PC Solution: Windows Vista “error bootmgr” problem solution

At least this is how I did it after reading about this common problem after installing Windows Vista. In my case I installed a brand new license of Windows Vista Home Premium. The computer would boot up and give “error bootmgr” and offer to reboot with “ctr-alt-del” just to come back to the same screen. In my case the reason for this was that somehow Vista prefers IDE over Sata when booting? I had installed Windows with an IDE and Sata drive in my PC, while installing Vista on the SATA drive.

The solution to my problem was simple and done using the Vista DVD and unplugging my non-system HD:

1) I opened up the case and unplugged the data and power cable from my IDE drive and rebooted the PC onto the Vista DVD.
2) Select “repair” option and select to fix errors that prevent windows from booting on the following screen. It found an error and wanted me to reboot, do so.
3) Let it boot back onto the Vista DVD once more select “repair” and again same 1st option on the following screen. It will repair now again and reboot again.
4) But now let it boot into the system. Once on your desktop, remove the Vista DVD from your drive and reboot PC to test, should work.
5) So now that Vista boots properly from its installed HD, I turned off the PC and reattached the IDE cable and power to my 2nd drive.
6) Boot up and voila, the drive appears.
7) Reboot again to test the proper startup a last time and now all should be starting up fine without errors messages.

It seems that Vista writes into the bootmanager to look for windows where it is not. This takes care of it. I think this was probably something they never tested. Many people have more than one HD in their machines, often also as in my case ATA, SATA and IDE mixed.