How Do I recover my MBR if I don't have a real XP Distro CD ?

[Al Dykes]

I have a Compaq laptop (XP) that came with CDs that will reimmage the
system. It has no other recovery tools. I've partitined the disk and
mess with Linux in another partition, with grub or lilo multiboot
depending on what I'm doing. I've always worried about screwing the
boot and not being able to recover it, gived the CDs that I have.

I assume that if I borrow anybody else's XP disk I can boot it and fix
the MBR and it doesn;t matter if it's XP/pro, XP/Home, or SP
level. Correct ?

What can I do to backup or rewrite by MBR, asside from borrowing a CD ?

(If I can boot XP I can always fix the Linux boot. It's XP I'm worried
about)

Thanks.

 

[Adam Membrey]

Greatest website for this sort of thing:

http://www.bootdisk.com/

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Q. "I assume that if I borrow anybody else's XP disk I can boot it and fix
the MBR and it doesn't matter if it's XP/pro, XP/Home, or SP
level. Correct ?"

A. No, incorrect. You can only use Compaq's recovery CD's. Those CD's
will not permit any customization as you have done. Otherwise, you'll
need to purchase a conventional "Full Version" of Windows XP.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect Your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.aspx

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

|
| I have a Compaq laptop (XP) that came with CDs that will reimmage the
| system. It has no other recovery tools. I've partitined the disk and
| mess with Linux in another partition, with grub or lilo multiboot
| depending on what I'm doing. I've always worried about screwing the
| boot and not being able to recover it, gived the CDs that I have.
|
| I assume that if I borrow anybody else's XP disk I can boot it and fix
| the MBR and it doesn;t matter if it's XP/pro, XP/Home, or SP
| level. Correct ?
|
| What can I do to backup or rewrite by MBR, asside from borrowing a CD ?
|
| (If I can boot XP I can always fix the Linux boot. It's XP I'm worried
| about)
|
| Thanks.
| --
| a d y k e s @ p a n i x . c o m
| ----

 

[Al Dykes]

Q. "I assume that if I borrow anybody else's XP disk I can boot it and fix
the MBR and it doesn't matter if it's XP/pro, XP/Home, or SP
level. Correct ?"

A. No, incorrect. You can only use Compaq's recovery CD's. Those CD's
will not permit any customization as you have done. Otherwise, you'll
need to purchase a conventional "Full Version" of Windows XP.

All I want to do is rewrite a generic MBR so I can boot the instance of
XP that's in the First partition of the disk. The Compaq recovery disk
is useless ATAIKT.

 

[Al Dykes]

Greatest website for this sort of thing:

http://www.bootdisk.com/

Any tool in particulat to write a genetic MBR on an XP system ?