XP: Repair or fix master boot record using recovery console

Contributed by qmchenry

Tagged: Windows installation

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Problems with the master boot record (MBR) of a system may prevent the system from booting. The MBR may be affected by malicious code, become corrupted by disk errors, or be overwritten by other boot loaders when experimenting with multiple operating systems on a host. This recipe describes one method of repairing the MBR for an XP host using the recovery console.

Boot with the XP installation CD.

When prompted, press R to repair a Windows XP installation.

If repairing a host with multiple operating systems, select the appropriate one (XP) from the menu. If you have only one operating system, enter 1 to select it.

Enter the administrator password if prompted.

To fix the MBR, use the following command:

fixmbr

This assumes that your installation is on the C:\ drive. You will be presented with several scary warning lines the reading of which will make you want to say no. Microsoft is exceptionally vague regarding the conditions under which fixmbr can cause problems although they are clear about the consequences (losing all data on the hard drive), so use this at your own risk.

Type y and ENTER to fix the MBR.

Type exit to leave the recovery console and reboot.

55 Comments -

mbnosera said on October 9, 2008

Doesn’t work. Neither does the fixboot command using the same procedure. Receive only a flashing cursor, with no other functions. Actually, whenever I press a key I get a “beep.” My XP boot discs, made as soon as I had the OS operational, are as useless as anything the brain dead programmers at M$ have ever thought of. Don’t know what to do about any of it now.
Anonymous said on October 17, 2008

I tried the procedure outlined, however,I have no administrative pass word, I never bothered with it as it becomes a nuisance , so I could not proceed, is there any way to get around it?
Thanking you
Anonymous said on October 20, 2008

its a good presentation can you add more stuff on this tutorial.
infact it has helped me to fix computers with this related problem.

from malawi city of mzuzu
Ryan said on October 22, 2008

so this deletes all of the filees off the computer?
and also does it delete windows xp itself?
Chucheria said on October 25, 2008

Thank you so much :_)
icemanx said on October 26, 2008

what about when its a spare drive no Operating system and you just want to retrieve the contents of a drive
and NO I dont want to FORMAT IT
Anonymous said on November 26, 2008

i need help!!! i have a compaq pent.4 and a blue screen appeared on my screen with this message: “Bootblock Emergency recovery mode.
The system flash rom image may be corrupted or the escape key was pressed during power on. If the ESC key was accidentally pressed please reboot the system

Enter the Administrator password now.” Please help as I don’t have administrator password and i can’t reboot as there is only an on/off button. Looking forward to your assistance. paulgmw@bigpond.com
shaik said on December 2, 2008

dual os winxp and rhel4 how to installation guide me
STR said on December 9, 2008

This didn´t solve my problem.

My HDD is still dead
Appo Apodaca said on December 17, 2008

Using Windows XP, I used your suggestion but it did not work. I tried the fixboot command and it did take. And I did receive a message that it had been fix, Then I typed in Exit and it rebooted.
But Now it is just sitting there with the white tracks at the bottom of the screen and has only advanced about twenty bars, so now it is just forzen at those bars.
Appo Apodaca said on December 17, 2008

Did you get my comments.
narender said on December 22, 2008

what type of risk in fixmbr command
counsel said on December 28, 2008

what if you can’t remember the administrative password since it is so old…..
Ludo said on January 13, 2009

Use “ERD Wincommander” to set a new admin password. Download the program, burn it as a bootable disc on a CD (.iso) and start your PC with it. After starting, you have an option to change your admin password.
dalam said on January 15, 2009

How to Check the master boot code of hard disk.
dude said on January 15, 2009

superb solution…thx
obernhardt said on January 18, 2009

I booted from a second HD with recovery console, enter his recovery console and used fixmbr from here
obernhardt said on January 18, 2009

I recovered all my data from an inaccessible disk to chkdsk, fixmbr or fixboot with the free testdisk from sourceforge, win version, PC option. Booted from a second hard disk.
David McGee said on February 20, 2009

I had to do a low level format of my hard drive to remove partions so that I could copy an image from one identical PC to the other (ie original PC no longer had partitions).

I have made the new image with Driveimage XML and with Ghost, but the new hard drive still will not boot. All of the files appear to be intact on the copies including system files.

I have tried both fixmbr and fixboot with no luck. I see format/s or sys dos commands are no longer available under XP.

