Contents. What is the MBR The MBR (stands for “Master boot record”) is a boot sector (a region of your hard disk) that holds information about the partitions of your hard drive and acts as a loader for the operating system you’re running. The Master boot record is created when you first install Windows, on the first partition you create.
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It’s the first 512 bytes of your hard disk. If the MBR is damaged, you won’t be able to boot into Windows. All Windows versions – Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8 – use MBR and, if damaged you won’t be able to boot. It can be damaged by certain viruses that target the MBR to replace it with their own code or in cases when you dual boot with a Linux distribution (see ). Backup You can backup the MBR since it’s stored on the hard disk and you restore it later, when needed. You only need one command to backup the MBR: dd if=/dev/sda of=/path-to-save/mbr-backup bs=512 count=1 In the above command, /path-to-save/mbr-backup is the path where you want to save mbr-backup.
Restore Important: Restoring your Master boot record with the wrong partition table will make your data unreadable and will make it very hard to recover your data later. You can restore the saved Master boot record using this command: dd if=/path-to-get/mbr-backup of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1 In this command, /path-to-get/mbr-backup is the path where you have the mbr-backup stored. Common errors If the Master boot record is broken, your computer may show some of the following errors:. Error loading operating system (see our ).
The POST process ends when the BIOS detects a valid system disk, reads the master boot record (MBR), and starts Bootmgr.exe. Bootmgr.exe finds and starts Winload.exe on the Windows boot partition, which begins the OSLoader phase [1]. Master Boot Record (MBR) belongs to boot record, along with Boot Configuration Data (BCD). MBR will be created when the first partition on the hard drive is created and it is very important data structure on the first sector of disk, which contains the partition table for the drive as well as a small amount of executable code for the boot start.
The Reboot and Select proper boot device error Other errors can be shown, depending on many factors, that are caused by a damaged boot record. Fix the MBR with Easy Recovery Essentials Easy Recovery Essentials, our bootable recovery and repair CD/USB, is guaranteed to repair most damages done to the Master boot record (MBR) using its Automated Repair feature for Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8:. Choose your Windows version (XP, Vista, 7 or 8) before downloading. Burn the image. Follow these instructions on very carefully, as making a bootable CD can be tricky!. Boot Easy Recovery Essentials. Choose Automated Repair option and click Continue.
Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 Loading Successfully You can. Fix the MBR in Windows XP Windows XP users can use the fixmbr command to repair the MBR. You need the original Windows XP installation CD to run Recovery Console and run the fixmbr utility. If you don’t have the Windows XP installation CD to run Recovery Console, go to The fixmbr command is only available for Windows XP and Windows 2000. The instructions to run fixmbr are:. Boot from the Windows XP CD. At the “Press any key to boot from CD” message, press any key to boot into the CD.
When the Welcome to Setup screen appears, press R to open Recovery Console. The fixmbr in Command Prompt If the “Are you sure you want to write a new MBR?” message appears, press Y and hit Enter.
Press Enter. Wait for the process to finish. The fixmbr utility software will repair any damage to the master boot record. Remove the Windows XP CD. Type exit. Press Enter to restart your computer If you weren’t able to boot your computer because of a damaged MBR, the above instructions should fix it and your Windows XP should start normally.
If the fixmbr command doesn’t work, try using the map command to get the correct drive name where you want to repair the Master boot record:. Type map. Hit Enter.
Wait for the output of the map utility: C: NTFS 1024MB Device Harddisk0 Partition1 E: Device CdRom0 The above output is an example. The output for your computer can be different, but note the drive letter for the item with Harddisk0, in this case C:. Fix the MBR in Windows Vista Windows Vista uses a different utility to fix the MBR than XP does, the bootrec command. You need your original Windows Vista installation CD/DVD to run the bootrec utility. If you don’t have the Windows Vista installation CD/DVD to run Command Prompt, go to The instructions are:. Boot from your Windows Vista installation CD or DVD. Choose your language and keyboard layout.
At the Welcome screen, click on Repair your computer. Windows Vista Repair Your Computer Menu. Choose the operating system and click Next. When the System Recovery Options window appears, click on Command Prompt.
When Command Prompt appears, type these commands: bootrec /FixMbr bootrec /FixBoot bootrec /RebuildBcd You can type bootrec.exe for a full description of above commands. Press Enter after each command. Wait for the operation to finish. If it was a success, a confirmation message will appear on the screen. Remove the CD/DVD from the disk tray.
Type exit. Hit Enter and restart your computer You can run Startup Repair for Windows Vista before running bootrec.exe to try and fix the boot error automatically. The steps to run Startup Repair are:.
Boot from the installation CD/DVD. Click on Repair your computer, after you select the language and keyboard layout. Windows Vista System Recovery Options. Wait for the process to finish.
Restart your computer when prompted by the system Another alternative is to completely rebuild the BCD, if the bootrec /rebuildbcd command doesn’t work. When you are at the Command Prompt, type the following commands: bcdedit /export C: bcdbackup c: cd boot attrib bcd -s -h -r ren c: boot bcd bcd.backup bootrec /rebuildbcd After each command, hit Enter. Fix the MBR in Windows 7 You need your original Windows 7 installation DVD to boot into System Recovery Options and run Command Prompt. If you don’t have the Windows 7 installation CD/DVD to run Command Prompt, go to The instructions are:. Boot from the Windows 7 installation DVD.
At the “Press any key to boot from CD or DVD”, press any key to boot from the DVD. Select a language. Select a keyboard layout. Click Next. Select the operating system and click Next. The “Use recovery tools that can help fix problems starting Windows” must be checked when you select the operating system. At the System Recovery Options screen, click on Command Prompt.
Windows 8 bootrec utility results screen Fix the MBR in Windows 10 You need the original Windows 10 installation DVD to repair the Master boot record. If you don’t have the Windows 10 installation DVD to run Command Prompt, go to The instructions are:. Boot from the original installation DVD (or the recovery USB). At the Welcome screen, click Repair your computer.
Choose Troubleshoot. Choose Command Prompt. When the Command Prompt loads, type the following commands: bootrec /FixMbr bootrec /FixBoot bootrec /ScanOs bootrec /RebuildBcd. Windows 10 bootrec utility results screen More Information Support Links. – our repair and recovery disk. It’s an easy-to-use and automated diagnostics disk.
It’s available for,. It’s also available for Windows XP and Windows Server. Read more at., member-to-member technical support and troubleshooting. Get a discounted price on replacement setup and installation discs:,. Applicable Systems This Windows-related knowledgebase article applies to the following operating systems:.
Windows XP (all editions). Windows Vista (all editions).
Windows 7 (all editions). Windows 8 (all editions). Windows 8.1 (all editions). Windows 10 (all editions).
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