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  • #2213375

    Master Boot Record is corrupt (I think), BSOD & restart loop,

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    by burr_551 ·

    I’m running a Dell Vostro 1500 with Vista Business, original spec except I expanded the RAM to 4GB.

    Left running overnight, it was frozen when I got up, I restarted it, it commenced a disk check and then I had a power outage.

    Since that point, I got a quick flash of BSOD for a fraction of a second, and it refuses to boot up. The Recovery Disk Start Up Repair cannot repair, my restore points have vanished, as has my last known good configuration details. Basically my Master Boot Record has corrupted, or one of the drivers has corrupted (Safe mode boot stops at crcdisk.sys and then it restarts sending me in a loop). Safe mode, with or without options is not available for me, although I have recovered the appearance of that menu. It just doesn’t do anything.

    The hardware checks out okay (by both me and Dell), but I received the message that the System Volume is corrupt. Since that initial hardware check, my warranty has expired!

    Bootrec did not work, and the Recovery command prompt cannot even find the c: installation of Vista even though the initial start up repair can find it.

    I really do not want to reinstall from scratch, as I have customer files, trade files, turbolister, and files essential for me to get paid at the end of the month. My back up is out of date (my fault I know) but I know there are just one or two files that were destroyed by the dskchk crashing that I need to replace. I have seen other solutions around the web that I tried and didn’t work, or that I didn’t understand how to try. I am fairly pc-literate, but please could someone help me

    in simple terms, assuming I’m a lot thicker than what I am. After all, you know what they say about a little knowledge being a dangerous thing.

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    • #2869896

      Buy another harddrive and put your OLD harddrive as Slave..

      by peconet tietokoneet ·

      In reply to Master Boot Record is corrupt (I think), BSOD & restart loop,

      You should have either Sata or IDE connections on/in your case.
      Check if any (spare) ports are available, if so then get hold of another Sata cable also a power cable for the Sata. If you have a spare slot on your IDE cable then attach your new one (harddrive) to it. Now, go into your BIOS, you need to press “F1”, “F2” keys, depending what kind of BIOS you have, that are on your keyboard, now you should be able to look in your BIOS and then go to section called “Boot”, select in this section your NEW drive then do a “Save and Exit”. Now your system will boot from your NEW hdd (harddrive) of which you will need ALL of your WIndows disk(s) and motherboard driver disk(s). You will need to load on your Windows disk and install it.
      Then install your motherboard drivers. Now you will have access to your OLD drive in “My computer” Icon.
      On IDE drives you will have to look at the rear, you will see a small plastic part that connects to two pins (one upper and one lower) you will have to take this off and make sure it is attached to the two pins that are marked “Master” (for your new hdd). Now do the same for your OLD hdd put that plastic part on the pins that are marked as “Slave”, make sure you place this part Vertically not horizontally.

      Hope all goes well.

      OHH, make sure you download ALL of the Windows updates.

    • #2869878

      What AV did you use?

      by ansugisalas ·

      In reply to Master Boot Record is corrupt (I think), BSOD & restart loop,

      Did you run an AV rescue CD?
      Here’s a link to Michael Kassner’s list.
      http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/security/?p=3803
      One of those will do, especially if you have access to a CD burner, but there are tips in the article for making a USB rescue “CD”.

      Remember that MBR can be repaired too, if it’s just that. Either with recovery console or your original OS disk… I guess recovery disks have apps for that too.

    • #2869502

      How can you repair your damaged MBR?

      by peconet tietokoneet ·

      In reply to Master Boot Record is corrupt (I think), BSOD & restart loop,

      Boot from the windows XP CD, press the “R” key in the setup in order to start the restoration console. Select your windows XP installation from the list, and enter the administrator password.
      Enter the command: “FIXMBR” (without the quotes) at the input prompt and confirm the next question with a “Y” (without the quotes). Use exit to restore the computer.

      …………………………………..

      1. First, restart your computer with the Windows XP setup disk in the CD drive.
      If you don?t have your original disk then borrow one.

      2. When prompted, boot from the CD drive by pressing any key. If Windows does not load automatically you will first have to enter the BIOS setup and change the order of the boot devices to start with the CD drive.

      3. Once the setup loads, you will see the option to press “R” to repair a Windows installation.

      4. Once the Recovery Console loads up (black screen with white text on it), you will have to type in a number that corresponds to your Windows installation. This is normally just 1 (one). Press Enter and then type in the Administrator password.

      5. Now at the prompt, type in fixmbr. Your damaged MBR will now be replaced with a new master boot record and your computer should now be able to boot properly. Note that you may also want to run the fixboot command to repair the boot sector with a new one.

      Also, make sure you only use these commands on a system with one operating system installed. If you have more than one operating system installed, fixmbr and fixboot could mess up everything.

