Fix MBR - Comments Page 3

please can you tell me if that sound my HD did could have been caused by a broken MBR? may that sound an the subsequently behavior of the HD be a bad ide cable? why after all that i've been running it for near two hours and no symptoms at all i'm so scared to try anything and reboot with the same error not being able to start windows again a SMART monitoring tool I just used reported that the disk reports status of SMART as Passed. I'm gonna run scandisk on windows then reboot and try the recovery console (if it let me as it is asking for a password that never was given to the administrator account) any advices before i do that?

sorry the last post was very vague, but now look: I did reboot with the xp cd on the drive then it did load the blue screen and then I went into the console, in there I did the fixboot thing, then I tried to do the fixmbr command then it said that my mbr was an uncommon one or was invalid and that there was a risk for it to not let me access my files if I decide to continue, so I didn't. next I took off the xp cd and rebooted the pc and... "invalid disk, no disk... blah" no booting again then i tried once more and rebooted but I put the xp cd back and let the countdown for start from the cd to go without pressing enter and then... bingo the xp loading screen and here I'm again. thinking back that was the same thing I did (but I did'nt noticed it)the last time i posted. It seem that with the cd in the drive at the startup the Hard disk is able to load winxp. Not normal surely but what can it be? I don't get it, does the xp cd loads somekind of boot subsystem that lets the HD to boot?

EDITOR'S NOTE: It's possible that your HD is dying and needs more time at startup to initialize. (Could also be a power supply issue.) Adding the "do you want to boot from CD prompt" could be giving it enough time to do its thing. But something is surely not right. Look for that TESTDISK program and give it a try.

Well problem partially solved, right now I'm working with the HD and except for a little bit longer xp loading time and some mouse lagging from time to time there are no symptomps. Finally yestersday after looking every where i found that the booting priority of my maxtor (primary)HD was in the end of the list (dumb me)and that strangely the system would not look for it unless it was on top of the other. Well that's for why it wasn't loading, but now what still intrigues me is the same reason and events for which I didn't look the boot priorities in first place. 1.system crashed and hardisk clickin continously. 2. no booting (this is the moment in which I think the bios stopped recognizing the hard drive same for Bartpe in first launch) 3.Bartpe recognized the disk in new launch (backup done on secondary drive) 4.win xp cd boot "incident" & first post :) 5.chkdisk + fixboot & finally the bios boot priority setttings = Here i'm. BTW: I tried testdisk.exe -analyse, then quick search it says partitions fine... but when i get to a point where there is an option to list files it says that the file system is damaged even when i'm running the supposedly damaged drive and no apparent problems with files.

EDITOR'S NOTE: It's good that the MBR problem is solved, but a clicking sound from the drive is definitely bad news. I would backup any important files ASAP and replace the drive before it dies.

I had a computer crash, and spent several hours researching this solution. I had to make a cd with the cdburnerxp (freeware) to burn it as an ISO image and used webtree.ca as my first source. Thank you Bob for giving me more confidence to move ahead and simply say FIX my MBR. the recovery console warns you extensively not to do it, but IT FIXED MY PROBLEM when I used the fixmbr command. Thank you Bob!

Hello, I tried everything you said above but when I've entered setup the computer doesn't show the Recovery Console. What should I do know? Thanks a lot for reading this.

EDITOR'S NOTE: You have to shut down your computer, then reboot with the XP Setup CD. You should then see a prompt to press the R key to start the Recovery Console.

hi, i installed os x leopard on my hp desktop i followed all the instruction correctly and i partioned my hard drive using partion magic then i nstalled os x in one drive but after installing i get mbr error and it say press any key to continue then it boots from the cd rom( mac os x ) now i hav a working mac os but I NEED SOME HELP TO FIX MY MBR AND DO A DUAL BOOT.

Hey, I am also randomly getting the "MBR error" message when I boot up my computer. Usually I'll be playing a game like Counter Strike, and my computer will freeze up. Then, when I restart it, I get that message. I let my computer cool down for a bit, and after approx 10 tries, I get it to work again. I don't have my Windows XP setup CD anymore, it got lost when I moved houses. Is there any other way I can fix this?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Stop playing games that hose your MBR? Or check out my suggestions for overheating here: http://askbobrankin.com/computer_restarts_itself.html

Just and FYI: You may not have an Admin password, so all you have to do is hit "Enter". I figured this out after several attempts. Other than that, the above didn't work for me. I can get to the screen of "Safe Mode".... "Start Windows Normally", and whatever I chose, it reboots anyway and goes back to those options again. I can access the hard drive when it's hooked up as a slave, but not all files are accessible.

Having a huge prob here. I installed a new Western Digital HDD into my cousins PC which is a Dell Demision B110 series. I set the CD Rom to boot firt and placed the Win XP OS Disk in the drive. On boot all it says is, Strike F1 to retry boot, Strike F2 to enter setup. This does this over and over again. All jumpers are set correctly. The hdd is by itself on IDE1, and the rom is by itself on IDE2. I have tried 3 different Rom drives and a new cable but to the same end.

