Help! MBR or BootSector corrupt

xtoned · External Since: Nov 11, 2005 Posts: 1

Hi!
Can someone help me with this? Yesterday I was using a data recovery
software, while Winamp is running, suddenly the machine turned off,
after that it won't boot.

My hard drive has some bad sectors and later I found out that the
RAM was also a little bit faulty, It was replaced. Later I booted the
machine with another HD, then the system(XP) detected the faulty drive,
But it didn't have partitions in it. Then I used Partition Magic 7.0,
It showed the disk, But It shows the whole drive as Unallocated and I
tried a data recovery software (a demo version of Handy Recovery), It
showed partitions and files as recoverable and then I tried Seagate's
SeaTools It stated Invalid MBR.

I think the problem is possibly a corrupt MBR or Partition table or
Bootsector and a little possibility of a boot sector virus. What can
Ido? There are alot of tools for restoring MBR's, But I haven't got a
Backup of it. I have Norton Antivirus 2003 and I have used Partition
Magic 8.0 in the faulty disk, I have used Partition Magic several times
to resize partitions. Does any of these or any other software store a
copy of MBR in the disk or registry. Because on a MBR access Norton AV
warns and I think it replaces it if needed and I think When Partition
Magic does tasks it replaces the MBR with a temporary one and when the
task is done it replaces the original one. Does Windows FDISK's fixmbr,
fixboot commands restores the previous MBR or just rewrites them.
What's the software that could help me? Please help me!

microsoft.public.winXP.file_system,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage,microsoft.public.winXP.disks.general,alt.comp.anti-virus,microsoft.public.win98.fat32,alt.comp.hardware

Trax · External Since: Aug 26, 2005 Posts: 7

xtoned DeleteThis @gmail.com wrote:

|>Hi!
|> Can someone help me with this? Yesterday I was using a data recovery
|>software, while Winamp is running, suddenly the machine turned off,
|>after that it won't boot.
|>
|> My hard drive has some bad sectors and later I found out that the
|>RAM was also a little bit faulty, It was replaced. Later I booted the
|>machine with another HD, then the system(XP) detected the faulty drive,
|>But it didn't have partitions in it. Then I used Partition Magic 7.0,
|>It showed the disk, But It shows the whole drive as Unallocated and I
|>tried a data recovery software (a demo version of Handy Recovery), It
|>showed partitions and files as recoverable and then I tried Seagate's
|>SeaTools It stated Invalid MBR.
|>
|> I think the problem is possibly a corrupt MBR or Partition table or
|>Bootsector and a little possibility of a boot sector virus. What can
|>Ido? There are alot of tools for restoring MBR's, But I haven't got a
|>Backup of it. I have Norton Antivirus 2003 and I have used Partition
|>Magic 8.0 in the faulty disk, I have used Partition Magic several times
|> to resize partitions. Does any of these or any other software store a
|>copy of MBR in the disk or registry. Because on a MBR access Norton AV
|>warns and I think it replaces it if needed and I think When Partition
|>Magic does tasks it replaces the MBR with a temporary one and when the
|>task is done it replaces the original one. Does Windows FDISK's fixmbr,
|>fixboot commands restores the previous MBR or just rewrites them.
|>What's the software that could help me? Please help me!

You state XP yet post to a Fat32 group; if Fat32, You can try
Fdisk /MBR should work; It doesn't affect the partition table.

If NTFS
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q153973
It mention's Using Disk Probe, it's a piece of junk use Nortons
DiskEdit.

--
Sony, I download your music

James · External Since: Nov 11, 2005 Posts: 1

<xtoned DeleteThis @gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1131727380.532286.98650@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
> Hi!
> Can someone help me with this? Yesterday I was using a data recovery
> software, while Winamp is running, suddenly the machine turned off,
> after that it won't boot.
>
> My hard drive has some bad sectors and later I found out that the
> RAM was also a little bit faulty, It was replaced. Later I booted the
> machine with another HD, then the system(XP) detected the faulty drive,
> But it didn't have partitions in it. Then I used Partition Magic 7.0,
> It showed the disk, But It shows the whole drive as Unallocated and I
> tried a data recovery software (a demo version of Handy Recovery), It
> showed partitions and files as recoverable and then I tried Seagate's
> SeaTools It stated Invalid MBR.
>
> I think the problem is possibly a corrupt MBR or Partition table or
> Bootsector and a little possibility of a boot sector virus. What can
> Ido? There are alot of tools for restoring MBR's, But I haven't got a
> Backup of it. I have Norton Antivirus 2003 and I have used Partition
> Magic 8.0 in the faulty disk, I have used Partition Magic several times
> to resize partitions. Does any of these or any other software store a
> copy of MBR in the disk or registry. Because on a MBR access Norton AV
> warns and I think it replaces it if needed and I think When Partition
> Magic does tasks it replaces the MBR with a temporary one and when the
> task is done it replaces the original one. Does Windows FDISK's fixmbr,
> fixboot commands restores the previous MBR or just rewrites them.
> What's the software that could help me? Please help me!

