 7 Forums

It used to be a lot easier back when you could just stick in a floppy and format the hard drive.

When you get things up and running take the time to make a system backup.

Mike

 

[Saltgrass]

The Windows 7 ISO failed to boot up, as usual it will go no further than the POST screen where it tells me that BOOTMGR is compressed.

If you are getting the message with a bootable DVD, you are probably not booting to the DVD... If your DVD drive is older, it may have problems with the Windows Install DVD.

Maybe trying a Linux DVD, as Mike suggests, would help troubleshoot your system. I keep my Linux on a flash drive, and it takes about 4 seconds to boot. Of course, you could always put the Windows 7 version on a flash drive to avoid using the DVD.

 

[Micha3l]

I'll try the Linux option and hopefully it will let me get past the POST screen and into something more useful. If i could at least to a command prompt I would be happy. At this point it seems to be my last option since I can't boot to DVD/CD although my BIOS was set to do so. Also as I have stated before, during boot in my Post screen it is telling me that I have no primary drive nor any slave drive. My BIOS does not see nor recognize them. Connections are fine. So I think the Ubuntu flash drive option may be my best bet. Question about that though, what do I set as my 1st boot device if I use a flash drive? I believe my options were Zip, USB HDD, USB CD-ROM..I may be missing one but I am at work and can't check to verify. I'm wondering if I try to switch my HD to another SATA port, if there is one would that make any difference at all? Prob wont do squat but feel like I'm searching for a piece of hay in a needle stack here and I am running out of options fast.
Again, thank you all for your help.

If you are getting the message with a bootable DVD, you are probably not booting to the DVD... If your DVD drive is older, it may have problems with the Windows Install DVD.

Maybe trying a Linux DVD, as Mike suggests, would help troubleshoot your system. I keep my Linux on a flash drive, and it takes about 4 seconds to boot. Of course, you could always put the Windows 7 version on a flash drive to avoid using the DVD.

 

[Saltgrass]

Older motherboards may not have the Flash drive availability, but one that came with Vista should be able to. I suppose you could try just to see.. Any chance there may be a bios update for your system. But use caution, because on older boards, even updating the bios, can cause a motherboard to be non-functional.

If you can't get anything to work on your system, can you take the drive out and hook it up to another system as a secondary drive?

The fact your bios is not showing any drives may mean something has failed. Perhaps the extended time for the Defrag might be an indication of a bad drive, or even a controller.

Disconnecting the hard drive might allow you to boot into your system. Of course you could not repair it that way, but it would help to see if the hard drive was going bad.

 

[Micha3l]

OK, I managed to finally solve this riddle. After some searching, I found I was not alone with this issue, there were actually quite a few people with this same problem, this is a compilation of tips I gathered from others including all of you in my quest to resolve this.

The first thing I did was to go into my BIOS and selected Integrated Peripherals; I then switched my SATA-II Raid Configuration Onchip SATA Mode to IDE. (I had three choices; RAID, AHCI and IDE.) For some odd reason my Windows 7 recovery disk or any other OS disk I tried to load with got caught up with the AHCI setting.

I then inserted my Windows 7 ISO disk that I downloaded from Saltgrasses link and restarted my system. Because of the switch to IDE, my system finally booted up!

The Windows 7 install began and asked me which OS to load, I chose Windows 7 then clicked the load drivers tab on the bottom of the screen.

It then took me to a My Computer/Explorer type screen with all of my drives listed.

I then right clicked on my C drive and unchecked "Compress this drive to save space" it was checked...that's where I originally screwed up! I then right clicked the D drive, but the compress option was unchecked.

I then clicked Restart and all was good again!

After all was working again I went back into my BIOS and switched the IDE option back to AHCI.

What did I learn from all of this mess? ALWAYS backup files on a secondary or online drive, always keep a repair/restore disk close at hand and bookmark this forum for future f-ups!
I got lucky...this time.

Thanks again all.


Michael