Computer stuck at "Verifying DMI Pool Data"

I'm trying to troubleshoot this problem, I've had it happen before and I fixed it but nothing seems to be working.

My assumption is that since I can boot off the windows recovery disk this is purely an issue with corruption of MBR/BCD/Boot somethingrather... (my computer crashed hard just before this problem started...)

First thing I did was tried booting into the recovery console and running...

bootrec.exe /fixboot <- no effect
bootrec.exe /fixmbr  <- no effect
bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd <- no windows installations found

Weird.. so I check and low and behold there is no C:\boot folder at all...

Well, after trying quite a few things (mostly trying to manually rebuild the BCD) I 'fixed' that by setting the windows partition active and running the command over.

Now rebuildbcd works.. but I'm still stuck on the verifying dmi pool screen. I booted back in to the recovery console and it said there were issues with startup and it could fix them, I let it try... still stuck at DMI pool screen.

Basically, I've tried everything I know how to do, nothing's working. Any ideas?

EDIT: Okay so it appears that my "Boot manager is missing or corrupt" - no doubt due to the fact that my boot folder was totally wiped out...

Before I ask a question, this link might help to understand the MBR & Partition Table process:

Do you have one HDD or 2 or more?

If only one HDD give the rest of this a miss.

If 2 or more, make sure you have set the BIOS to look for the 1st (system C for Windows) drive, in the drive table list.

If you have accidentally told the MBR to look at the 2nd or 3rd drive first, (the HDD boot order) it will never find the partition table & so gets stuck at the end of the MBR process, the DMI check point, which has NO error warning.

I made this mistake (set my data drive, the 2nd drive) 1st in the HDD list in the BIOS) after changing to a new BIOS. The data drive had no partition table. Took me hours to figure it out. Both HDD's were the same size... d'oh!

Are you able to view files?

I would backup and then do a repair install of windows. This just replaces all the system files, while leaving all the programs and data. It usually fixes tougher boot problems.

When machines get this way it gets tricky though. A repair might fix it, but can you really trust it? Often better on the nerves to just backup and reinstall.