Can't help, but can point out that if you are booting from a seperate drive
and still cant access this 'faulty' one it isnt totally caused by MBR
records. That will stop it booting but wouldnt affect it as a slave device.

Jeff Richards · External Since: Mar 14, 2004 Posts: 1333

It's the partition table rather than the MBR. If Handy Recovery can see the
partition and files then it can probably recover them. There would be
similar utilities that could do the same job, but why not start with the one
you are familiar with. Always choose a utility that recovers the files to a
different disk and does no writing to the damaged disk. That way you can
use several in succession and see which is most effective.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
<xtoned.DeleteThis@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1131727380.532286.98650@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
> Hi!
> Can someone help me with this? Yesterday I was using a data recovery
> software, while Winamp is running, suddenly the machine turned off,
> after that it won't boot.
>
> My hard drive has some bad sectors and later I found out that the
> RAM was also a little bit faulty, It was replaced. Later I booted the
> machine with another HD, then the system(XP) detected the faulty drive,
> But it didn't have partitions in it. Then I used Partition Magic 7.0,
> It showed the disk, But It shows the whole drive as Unallocated and I
> tried a data recovery software (a demo version of Handy Recovery), It
> showed partitions and files as recoverable and then I tried Seagate's
> SeaTools It stated Invalid MBR.
>
> I think the problem is possibly a corrupt MBR or Partition table or
> Bootsector and a little possibility of a boot sector virus. What can
> Ido? There are alot of tools for restoring MBR's, But I haven't got a
> Backup of it. I have Norton Antivirus 2003 and I have used Partition
> Magic 8.0 in the faulty disk, I have used Partition Magic several times
> to resize partitions. Does any of these or any other software store a
> copy of MBR in the disk or registry. Because on a MBR access Norton AV
> warns and I think it replaces it if needed and I think When Partition
> Magic does tasks it replaces the MBR with a temporary one and when the
> task is done it replaces the original one. Does Windows FDISK's fixmbr,
> fixboot commands restores the previous MBR or just rewrites them.
> What's the software that could help me? Please help me!
>
>
> microsoft.public.winXP.file_system,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage,microsoft.public.winXP.disks.general,alt.comp.anti-virus,microsoft.public.win98.fat32,alt.comp.hardware
>

coal_brona · External Since: Nov 17, 2005 Posts: 32

Hi,

Seems like your partition data is lost. I suppose Active@ partition
recovery utility can help you. It worked simply great for me in a
simmilar situation.

http://www.partition-recovery.com/

available · External Since: Nov 29, 2004 Posts: 22

<coal_brona.DeleteThis@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1132359768.596069.112830@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
> Hi,
>
> Seems like your partition data is lost. I suppose Active@ partition
> recovery utility can help you. It worked simply great for me in a
> simmilar situation.

That was just luck. To eliminate the need for luck you'd better try
DiskPatch Partition Repair:
www.diydatarecovery.nl

lukeles · External Since: Aug 31, 2005 Posts: 11

Hello,
I suppose using Data Recovery tool - Partition Table Doctor or EASEUS
DataRecoveryWizard.
It is imho the best one among it's family. Easy to use and powerful.
It actually never failed me before. Recommended!

http://www.ptdd.com
http://www.easeus.com/
--
Good work, Good day.

"xtoned@gmail.com" wrote:

> Hi!
> Can someone help me with this? Yesterday I was using a data recovery
> software, while Winamp is running, suddenly the machine turned off,
> after that it won't boot.
>
> My hard drive has some bad sectors and later I found out that the
> RAM was also a little bit faulty, It was replaced. Later I booted the
> machine with another HD, then the system(XP) detected the faulty drive,
> But it didn't have partitions in it. Then I used Partition Magic 7.0,
> It showed the disk, But It shows the whole drive as Unallocated and I
> tried a data recovery software (a demo version of Handy Recovery), It
> showed partitions and files as recoverable and then I tried Seagate's
> SeaTools It stated Invalid MBR.
>
> I think the problem is possibly a corrupt MBR or Partition table or
> Bootsector and a little possibility of a boot sector virus. What can
> Ido? There are alot of tools for restoring MBR's, But I haven't got a
> Backup of it. I have Norton Antivirus 2003 and I have used Partition
> Magic 8.0 in the faulty disk, I have used Partition Magic several times
> to resize partitions. Does any of these or any other software store a
> copy of MBR in the disk or registry. Because on a MBR access Norton AV
> warns and I think it replaces it if needed and I think When Partition
> Magic does tasks it replaces the MBR with a temporary one and when the
> task is done it replaces the original one. Does Windows FDISK's fixmbr,
> fixboot commands restores the previous MBR or just rewrites them.
> What's the software that could help me? Please help me!
>
>
> microsoft.public.winXP.file_system,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage,microsoft.public.winXP.disks.general,alt.comp.anti-virus,microsoft.public.win98.fat32,alt.comp.hardware
>
>