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MBR Trashed. Repair options?

I installed SUSE 9.1 Personal to try it out. After playing around with it for awhile I decided to put Windows XP back on, mainly to play games and do some work from home. However, I can't boot and I'm told the MBR is damaged. Okay, no big deal. I use Windows fixmbr command and reboot. Same problem. It's at this point I remember that and earlier version of SUSE I installed a couple of years ago also trashed my MBR. I normally would use the Western Digital hard drive formatting floppy, but I don't have a floppy drive. Is there a tool I can burn to a CD and then boot from my CD drive to repair/reformat the HD? The drive is a 60GB Western Digital.

DVation191

boot off a windows xp disc.
when prompted, hit 'R' to repair via recovery console.

once logged in at the command prompt type:
fixmbr
then...
fixboot
then...
bootcfg /rebuild

and let it rebuild your boot.ini
see if that lets you boot back into windows.

sevie

I had the same problem and i fixed it by reinstalling the Windows (without formating the partition and keeping my accounts and settings).

zvitam

if you have a Windows 98 start up disk

FDISK /MBR

Should rebuild the MBR

sevie

See this page too: http://www.geocities.com/thestarman3/asm/mbr/BootToolsRefs.htm

or you can try MBRWizard http://mbrwizard.tripod.com/ Download: http://mbrwizard.tripod.com/MBRWiz.zip
(Usage: MBRWiz
/List List MBR Entries
/Disk=# Selects the disk to use. 0 is used if not specified
/Hide=# Hides the Partition number specified by #, or * for all
/Unhide=# Unhides the Partition number specified by #, or * for all
/Active=# Activates the Partition specified by #
/Inactive=# De-activates the Partition number specified by #, or * for all
/Del=# Deletes the partition specified by #
/Wipe=# 1=Wipes the MBR, 2-Wipes the first 63 sectors of disk
/Save=x Saves the MBR to filename 'x'
/Restore=x Reads and restores the Disk MBR from filename 'x'
/ShowFile=x Shows contents of an existing MBR backup file named 'x'
/BootMenu Allows user to select an active partition from a menu
/Sort Sort MBR Entries by disk location
/IsSorted Returns 0 if MBR partitions are already sorted
/Shutdown=# 1-Forces OS shutdown, 2-Forces OS Reboot
/Result Shows Errorlevel code)

See those programs too: http://www.download.com/3120-20-0.html?qt=restore+mbr&tg=dl-2001&search.x=0&search.y=0

whitefael

ASKER

I"ve tried doing the first three suggestions, but they didn't work. I will have a look at the mbrwizard in the next couple of days.

Thanks,
Brian

DVation191

if you put in the same XP disc you used to install windows in the first place, boot from it.

go through the act of installing a fresh copy of windows....there will be a point in the setup that it searches for previous versions of windows....does it find one?

if it does, hit "R" to "repair" the installation. this will preserve all your programs and data but restore xp so that it is bootable again.

cooledit

hi, there

Look into this software tools form a Danish profesor:

http://www.partitionsupport.com/

whitefael

ASKER

DVation191: "go through the act of installing a fresh copy of windows....there will be a point in the setup that it searches for previous versions of windows....does it find one? if it does, hit "R"..."

That was the first thing I did before I posted. I thought it would work, too, but it didn't. SUSE is the only Linux distro I've used that REALLY hoses up the MBR. I forgot when I installed it.

DVation191

wow whitefael, you're really giving us a run for our money! (or points I guess would be more accurate... =] )
at this point, i'd suggest trying a boot manager.
here is a good freeware manager you can try...
http://www.download.com/LegendOS-Boot-Manager/3000-2094-2491604.html?tag=lst-0-2

see if that manager can boot you into windows.

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DVation191

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DVation191

Thank you

whitefael

ASKER

To make one last comment about this, I was never able to get the drive to work. I am going to have hook the drive up to a computer with a floppy in order to use the Western Digital drive formatting software. That's the only way I've been able to in the past, but because I didn't have a working floppy drive, I was hoping for another alternative.

Thanks,
Brian