BOOTMGR image is corrupt. System cannot boot.

[Appletax]

Dell Inspiron 1750 (laptop)
Windows 7 Home Premium x64
500 GB Western Digital hard drive

I was at my client’s home last night for about 2 hours trying to fix her issue, which was:
BOOTMGR image is corrupt. System cannot boot.

I tried fixing the problem with the Bootrec.exe tool with instructions from Microsoft Support.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392

Nothing I did fixed the problem. So I gave up and decided to do a nuke and pave.
I backed up the user’s data and tried reinstalling Windows 7.

During the installation I received this error:
Windows could not prepare the computer to boot into the next phase of installation. To install Windows restart the installation.

I tried reinstalling a second time and the installation progressed further than the first, but I still received an error:
Windows Setup could not configure Windows to run on this computer’s hardware.

I booted up Hiren’s boot CD 14.1 and ran the Western Digital Lifeguard program.
The hard drive passes SMART. At the bottom of this post are the SMART values from HD Tune.

I ran an extended test and received this message:
Test found bad sectors that may be repairable.

I let it attempt to repair them. I received this message:
Error was detected while repairing bad sectors.
Please contact WS Tech support for help.


My conclusion is that the hard drive needs to be replaced.
What do you think?

 

[BryanLee]

I had a similar issue a few days ago. It was a bad drive.

 

[othersteve]

Definitely a bad hard drive!

 

[iisjman07]

I booted up Hiren’s boot CD 14.1 and ran the Western Digital Lifeguard program.
The hard drive passes SMART. At the bottom of this post are the SMART values from HD Tune.

I ran an extended test and received this message:
Test found bad sectors that may be repairable.

I let it attempt to repair them. I received this message:
Error was detected while repairing bad sectors.
Please contact WS Tech support for help.

SMART isn't a reliable way to diagnose if a hard drive is faulty or not. It's a system designed to warn you before a malfunction, but it will very often not. It also stores it's data on sectors on the disk platters, which means they're liable to corruption or failure. Also, I've seen the option to 'repair bad sectors' in other software (such as Seagate SeaTools for DOS), and they won't repair bad sectors.

Bad sectors on the surface of the disk are very very likely to be the root of your problems, like you expected. This is a shame because hard drives have recently shot up in price...

 

[Appletax]

SMART isn't a reliable way to diagnose if a hard drive is faulty or not. It's a system designed to warn you before a malfunction, but it will very often not. It also stores it's data on sectors on the disk platters, which means they're liable to corruption or failure. Also, I've seen the option to 'repair bad sectors' in other software (such as Seagate SeaTools for DOS), and they won't repair bad sectors.

Bad sectors on the surface of the disk are very very likely to be the root of your problems, like you expected. This is a shame because hard drives have recently shot up in price...

Thanks for the good info

Would you say that the best tool to use to diagnose a hard drive is the
manufacturer's software? Such as SeaTools and WD Lifeguard?

Lifeguard was the only program that informed me that there were bad
sectors and that they're unrepairable.

I told my client about the flooding in Thailand causing hard drive prices
to go up significantly.

I ordered a 320 GB WD hard drive from Amazon Warehouse. It's in like new
condition, cost $53, and will be here on Wednesday.

That's sad. I paid $55 for the brand new 500 GB WD hard drive that I put in
about a year ago in a laptop of mine that I just sold.

 

[xxsilk109xx]

I think using the manufactures tools are the best..... if you have hirens disk then they are all on there already.