Windows Vista boot process is different from what has been used in earlier versions of Windows. After the BIOS is loaded, MBR and then boot sector are accessed. The boot sector further loads the boot blocks and Windows Boot Manager. After this, BCD store is loaded to reach to the final stage of starting the operating system. If the process halts in anyway, Windows Vista will not boot. This leads to data inaccessibility and to restore it, you might need to use your backup. If this too fails, you should use a Partition Recovery Utility to recover and restore it.

For example, consider a scenario when you try to boot a Windows Vista based computer system, but the operations fails. Consequently, you run Startup Repair using installation disc, but this too fails and reports the following error:

Root cause found: Boot configuration is corrupt. Repair action: Partition table repair Result: Failed. Error code = 0x490

The above error might occur accompanied with other errors also.

Cause

Windows Vista boot code or Winload.exe is severely corrupted beyond startup repair.

Solution

Since Startup Repair of recovery disc is unable to fix the errors, you need to follow suggestions like:

You can use Bootsect.exe command in order to restore the boot code and MBR information. It transfers the control to BOOTMGR (Windows Boot Manager). To do this, you should boot the computer using Windows Vista installation DVD and access its command prompt to run the following command:

Drive:\boot\Bootsect.exe /NT60

If the above step fails, try running commands through WinRE like:

bcdedit /set {default} device partition= Drive: bcdedit /set {default} osdevice partition=Drive: bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device partition=Drive: BOOTREC /FIXMBR BOOTREC /FIXBOOT BOOTREC /REBUILDBCD BOOTREC /SCANOS

In both the steps above, Drive should be replaced with the drive letter of your primary partition.

If you still cannot boot into Windows Vista, reformat and reinstall the system using WinRE.

To restore the missing data, use your current data backup. In any case of backup issues, you are suggested to use Partition Recovery utilities. However, using Partition Recovery Software before actually formatting the disk partition proves more beneficial in prospects considering to recover all data safely.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Software is a reliable and full-fledged recovery utility designed for Windows 7 RC1, Vista, XP, 2003 and 2000 based systems. It is a non-destructive Partition Recovery application providing advanced and impressive set of features. The tool supports complete recovery of data for FAT32, VFAT, NTFS and NTFS5 file system drives.