220-1102 Operating Systems Practice Question
A technician boots a Windows 10 workstation and sees a black screen with the error 'Bootmgr is missing'. The technician has a Windows 10 installation USB drive. Which tool should the technician use to repair the boot configuration?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse the 'Bootmgr is missing' error with a boot sector issue and immediately choose Command Prompt with bootrec /fixboot, not realizing that the error is usually a BCD corruption and that Startup Repair is the recommended first-line tool for automated recovery.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Startup Repair
Startup Repair is the correct tool because it automates the diagnosis and repair of common boot issues, including a missing or corrupted Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store, which causes the 'Bootmgr is missing' error. When launched from a Windows 10 installation USB, it scans the system for boot problems and can rebuild the BCD without requiring manual command-line intervention.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Startup Repair
Why this is correct
Startup Repair is the correct answer because it is a Windows Recovery Environment tool that automatically diagnoses and repairs common boot failures, including missing or corrupted bootmgr files. It executes outside the installed OS, so it can run even when the boot chain is broken, and it works by rebuilding the Boot Configuration Data and restoring critical boot files. This makes it the first-line recovery mechanism for the 'Bootmgr is missing' error on Windows 10.
- ✗
System Restore
Why it's wrong here
System Restore is incorrect because it only reverts protected system files, registry settings, and drivers to a previous restore point; it does not repair or replace the bootmgr executable. Furthermore, launching System Restore requires booting into the Windows Recovery Environment, which is itself loaded through bootmgr — if bootmgr is absent, the system cannot even reach the recovery environment to run a restore. Thus, System Restore is useless when bootmgr itself is missing at the very start of the boot sequence.
- ✗
Command Prompt with bootrec /fixboot
Why it's wrong here
Using `bootrec /fixboot` is incorrect because it only writes a new Windows-compatible boot sector to the system partition. The 'Bootmgr is missing' error indicates the Boot Manager file itself or the Boot Configuration Data store is absent or corrupted, which `fixboot` does not address. This command is tempting as it is part of the `bootrec` suite for boot issues. It would be the correct choice if the boot sector itself were corrupted or overwritten, for instance, by another operating system's bootloader, as it specifically restores the Windows boot sector.
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Safe Mode
Why it's wrong here
Safe Mode is incorrect because it is a diagnostic Windows startup mode that still depends on the same boot chain that is broken. To enter Safe Mode, the system must first load bootmgr, which reads the Boot Configuration Data and then launches the Windows kernel; if bootmgr is missing, the boot process halts before Safe Mode can ever appear. Safe Mode troubleshoots driver and service failures, but it cannot bypass a missing boot manager or repair the low-level boot files that are absent.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
PXE Boot and Windows Deployment Services
Key term
Windows 10
Windows 10 is a personal computer operating system developed by Microsoft that combines the familiarity of Windows 7 with the modern features of Windows 8, designed to run on a wide range of devices from desktops to tablets.
Key term
Universal Serial Bus
A Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a standard interface that allows you to connect devices like keyboards, mice, storage drives, and printers to a computer for data transfer and power delivery.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 220-1102 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 220-1102 exam.