What else can I do?
Michael N. said on May 10, 2009

Great… if you have an XP disc. Nobody provides those with PCs anymore.
Anonymous said on May 21, 2009

I’ve used the recovery console lot’s of time, it’s an excellent in-built tool. If you don’t know any commands just type in HELP and a list of them will pop up.
softwaregadgets said on June 17, 2009

what should i do if i don’t even have any bootable window xp cd ? is there any recommended tools which can fix it [ mbr,boot file ] properly ?
thanks in advance
andrew said on June 23, 2009

THanks.
Your method applies to the assumption that installation is on Drive C:

What if the failed drive is another drive, or second or third hard drive attached to the computer through USB hub. Will there be an option to select the damaged drive?
Dale L. said on August 2, 2009

Automatic logon

You can enable automatic logon to the Recovery Console. Run regedit from the Run command and go to this registry key: by default, the level is set to “0″ – simply change it to “1″ and you will never be prompted for the administrator password…

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARE
MicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersion
SetupRecoveryConsole
SecurityLevel
DWORD = 1
rafkid said on August 10, 2009

thanks – worked a treat- quick and simple
Anonymous said on September 21, 2009

can fixmbr make one lose ALL data on a hard drive??
Anonymous said on October 7, 2009

What if it doesn’t recognize the CD ROM drive as a boot drive even though thte BIOs is set to read it first????
Anonymous said on October 8, 2009

Hi. i have a secondary sata hard disk, which don’t have xp on it, with huge of important files on it but it doesn’t appear on my computer. when i look in device manager i found it an dit says that the device is working properly. when i go to “volumes’ and i click on populate, the device ‘type’ has been change from “basic” to “dynamic” and its “status” has also been change from “online” to “foreign”. its “capacity” , “unallocated space” and ” reserved space” are 0mb. could someone help me to resolve this problem.
Luis said on October 28, 2009

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Your instructions worked like a charm. Flawlessly.

I installed Ubuntu 9.04 on a flash drive because I didn’t want it to mess up my hard drives and it never occurred to me that it would change the MBR anyway. Live and learn.
Anonymous said on November 3, 2009

you do know that format basicly means erase.so you erased your whole drive and everything on it.you lost it all.only thing to do now is re install windows.sorry for the bad news
Anonymous said on November 29, 2009

Hi,
Please help !!! Here what I have done:
1.Download Windows 7 iso file,which I put it in isoBuster and extracted.
2.Coz I have listen it is better to make clean instalation,I bought new WD external HDD-Passport Studio 500 Gb and put it all information from my PC to HDD (around 90Gb very important data + windows 7 of course)!
3.I run “cmd” and get in DOS
- “diskpart”
- “list disk”
(coz there were nothing,not disk 1,2,3-i just select disk 1-don`t ask me why,coz i don`t know for myself,coz i am stupid!!!)
- select disk 1
- clean…
After i wrote “clean”,I discconect usb cable,coz I afraid-what does “clean” means!!??
For god sake-i have all informations from last 6 years on my external hard disk…

Now,my WD doesn`t work,everything is ok in “drive manager”,when i conecct usb cable there is the external usb hard drive showed up on the Safely Remove Hardware list right down,but I can not enter into the disk-inside and I am so affraid and desperate and don`t know what to do…
How you can see,I am bigginer,but please tell me what is the best solution for me to do now and to don`t lose my data on WD (if i already didn`t lost :(
Please,please help-with days I don`t know what to do….
My e-mail is via_makedonia yahoo dot com please write me there.
What I have tried:
coneccting my WD with 3 dieferent cables-usb and firewire in dieferent ports.
installing drivers from wd site

When I check Device Manager it shows that the device is installed and working properly but it will not show in “my computer” and I can’t access it.
before the problem,my HDD appeard as drive H:
I wouldn’t be half as frustrated if it hadn’t been working properly before this.Plus-ALL data is on my HDD,and I don`t even know if it is still there :(

I do it this:
2 Step Solution for XP users:
Part 1:
Go to
Control panel -> Performance and Maintenance (cannot be in classic view to see this link) -> Administrator Tools -> Services -> Universal Plug and Play
If Universal Plug and Play is set to manual switch to automatic.
Part 2
Double Click Safely Remove icon on the bottom right-> Select device->click Properties -> click Volumes -> click Populate -> hit OK -> if nothing shows it may need to be formatted

Also i was in DISK MANAGEMENT,but except formating disk,I don`t see solution :(
And formating will erase all data on the disk,isn`t it?! (if i have it,of course).
again nothing :( :(

