subject: Steps To Repair Mbr In Microsoft Windows Xp [print this page] Master Boot Record (MBR) is a record used in the Windows operating system that keeps the information of active partition, which is used to boot the operating system installed. This is usually the C: drive. Once the MBR locates the active partition, the boot sector is loaded into memory and executed. Sometimes this MBR in microsoft windows xp can be corrupted unintentionally, for example, through installation of another operating system. When MBR encounters any problem, the error message you generally see is operating system is not found.
Its always a challenging task for you to repair an MBR. In this article we'll show you how to repair a MBR record without any hassle.
You can use the Windows Recovery Console in order to repair an MBR. In the Windows XP Recovery Console, you can perform the following tasks:
STEP 1. Copy, rename, or repair operating system files and folders.
STEP 2. Enable or disable service or device startup the next time that you start your computer.
STEP 3. Repair the file system boot sector or the MBR
STEP 4. Create and format hard drive partitions on computer.
Let's start Recovery Console from the Windows XP Distribution CD:
STEP 1. Insert the Windows XP CD into your CD drive and reboot your computer. Press any key to boot from the CD if prompted.
STEP 2. When the text-based part of Setup begins, follow the instructions. Select the repair or recover option by pressing R.
STEP 3. If you have a dual-boot or multiboot system, choose the installation that you want to access from the Recovery Console.
STEP 4. When you are asked, enter the Administrator password.
STEP 5. At the command prompt, type Recovery Console commands, and then you can refer to the commands that are listed in the Available commands within Windows Recovery Console section.
STEP 6. You can use FIXBOOT command- used to write a new boot sector onto the computers system partition.
STEP 7. You can also use FIXMBR- used to repair the MBR of the computers boot partition.
STEP 8. At any time, you can type Help commandname for help on a specific command. For example, you can type help attrib to display the help on the attributes command.
STEP 9. At any time, you can exit Windows Recovery Console by typing Exit at the command line.
STEP 10. You can eject the Windows XP CD, type exit and then press Enter to restart your PC.
STEP 11. Assuming that a corrupt master boot record was your only problem, Windows XP should now load normally.
Note: You can repair the master boot record in less than 20 minutes.
