Damaged MBR

[stas007]

I badly damaged the MBR while fiddling with partitions and cannot boot
nor can the system detect a hard disk . I had made an ".IMG" file just
before and saved it in a flash memory stick. Can i use that to restore
the MBR or could it damage the disk even more? Because nothing else
works. I have the XP recovery disk but since there's no longer a hard
disk being detected there's nothing to run the tools on, i think.

 

[George Bashore]

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.

 

[stas007]

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.

I had done that already but a message says ""Invalid path".
That's because the path to the hard disk drive is lost.
I thought the ".IMG" file was meant to restore that but I'm not
sure how.

 

[George Bashore]

Try this

Boot to the XP setup CD, and press 'r' for recovery console, run the command
: CHKDSK /R

You said you were fiddling with the partition --- I hope you didn't delete
the partition with XP.
What brand and model computer are you using?

 

[Glen]

What program did you use to mess with the partitions? You might have to
start again. Delete the old partition and create a new one. What file
created the img file. What is it an image of? Did you back up the whole
partition or just the partition table? You should never mess with partitions
without a proper backup. Does the hard drive show up as empty or corrupt.

 

[stas007]

What is it an image of?

I think it's the main partition, at least.
There were 2 other small partitions but I don't know if they were
imaged.

Did you back up the whole partition or just the partition table?

I haven't a clue...the img file is 1.40 mb, and the main partition was
56 gb

Does the hard drive show up as empty or corrupt.

I think it shows up not

The problem started when I marked an empty partition as "active". I did
not know that it would make the main partition inactive and the OS
unavailable. Then I ran things like chkdsk, fixmbr, fixboot and
everything just got really messed up! I had made an ".IMG" file with
Partition Manager 7 prior to all this, but I don't know how one uses it
to repair the damage.

What I would like to know at this point is this :

Can I put the ".IMG" file onto a usb flash memory stick, and the stick
into the laptop, and run a tool on it from the XP Recovery CD to repair
the damage so that I can recover the files? (I don't have a cd writer
so I can't create a boot cd-rom)

Remember that I can't run tools like chkdsk or fixmbr on the main disk
anymore because the path to the disk/partition is lost (DOS keeps
saying "invalid path"), as explained prevously in this thread.

System:
XP, NTFS

Tools to work with:
Recovery cd, usb stick 120mb, .img file

 

[George Bashore]

stas007
Try booting with a Win98 or WinME boot disk and use fdisk to set your
biggest partition (which properly has the OS installed on) to active. Don't
delete the other partitions because some computers have the restore files in
a special partition.
http://www.bootdisk.com/
To restore an image you need some kind of program to do it. I use TrueImage
that uses a boot cd and restores the image of my c:\ drive from an external
hard drive. What program did you use to make the image?
George

 

[Glen]

You said you made an image with partition magic 7 that can't be correct.
Partition magic doesn't back up partition tables as far as I can remember. A
1.4 mg img file would be created with Winimage is that a program you used? I
use a program called partition table doctor which has in the past fixed
corrupt partitons for me but it is a retail program and you would have to
buy it with no guarantee it would work in your case.

Marking a partiton as active which would mark the previous active partition
as inactive then running fixboot fixmbr chkdsk wouldn't corrupt the data. It
wouldn't boot but it wouldn't be corrupt. Did you try and resize a partition
and it corrupted part way through? I am trying to see if the data is
corrupt, there really is no way back if it is. You would have to put it down
to experience and start again.

When you bought the computer did you get discs given to you with software on
or is the software stored on a hidden partition? Run partition magic again
and see what partitions show up. Are they all corrupt or missing? If it
finds a fault as soon as you start it dont attempt to fix anything until you
know exactly what you are doing. Just open the program and see what is going
on. The hidden partition if its there would be at the front of the drive.
~~
Glen P
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[stas007]

You said you made an image with partition magic 7 that can't be correct.
Partition magic doesn't back up partition tables as far as I can remember.

I wrote Partition Manager 7 (by Paragon), not partition magic 7. The
program recommended making a backup and I did. Maybe the size is always
1.4 mb so that it can fit on a floppy disk.

Did you try and resize a partition?
No.


When you bought the computer did you get discs given to you with software on
or is the software stored on a hidden partition?

Yes there is a hidden partition with Utility programs but I cannot
access that partition anymore. When I try to boot from there it says :

Pre-boot System Assesment
Start DST short test : test result fail
No disk drive detected, cannot access utility partition

Those Utility programs are also on a disk which I also tried booting
from but the message is "No boot device available".

Run partition magic again and see what partitions show up.

It cannot run because there is no Operating System !!

 

[Glen]

I misread it and thought you said partition magic.

Partition manager would either run straight from a CD to give you recovery
options or allow you to make a recovery cd or recovery floppy. Did you make
either of those? Do you have the original CD the program came on? If so try
booting from it and you will find the option to restore the image you made.
If you dont have the program discs or didn't make a recovery disc I think
you are stuck unless you know someone who owns the program and will make you
the disc.

Windows XP disc or the recovery console will NOT let you restore the img
made by partition manager. You really will have to use the original program
for that, booting from a cd or floppy.

Before running any program that alters partition table you need to have a
way of running it from CD or floppy and always make a backup. You might end
up having to put this down to experience.