How 2 remove master boot record

[Melissa]

I recently installed a second hard drive to my Windows XP
Home system. In partitioning the drive, I mistakenly
designated the 1st partition as a master boot record.

Is there anyway to remove this designation without
reformatting the whole 160GB drive?

TIA,
melissa

 

[Malcolm]

I recently installed a second hard drive to my Windows XP
Home system. In partitioning the drive, I mistakenly
designated the 1st partition as a master boot record.

Is there anyway to remove this designation without
reformatting the whole 160GB drive?

TIA,
melissa

Do you mean you named it master boot record (think you can only have
11 characters) just open my computer and right click the drive and
select properties and rename it. If you really want to delete the MBR
I have a small program that can be put on a boot disk called MBR Work,
which will write zeros to the MBR and you can start from scratch.
Email me if you want the program or search for it on the web. But you
best be careful when writing zeros to the MBR, if you pick the wrong
HDD you will be doing a complete reinstall.



Remove "NOT" from email address to reply via email"

Later,
Malcolm

 

[Guest]

Hi Malcolm,
No, I didn't name it MasterBoot record. Wish I had
though, that would have been a much easier fix. LOL! No,
I did designate it as a boot disk and it put all the
windows folders (i.e. my documents, windows, program files
etc.) on this drive. Whenever I had to the C: drive
equivilent of these files, it also puts it on my D: drive
in the respective files. I also have other items that I
don't want to lose here, so didn't want to have to go from
scratch, but if that's the only solution then I guess
that's what I'll do.
Would appreciate the program you mentioned. My email is
(e-mail address removed). Remove the obvious.
Thanks again for you help! I do so appreciate it!

Melissa

 

[Malcolm]

Hi Malcolm,
No, I didn't name it MasterBoot record. Wish I had
though, that would have been a much easier fix. LOL! No,
I did designate it as a boot disk and it put all the
windows folders (i.e. my documents, windows, program files
etc.) on this drive. Whenever I had to the C: drive
equivilent of these files, it also puts it on my D: drive
in the respective files. I also have other items that I
don't want to lose here, so didn't want to have to go from
scratch, but if that's the only solution then I guess
that's what I'll do.
Would appreciate the program you mentioned. My email is
(e-mail address removed). Remove the obvious.
Thanks again for you help! I do so appreciate it!

Melissa

OK Melissa it is on it's way



Remove "NOT" from email address to reply via email"

Later,
Malcolm

 

[Steve Nielsen]

Do you mean you named it master boot record (think you can only have
11 characters) just open my computer and right click the drive and
select properties and rename it. If you really want to delete the MBR
I have a small program that can be put on a boot disk called MBR Work,
which will write zeros to the MBR and you can start from scratch.
Email me if you want the program or search for it on the web. But you
best be careful when writing zeros to the MBR, if you pick the wrong
HDD you will be doing a complete reinstall.

Malcolm,

You would be able to re-write a generic MBR using either fdisk /mbr from
DOS or fixmbr from repair console. In fact wouldn't just doing that
possibly fix her problem?

Steve

 

[Alex Nichol]

I recently installed a second hard drive to my Windows XP
Home system. In partitioning the drive, I mistakenly
designated the 1st partition as a master boot record.

You misunderstand what a Master boot record (MBR) is. It is not a
partition. It is the very first sector of a disk, and contains two
things:

One - the vital one - is the 'Partition table' which defines, for each
of the four primary partitions that can be present, the position of each
partition on the disk, in terms of start and finish cylinders/heads,
and the partition type. One of which can be an 'extended partition',
holding a series of 'logical' ones.

The second item in it is the 'MBR Code'; used if this is a disk that can
be booted from. The initial boot calls that code which finds out which
of the partitions is the 'active' one and passes the buck on to code in
the first sector of that

So you need it - leave it alone