How to fix an XP MBR

[golfmore]

A friend gets a msg "no boot record found or damaged" or something very similar. How can I fix it? Thanks.

[kelly]

There's a program called fixmbr. It never worked for me. Good luck.

[golfmore]

It didn't for us either. Now looking for fdisk to do a fdisk /mbr......

[Seth]

First thing to do is boot to the Recovery Console and run a chkdsk /r

If that doesn't work, go back to the RC and run a fixboot

Failing that, go for a bootcfg /rebuild

That should do it. Check out the chkdsk log though. If it shows bad sectors the hard drive may be on the way out.

[dbarrow]

There is a fixmbr command in the Repair Console as well.
The issue described is usually a boot config problem where boot.ini is pointing to a bad mount point.
bootcfg /rebuild most often will correct this.

Like Seth said, if the chkdsk /r takes a long time and shows a lot of bad sectors, the drive is likely going.
Fixmbr after a successful chkdsk may get it up long enough to transfer files but if critical OS files are missing or garped, not much hope of salvation.

All tools are in the Repair Console
Correct order would be:
chkdsk /r /f
fixmbr
bootcfg /rebuild

if it then comes up with HAL not found or another reg error,
copy %\Windows\repair *.* %\Windows\System32\config

[Seth]

There is a fixmbr command in the Repair Console as well.
The issue described is usually a boot config problem where boot.ini is pointing to a bad mount point.
bootcfg /rebuild most often will correct this.

Like Seth said, if the chkdsk /r takes a long time and shows a lot of bad sectors, the drive is likely going.
Fixmbr after a successful chkdsk may get it up long enough to transfer files but if critical OS files are missing or garped, not much hope of salvation.

All tools are in the Repair Console
Correct order would be:
chkdsk /r /f
fixmbr
bootcfg /rebuild

Yup...it's not too often that blown config files are caused by a random glitch. Rather, it's usually caused by a failing hard drive. The manufacturer's diagnostics should be run.

Hmmm...I thought the R switch implied F.

[dbarrow]

/r implies /f but I always run them together anyway.

The big bite is... waiting for the chkdsk to complete so you can pause the screen long enough to see what it repaired before it reboots. When you get one that runs for a long time, you just can't sit and wait to see the results!

[Seth]

/r implies /f but I always run them together anyway.

The big bite is... waiting for the chkdsk to complete so you can pause the screen long enough to see what it repaired before it reboots. When you get one that runs for a long time, you just can't sit and wait to see the results!

Just some added notes:

1) The F switch is not available in the Recovery Console.

2) The chkdsk log can be be found under the "Applications" heading of Event Viewer. It's titled Winlogon.

3) When chkdsk is run from the Recovery Console, the system doesn't reboot automatically. The results appear in real time as soon as the chkdsk completes.