How to Manually Repair Windows 7 Boot Loader Problems?

About Windows 7 boot loader problems

The Windows boot loader, known as Windows Boot Manager (BOOTMGR), is a small software that starts the operating system when you power on your computer. After the BIOS or UEFI completes its initial checks, it loads BOOTMGR from the bootable drive. BOOTMGR then reads the Boot Configuration Data (BCD), which contains information about installed operating systems. If multiple OSes are present, it presents a menu for the user to select one; otherwise, it automatically proceeds. Finally, BOOTMGR loads the Windows kernel and hands control to it to complete the boot process.

Well, what will happen if the Windows 7 boot loader gets problematic? When the Windows Boot Loader is missing, corrupted, or damaged, the system will fail to boot properly, preventing access to Windows. You may encounter error messages like "BOOTMGR is missing" or "Couldn't find BOOTMGR," and the computer might get stuck in a loop without loading the operating system. This makes it difficult for users to access tools to fix the issue. Common causes include corrupted Boot Configuration Data (BCD), missing or corrupted system files, hard drive issues, file compression, disk fragmentation, or improper shutdowns.

How to manually repair Windows 7 boot loader?

How to repair Windows 7 boot manager? In this section, you will get 3 methods to easily perform missing manager Windows 7 repair.

Method 1. Use a third-party tool to effectively repair Windows 7 boot loader

How to repair BDC in Windows 7? The Boot Repair tool in AOMEI Partition Assistant can fix system boot issues easily and effectively compared to traditional methods like using CMD. It specially focuses on repairing damaged or missing Boot Configuration Data (BCD) files, allowing users to restore normal boot functions quickly.

You might use this tool if the system fails to boot and shows errors like "Boot Configuration Data file is missing" or "Boot Configuration Data file is corrupted," if the boot configuration is corrupted after an update, in cases of conflicts in a multi-OS setup, or if there’s boot sector corruption due to a virus or other issues.

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Step 1. Prepare a blank USB and connect it to a working PC that has installed AOMEI Partition Assistant, click "Recover" >"Boot Repair" and then click the "create a bootable disk" option to create a WinPE "Boot Repair" disk.

Step 2. Boot the PC that cannot boot into WinPE. It will automatically load the Boot Repair tool and start the boot entries scan process. All boot entries will be displayed.

Step 3. Select the repairable boot entries you want to repair and click the "Repair" button to start the repair.

Step 4. Once the repair is repaired successfully, you can remove the bootable disk and boot the PC from the original system drive.

Method 2. Repair BCD for Windows 7 via CMD

When you cannot boot into your computer and want to manually repair Windows 7 boot loader, the CMD can also help you. But first, you may need to prepare a Windows 7 installation media because you'll need to start your PC in the Windows Recovery Environment. Please note that since Windows 7 has removed the ISO download page from its official website, you can now only find it through a web search.

If you boot your computer from an installation disc, click through until you reach the initial Windows installation page, then click the "Repair your computer" link rather than starting the installation.

Select the Windows 7 operating system that requires repair, and then select "Next." Click Command Prompt in the System Recovery Options dialog window to carry out a boot repair in Windows 7.

Type Bootrec.exe, and then press Enter. Then input these commands and execute one by one:

Related article: Solved: Bootrec /fixboot Element Not Found in CMD

Method 3. Check the system hard drive errors

If there are  bad sectors on your system hard drive, it is easy to encounter boot issues. So, when it comes to missing boot manager for Windows 7 repair, checking the system hard drive errors can also help to fix the issue. To so do, you can also choose AOMEI Partition Assistant.

Step 1. Run AOMEI Partition Assistant, on the main window, click "Test" and choose “Disk Surface Test” at the drop-down menu.

Step 2. Click “Start” to test errors.

Tip: you can tick “Quick Check” to test quickly. Press “Cancel” when the operation is done.

Conclusion

This article shares details about how to manually repair Windows 7 boot loader problems. If you want to easily and effectively fix any boot issues, please choose AOMEI Partition Assistant. It can not only help to repair Windows 7 boot loader, but also it can fix “No bootable devices found” in Windows OS, invalid or damaged bootable partition, repair UEFI Bootloader, and so on. Such a powerful tool performs well in extending drive space, managing partitions, and enhancing system performance. For Windows Server users, it offers AOMEI Partition Assistant Server edition.