Unbootable hard drive

[debs3759]

I've developed a strange problem on my main PC. I can't boot directly into the hard drive, the system locks when it tries to read the MBR. If I boot with the XP setup CD, and don't press a key, it reads the partition table (presumably from the MBR) and boots the XP partition without any problems.

I tried using Partition Magic to repair the MBR, but can't see an option to do so. I installed the Windows Support Tools from the CD, and tried to use Diskprobe to read and repair the MBR. It couldn't open any drive or partition because there were no available handles.

I installed the Recovery Console, and booted into that. I ran FIXMBR, then rebooted. It hasn't fixed the problem, and the partition table is still readable (meaning I can still boot through the CD).

Has anyone ever had this problem? Do ou have any ideas how I might be able to fix it? Obviously I need to fairly urgently get some DVDs and do a full back-up of anything important, and buy a new drive, as there is a chance the MBR is on a bad sector - pretty fatal if it is

[hugo929]

I suspect you Master Boot Recorder has been infected by virus.
Does it show any message when system lock?

here are some suggestions:
1)first boot your computer from CD, and backup your data by burning DVD or copy them to your mobile HardDisk.

2) if you has a floppy drive or a bootable CD which can boot to DOS 7.0.
boot it then try "fdisk /MBR" to fix the MBR.

[bacterio]

try utilities MBRTool or MBRWork

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/index.html

[Qwerty]

Have you changed any BIOS setting recently ?
There is a setting "Boot device priority" or "First boot device" in BIOS. If set incorrectly the PC won't boot from the HD.

[debs3759]

The MBR doesn't have a virus. It has been rewritten by FDISK, FIXMBR and now MBRTOOL (thanks for the link bacterio). There is no trace of the original. Despite that, the first sector of the disk appers not to be readable, so I'm guessing that it is bad sector and that the MBR copy is read when any other OS loader tries to read the partition table.

The exe files that are on the site are all processor tools, and I believe them all to be from the original manufacturers site (I think, apart from some of the Cyrix files, that I downloaded them all myself from either the original sites or via sites like the Wayback Machine. As such, combined with the fact that I always have the latest anti-virus definitions installed and Zone Alarm warning me (not fixing without telling) of any unexpected behaviour or asking permission to run any program, there is no chance of an infection spreading through my computer.

I'm pretty certain now that I need to buy a new hard drive. Not a major hassle, it just means I have reorganise a small percentage of my spending for the next 3 weeks (it's not going to affect my paying all this months chip bills, it just means I have to think a little ).)

Thanks for the various suggestions. Although the only new idea was MBRTool, it has confirmed that the drive is very close to total failure Oh well, at least I know the ATBF (Actual Time Before Failure) for this drive has been 25000 hours or more

[Marcin]

sorry guys and girls I didn't read all answers because I'm in hurry in last days but I must say about problem which I had. I had boot sequence : 1 FDD, 2 CDROM, 3 HDD. Even where wasn't any media in drives HDD not booted. I changed HDD to 1st place and it started working. Try that Debbie !

[D.8080]

At least you'll have a new hard drive with guarantee. I guess it'd have been better if the cpu had failed instead... lots of replacements right at hand!

[debs3759]

Marcin: I already tried setting it to boot the HDD first, but that didn't help I even tried disabling all other boot devices.

[andamus]

Hi,
from the Recovery Console you can try to use the FIXBOOT command instead of FIXMBR, the problem seems to me non a MBR problem but the lack of the default bootloader of win.
Btw I recomend you to make a backup/clone of you harddisk BEFORE any command on MBR/partition table/bootloader.

[debs3759]

[andamus]

Hi,
if sector 0 is broken or wrong, the cd should not be able to boot from that disk, it should start the installation of win. If you put a new formatted disk without any data on it the cd will try to boot from it (if you don't press any key) ending with a ntldr missing error. Btw you can try with another bootloader maybe lilo or grub from any linux distro. Or you can try this, (but this can be dangerous for your data ) boot with the win cd, when it ask if you want to install or recover choose instal, now it should search your disk for previous installation of win, if this test fail (and this will be sad, big partition table problem) stop. If it found a Windows installation it ask you if you want to try to recover it or to install again, select recover, now the installer should delete some system files from your hd, reinstal theme and write again the MBR and the boot sector. In this way it should over-write the system without deleting any data/configuration/program but backup is non an optional, you should do it just before anythig else.

[debs3759]

That's wrong.

The CD will start windows installation ONLY IF YOU PRESS A KEY. When you don't press a key, it reads the partition data from the MBR, and I am guessing that the bootloader on the Windows CD is clever enough to know how to use the MBR copy, which the BIOS can't do. That is why I can boot to Windows if I first give control to the bootloader on the CD, and let that give control to the boot sector of the Windows boot partition - it doesn't care that sector 0 is unreadable, and just uses the copy (I am not sure of the details of the copy of the MBR, it is still within track 0 - I just don't remember for the moment where my detailed info on the MBR is, to try booting with a low level sector editor and copying the good MBR over, which still shouldn't work if none of the other things I tried did, as it would still need access to sector 0 to WRITE....).

No version of windows that I have tried (and I have at some point installed almost every flavour of Windows since Windows 3.1 and NT 4.0) will attempt to install if you haven't pressed a key (what would happen if you forgot to remove the CD after another task?).

Unfortunately I am looking for a solution to a hardware problem, NOT a software problem. I hope I have now given enough info that nobody else will think I just need to put the Windows CD in or run a virus check

Of course, if I am right about the disk being damaged, it might motivate me to write code to control and attempt recovery of the drive

[spongiforme]

I had to recover files from a corrupted drive a couple of months ago, and ended up using R-Studio, which worked well: http://www.r-studio.com/

[debs3759]

I wish it was a corrupt drive, it would be far easier to lose everything than to have a perfectly accessible drive that just can't be booted directly into (Yes, I am being serious - most of what I would lose is just junk I have never got round to deleting, the rest would take a week to replace )

[Wizzard1]

Can you image it to another drive and test?
IN recovery console, chkdsk /r then fixmbr then fixboot... I saw 2HDDs last year with bad boot sectors, I repair about 20-30PCs/wk.