XP PRO: BOOT MGR Is Missing. Please Reply!!!

[xcherrybomb177]

My name is Michael.
I need a bit of tech help with an HP desktop.
One week ago & opened the BIOS and did something obviously wrong within the Boot Priority tab.
I haven't been able to boot into Vista since... no logo screen, no boot manager. Only BIOS Setup & the Boot from CD/HD thing.

I decided to order recovery CD's to erase and fix it.
Didn't help.
I came up with an error from Runtime ++ that said cannot render .../system32/recovery.exe

HP did not help with this.
I then took a Windows XP hard drive and installed it into the inside of the computer to make a recovery of that second HD.
The recovery Cd was successful.
After rebooting, I got to see the Windows XP loading screen for 1/3 of a second until the blue screen of death came up and rebooted my PC.

So I turned it back on & now I have an error message saying "BOOTMGR is Missing" Press CRTL/Alt/DL to Restart.
That is all I have the ability to do.
I dont know command prompts very well before entering the OS so I'm unsure if it can be fixed that way, but I only have access to the BIOS Setup screen & the Boot from CD/HD Screen.

Whoever you are sir, please help me because I have many family photo's from two recently dead Uncles & thousands of songs, and dozens of documents that I really really need.

The most frustrating part is that I cant take OUT the Vista HD because my screwdriver cant fit on the opposite side to unscrew it due to steel case being in the way & the casing has a type of circular pressing into the casing and it isnt a screw nor anything like it.

Could you pleasse help me?
My contact info is this email & if you have the ability to call me, Please do - although I only will accept calls from professionals with experience with internal and BIOS Booting experience.
My phone is (removed by admin)

[sgtspector]

The first thing to do is remove your phone number from your post. You probably shouldn't post any personally identifying information on these boards as they are public. If you need to give someone any info like that send them a private message. Now try to relax and be patient and someone will answer your post and your prayer soon enough.

[Spools]

First of all, I would very much recommend that you find someone who can get that drive out for you and backup all your critical files to another stable PC.

After you've backed up your files, or if you're willing to go forward without the backup, I recommend following:

Insert your XP installation disk and set your boot order in the BIOS to start from the CD/DVD drive first.
Start the Recovery Console with these steps from Microsoft:

1. Insert the Windows XP CD into your CD drive and restart your computer. If you are prompted, select any options required to start (boot) from the CD. 2. When the text-based part of Setup begins, follow the prompts. Select the repair or recover option by pressing R. 3. If you have a dual-boot or multiboot system, select the installation that you want to access from the Recovery Console. 4. When you are prompted, type the Administrator password. 5. At the command prompt, type Recovery Console commands, and then you can refer to the commands that are listed in the "Available commands within Windows Recovery Console" section. 6. At any time, you can type Help for a list of available commands. 7. At any time, you can type Help commandname for help on a specific command. For example, you can type help attrib to display the help on the attributes command. 8. At any time, you can exit Windows Recovery Console by typing Exit at the command line.

While in the Recovery Console (looks like a DOS prompt), type FIXBOOT Accept any prompts.
After receiving the message that the process is complete, type FIXMBR Accept any prompts.
After receiving the message that the process is complete, type EXIT and reboot.