[asuss06]

i used "Norton Ghost" to transfer all my data, programs and platform to a new hard drive, but when i installed the new drive into my laptop and started it up, i got "BOOTMGR is missing".

What did i do wrong?

[leroys1000]

When you copied the old drive,did you make sure to
select MBR (master boot record) as well as the drive
in norton?
If it is window vista or windows 7,you will also need to copy
the small partition with the windows system files.
If you are doing an image backup,it might be better to hook up
both drives and do a clone instead.
That will copy the whole drive.
Also check the bios and make sure the new drive is the first boot device.

[asuss06]

ok, i think i understand and ill check everything as youve suggested. one question is that you said, "if you are doing an image backup, it might be better to hook up both drives and do a clone instead". hook up both drives? they are both hooked up together, so im sure i understand that. ill have to if norton ghost does "cloning".

[leroys1000]

Looks like the new ghost doesn't have cloning but you should be able to
find a free cloning utility online.
If the drives are different size,you may need to make sure the utility you
use can clone to different size drives.
Cloning copies the old drive to the new one as oppesed to making an image
and restoring it.
Might just be that you didn't include the mbr in your image though.
The mbr has the boot loader.

[asuss06]

i got fed up with trying to make norton ghost work and i also tried two other free download that also did NOT sorve my problem, so i got Acronis and....ALL HAIL ACRONIS!!!! one shot, it all worked perfectly and without any problems whatsoever.
man, forget Norton, forget everything else - Acronis wins by a landslide in my book.
Thanks leroys1000 for all your help!!!!