      Hope all goes well.

      • #2869501

        Search for the MBR continues

        by burr_551 ·

        In reply to How can you repair your damaged MBR?

        I’ll have a look at the disc idea, I run McAfee. As for the XP disc, well, I’m on Vista, so I’m not convinced on that.

        This is what has happened since.

        Using Partition Tabole Doctor, I have now repaired my partitions and totally lost my Vista installation apparently. NTLDR is now missing, and when I use Hiren’s Boot CD 10.5 to sort this, it tells me that the driver \system32\hal.dll

        So, any suggestions before I try the http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/vista-hands…ean-install/193 solution?

        • #2869487

          How to Troubleshoot the “NTLDR Is Missing” Error Message

          by peconet tietokoneet ·

          In reply to Search for the MBR continues

          Using the Windows Recovery Console

          The Windows 2000 and Windows XP CDs supplied by Microsoft has a tool called the Recovery Console which can be used to repair errors that prevent Windows XP from starting using the command line. OEM versions of Windows XP, including computers that were supplied with Windows XP preinstalled, may not have this utility.

          * Insert the Windows CD and start the computer.
          * When the Welcome to Setup screen appears, press R.
          * Type a number corresponding to the Windows installation you wish to repair (usually 1) and press Enter.
          * When prompted, type the administrator password and press Enter.
          * From the command prompt, copy NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM from the i386 folder of the CD to the root folder of the hard drive. In the example commands given below, C: is the hard drive and D: is the CD-ROM drive. You will need to change the drive letters if appropriate:
          COPY D:\I386\NTLDR C:\
          COPY D:\I386\NTDETECT.COM C:\
          * Remove the Windows XP CD from the drive and restart the computer.

          Though if you are using Vista this error should not be flagged at all. Vista does not use NTLDR. So, there must be something wrong on your drive, either the drive is going, of which it would be best to get another one, or you will need to go into your BIOS and reset the BIOS to “Load default settings” then “Save and exit”. Put in your Vista disk and do (or try) a repair.

          How to do a repair in Vista:
          If you have a Windows Vista installation disc, you need to restart (boot) your computer using the installation disc. If you do not restart your computer from the disc, the option to repair your computer will not appear.

          If you have a Windows Vista installation disc:

          1.

          Insert the installation disc.
          2.

          Restart your computer.

          If prompted, press any key to start Windows from the installation disc.

          3

          Choose your language settings, and then click Next.

          4

          Click Repair your computer.

          5

          Select the operating system you want to repair, and then click Next.

          6

          On the System Recovery Options menu, click Startup Repair. Startup Repair might prompt you to make choices as it tries to fix the problem, and if necessary, it might restart your computer as it makes repairs.

    • #2869455

      Safety first

      by r3al1ty ·

      In reply to Master Boot Record is corrupt (I think), BSOD & restart loop,

      Before fiddling with the mbr you ought to back up your data. Google for hiren’s boot cd. It has tools that will allow your to backup your data to another source(usb-disk). It also has tons of other tools including mbr manipulation and recovery

    • #2869446

      Fix Master Boot Record by following steps

      by djp7in ·

      In reply to Master Boot Record is corrupt (I think), BSOD & restart loop,

      IF UR MASTER BOOT RECORD is damaged then proceed as given below:

      1. Inster ur vista cd & boot ur system from cd, when system booting from cd, when u prompted for repair your computer select this option, next select repair and restart option, next go to command prompt, next enter the command “BootRec.exe /fixmbr” without quotation mark in command prompt & press enter key. and restart ur system normally.

      2 if is not started normally then. the entire system was crashed u have to put ur hdd in other pc & backup all ur important document & then format the drive & install fresh vista.

      when u put ur hdd in another system and if it shows ur C drive as raw then your hdd partition table is corrupted. u have to go for data recovery center who can recover ur data.

      hope 1 or 2 option solve ur problem.

      smiles!!!

    • #2880259

      ntldr is missing

      by lenardsabado ·

      In reply to Master Boot Record is corrupt (I think), BSOD & restart loop,

      if your OS is XP try this steps,,,insert the bootable cd of XP then it will prompt you to press any key then press any key, press “r” for recovery console, then the command prompt will enter,,key in 1 for partition C: then you will prompt to enter a password after that type the following, “copy e:\i386\ntldr c:\” after that successfull copy type this “copy e:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\” then after that type exit and remove the cd.

      • #2880242

        He’s runing Vista Business

        by nicknielsen ·

        In reply to ntldr is missing

        His first sentence reads:[i]I’m running a Dell Vostro 1500 with [b]Vista Business[/b], original spec except I expanded the RAM to 4GB.[/i] (my emphasis)

        If you’re going to wake zombies, at least contribute to the discussion.

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