Dell Laptop Recovery partition (bootmgr is missing). Can Knoppix help?

[krishna.murphy]

I was trying to do a System Restore on my Dell Inspiron 1525 (it is running Vista), when an error popped up. It didn't say anything. It was just a red circle with white X. All I could do was click OK. Now it will not start. I keep getting a Bootmgr is missing. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart.
I tried to use a Vista Recovery Disk, but it didn't sove the problem. This seems to be a big problem with Vista.

Dell doesn't send disks with the laptops. I have aksed them to mail them to me. I will have to wait and see that will really happen.
I checked (using the prompt) and I believe that the recovery partition is still there. I can get to another 1525, if necessary.

There is a function you can use in the VISTA control panel (on the 2nd 1525, I mean) which will burn the recovery disks. I've seen it done, but I suppose there may be lamed versions of Vista that won't do it out there, too.

After much digging, I can find where someone used BartPE to get to a command prompt to tell the Restore Partition to image the C drive.

Sounds promising, but I don't know BartPE. Another user just noted here that there is at least one other option.

I have used Knoppix in the past to recover files but never to fix my computer. Can I use Knoppix to get to a command prompt to try this?

Backing up before starting other changes is a really good idea. But if you mean a DOS command prompt, I don't recommend using Knoppix to get there. There are plenty of options out there, including Hiren's backup info and BootCD. Knoppix can be used to do this kind of download even when the system's original OS is broken.

Thanks for helping out this newbie...

Hope this helps!
Krishna