I have tried many other bootable disc to see if that was it but the same message each time. Setup shows both the hdd and the Rom. I turned on caps lock, Num lock, and scroll, and pressed alt-tab-E, alt-Tab-F, alt-tab-B as suggested from someone. This configured my drives but nothing else. I removed cmos battery and replaced it after an hr or so but that was not help either. Any suggestions out there?

EDITOR'S NOTE: So your system just doesn't want to boot from the CD? Try unplugging the hard drive, just to see if that might be interfering. If it boots from the CDROM, put CD on IDE1 and HD on IDE2.

Hello, If I restart my computer with the Windows XP Setup disk in the CDROM drive, I receive a msg saying that the version already installed is more recent than the one on the CD. What do you suggest ?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Are you trying to re-install, or just run the Recovery Console?

Hi Bob! In some cases when I go to repair a computer, I found this problem. One day when I partitioned a hard disk with Partition Magic, the problem persisted, then I decided partition with FDISK command, and all works! Rare, no?

Yes, worked perfectly, THANK YOU! I had installed LINUX, just playing around but didn't know how to get WINDOWS back. Now I will teach WINDOWS to boot LINUX - while still retaining control of the MBR.

Hey!! You are the man and I'm sooo glad google pulled your page up. I had decided to remove Linux from my dual boot sys using Partition Magic and all went okay until I tried to re-boot. No luck. Followed your instructions and in less than 5 minutes I was back up and running on my 3rd pc. Can NOT thank you enough!!!

Hi Bob,

I copied one hard drive to another. It Had Windows XP on a compaq presario and i tried to hook up the copied hard drive to a dell and it won't work. It says that there is a hardware problem. any suggestions. thanks

EDITOR'S NOTE: Are you using it as a boot drive? If so, you lack the hardware drivers for the Dell machine. Your best bet is to use the old drive as a secondary (non-boot) drive in the Dell machine.

I am not sure I have this problem. My error window states The problem seems to be caused by the following file: LVPrcMon.sys The driver unloaded without canelling pending operations. I have tried numerous approaches to resolve this by getting to start then run then configsys to do a FSC /scannow to repair problem. I cannot access this. I do not have a Windows XP CD it came loaded in my ACER I have an ACER Recovery disk, which I have tried to boot off of with the same result. Is there something I can download and place on my thumb drive to boot the ACER to be able to work on it?

Will fixmbr delete any files? At fixmbr I receive a Caution message that reads This computer appears to have a non-standard or master boot record. FIXMBR may damage your partition tables if you proceed. This could cause all the partitions on the current hard disk to become inaccessible. If you are not having problems accessing your drive do not proceed. Are you sure you want to proceed. I received the error loading operating system.

EDITOR'S NOTE: FIXMBR twiddles around with the boot record, a single file on the drive that specifies where the operating system is located. It won't delete anything else, but it could make those files inaccessible, at least temporarily. You might try FIXBOOT instead, and use FIXMBR as a last resort. Even better, try the TESTDISK program I've recommended on this site.

Twice in one year I had a boot problem. When I switched on the computer, I received a notice " NTLDR is missing Press Ctr Alt Del to Restart". (I'm not 100% sure this was the exact phrase)

Anyway, pressing CTR/ALT/DEL tried to start Windows, with again the same repeated message. It was like my system was stuck in a loop. I was able to access the 'problem' primary hard drive windows(C) through my backup hard drive(D)and windows and all appeared fine. So I messed with the BIOS, but still no luck in booting to C.

I remember I tried the fixmbr, with no success. I kept going in circles with the dreaded message "NTLDR is missing Press Ctr Alt Del to Restart" thing, until it drove me crazy, so I ended up re-formatting my primary hard drive.

I have this fear of this re-occurring, but can't figure out why this happened, and how to fix it if it happens again. Hopefully Bob's suggestions will work ( I have printed out his 'fix' article...just in case.)

I dont even know my admistrator password,Where would it be located so I can write it down if incase the BSOD happens to me?

EDITOR'S NOTE: It's not stored anywhere you can find it. In most cases, it's your logon password, unless you took the trouble to create a limited account and you login with it.

I have WinVista. Suddenly the system will not boot. I had tried the Disk Recovery and

Repair for Vista and it still will not boot. I tried Easy BCD and it will only work if the system is operating. I used a live CD to get into the hard drive and I cannot even right click the hard drive and go to properties to repair the disk. The system will not allow this. Some friends said they did this and then ran the recovery console it finally fixed it. Is there a master boot repair disk that will boot the disk so I can repair the system. I have tried the console prompt but the instructions off the internet were not complete. I was not seeing what they said I should. Do you have a method of fixing the MBR. I already copied some important info off the disk just in cast but some of the software is to expensive to lose now. I don't have all of the serials on record. I know this disk will start up somehow.

EDITOR"S NOTE: Did you try my instructions in the "Repairing a Damaged MBR" section? If so, what specifically did you have trouble with?

is this a similar fix to the old fdisk /mbr command which you could use with the win98 boot disk?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Yes, very similar.