Corrupted Master Boot Record

[lfaquino]

As part of our installation procedure for loading Winxpe onto our target
hardware, we boot the target from a SATA drive running the same winxpe image.
At that point, the target flash is formatted and the winxpe image copied
over. Our production team ran into a problem where they mistakenly
hot-plugged the SATA at one point while booting to the winxpe image on the
target flash. The result was that further boots from target flash winxpe
image produced a BSOD (0x7B) when the SATA drive was attached. The BSOD
disappeared if the SATA is disconnected. Boot from the SATA itself works
fine. The only way I have found to clear up this issue is to use the Winxp
Pro install disks to repair the SATA MBR. Also have to re-format the target
flash (using the HP usb format tool) and re-install winxpe. This is a time
consuming procedure and I suspect I will see it again. Does some method exist
outside of the Winxp Pro Install disks that could be used to repair the MBR?
Not sure if this the right forum for the question.

 

[crus]

Hi,
my suggestion is to use WINPE 2.0 non only for repair corrupted boot sector,
but even to deploy your image.
If I understand the way you do, connecting and removing the Sata disk is
painful and error prone.
Many use Ghost2003 booting from a DOS system, otherwise I suggest you this
article from XPe Files Blog:
http://xpefiles.com/cs/blogs/bcombs...nd-image-x-to-deploy-windows-xp-embedded.aspx
I understand that booting from a SATA disk is much faster than booting from
CD ROM, a USB key could be a half way solution.
hope this helps
Raffaele