[KLUG Members] fixing bad mbr on WinXP with linux

[Tyler Haske]

I used to do this all the time.

You want to boot from the install CDs, and get to a recovery console.
....I can't remember the exact command....

but I have intuition that if you type 'help' fixmbr might be on the
list, or chkdisk -r could do it.

On 9/25/05, Andrew Thompson <tempes at ameritech.net> wrote:
> On Sun, 2005-09-25 at 21:24 -0400, Adam Tauno Williams wrote:
> > >> > > > A friend has a non-booting WinXP computer.  It says the root partition
> > >> > > > is unmountable.  He's asking me for a WinXP boot disk, which I can't
> > >> > > > find laying around anywhere.
> > >> > > > I do have a Knoppix and a Ubuntu CD.  So he could boot to Linux (yea!)
> > >> > > > Is there anything he could do with those to restore the master boot
> > >> > > > record (MBR), which I assume is the problem?  He doesn't know if it's
> > >> > > > fat32 or NTFS.
> > >> > > If you can boot from a DOS floppy you used to be able to "fdisk /mbr" to
> > >> > > regenerate the master boot record.
> > >> > Hmmmm... I can create a boot disk on a local WinXP machine, but it
> > >> > doesn't seem to have fdisk...
> > >> Yep, you have to copy the fdisk command file to the floppy manually.
> > > The HD doesn't have fdisk.  Is it called something else now?
> >
> > Bugger.  I just checked an XP box and sure enough there isn't there - I
> > haven't
> > done this in a LONG time, so I guess this tip isn't useful anymore.
> >
> > The fdisk man page in LINUX doesn't mention the MBR at all.
>
> Have a look at this page, and see if it looks helpful:
> http://thestarman.pcministry.com/asm/mbr/Win2kmbr.htm
>
> I was at this site last week, looking to see if I could find a way to
> move a bootable win98 installation to a larger partition, and actually
> have the system still work. This site gets pretty deep into the
> mechanisms of MBRs. I haven't gone over this particular page thoroughly
> yet, but you might find something useful there.
>
> --
> Andrew Thompson <tempes at ameritech.net>
> The Imagerie
>
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>


--
Tyler Haske