It will be everything ok if I re-install Windows xp ?!
Thanks in advance !!!!!!
compscomps......!!! said on December 22, 2009

Thank you.. your instructions worked wonderfully. i was up and running in a few mins.. messed up my mbr doing a linux install on an external hard drive.. didnt think it would mess up XP.
eagl27 said on January 9, 2010

For those of you who do not have a bootable XP Disk, just follow this link to manually install the Windows Recovery Console:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/combofix/how-to-use-combofix#manual_recovery
Anonymous said on January 19, 2010

Great tip!!!
Name said on February 20, 2010

core antivirus 2009 locked me out my computer how do i fix this
Anonymous said on February 23, 2010

My pc was running very slowly and I bought a bootable rescue cd online thinking it will solve the problem. After booting the rescue cd, my pc can’t start up. It writes that it can’t read the master boot record. What can I do to solve this problem.
Anonymous said on March 9, 2010

Hi…
Anonymous said on April 6, 2010

What do I do if after pressing R and it scan the system then shuts down with out ever giving me the option to type fixmbr?
Stuart said on April 22, 2010

I was trying to fix a friends computer. Their password seemed to be locked out due to a virus. After scanning and removing the virus using my laptop, I used a program to reset the administrator password but then xp wouldn’t boot. I think it was giving an NTLDR not found error. I went into recovery console to see if I could start it up. I can’t remember if I looked up the ‘Fixboot’ command before I tried it, but after I tried it things were worse. I’m not sure if it was before or after this that the MBR seemed to be corrupted. All of the directories were symbols instead of words. If I had known a little more then I would have tried FXMBR. Anyways, after trying ‘FIXBOOT’ it had created 1 new fat partition of 10MB or something like that. Using EASEUS partition master I was able to recover data from the hard drive. I know I can reinstall windows but there was software installed that my friend no longer has the disks for so I am trying very hard to restore the partition. Does anyone know how I can restore the partition? It seems all the data is still there. Your help would be much appreciated.
Anonymous said on May 5, 2010

I acidentally executed the bios update in LG R41, due to which the OS went into the continous loop of restarting. Since i had jst installed Xp sp3, i tried formatting and install Win 7, but the installation stopped in the middle showing some kinda error. Then after rebooting, i lost all the data in the drive, but tht was not the problem. THe problem is i couldnt install wind 7 and it show bootmgr missing error. and i tried installing every OS i could find and the result is the same blue screen error…so can anyone suggest how to solve this problem..?
Guest said on May 7, 2010

Thank you.
Smuge said on June 6, 2010

This is bogus……….This does not nor will this work……….
Smuge said on June 6, 2010

This does not nor will this ever work……………………
Ery said on June 30, 2010

rthy
hiff said on July 30, 2010

great! the fixmbr worked on my laptop!
whew!, im almost about to reformat my machine. good thing i learn how to do the fixmbr. my files are saved :)
Zblade said on August 27, 2010

will try
Hector 225 said on September 4, 2010

I have a problem with my PC.
1. I got a virus on my pc.
2. I had to reboot pc and start it in safe mode
3. cleaned up the virus with Norton found 5 trojan type virus
4. Used Malware and found 85 files
5. cleaned PC with Norton and Malware
6. rebooted pc and i am now no longer can log in to pc
7. try to recover with re-installation cd but once I log in as administrator it takes me to C:winnt32 (command prompt)
8. Why the recovery CD did not continue fixing the OS?
seamus151 said on November 5, 2010

i just wanted to replay because the last one was SIX YEARS AGO! LOL.
jsmaniac said on November 15, 2010

Even though this was written 6 years ago… it worked, I was able to recover my xp pro workstation for a user at work.

Thanks mate

@Hector225 -C:winnt32 is windows 2000 pro/server… this recipe is for xp
Anonymous said on November 16, 2010

Glad it worked. Thanks for your additional input for Hector as well.
IdI07h473R said on January 3, 2011

Joo are teh dufus!
knowone said on February 26, 2011

Using fixMBR worked like achamp. Thanks for the article!
Scottsimpson0707 said on March 20, 2011

HI idelete (D) dive the whole thing by formating to get more space Ieven lost the icon
rikesh varsani said on May 21, 2011

Does this make you lose all the data on the hard drive, thus rendering it unrecoverable.
(I am a beginner so be kind!)
Anonymous said on May 21, 2011

It shouldn’t, but adjusting the MBR is always dangerous. Cloning the drive first is the safest plan.

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