How do you run Recovery Console and "FIXMBR" application

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jamess B. Holladay
  • Start date Start date
J

Jamess B. Holladay

Can anyone tell me how to start the Recovery Console in WinXP and run the
FIXMBR app to repair a Master Boot Record on one of my storage drives?
 
Hi, James.

Technically, the Recovery Console is not "in WinXP". It's a separate
utility (including an MS-DOS-style text-based interface) that we can choose
to run, rather than WinXP.

First you must set your computer to boot from the CD/DVD drive, rather than
from your hard drive. Then put the WinXP CD-ROM in the drive and reboot.
After some preliminary preparation, as though it were going to install WinXP
all over again, you will see a menu from which you can choose "R" to Repair
your Windows installation.

For more details, see this KB article:
How to install and use the Recovery Console in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307654

The KB article also tells how you can install the Recovery Console so that
it can be started from the HD, rather than from the CD, but if you haven't
already done that, then you probably will need to start it from the CD.

Be careful! Any tool powerful enough to fix this kind of problem is also
powerful enough to create more problems if not used properly. Read and heed
the warnings in the article.

RC
 
I have a 200gb HDD which I have been using for about a year without a
problem and suddenly it forgot it was formatted as NTFS and now it looks
like it has gone to something call RAW which is not a recognized file
system. I have hours of graphic work on this disk and don't want to format
the volume unless it is the last resort.
Any suggestions on how I can restore the volume to NTFS without losing my
work?
The change was literally made on a reboot, i.e. I rebooted after using the
drive for some time and then got a message that it had an unrecognizable
file system.
 
Jamess said:
I have a 200gb HDD which I have been using for about a year without a
problem and suddenly it forgot it was formatted as NTFS and now it
looks like it has gone to something call RAW which is not a
recognized file system. I have hours of graphic work on this disk and
don't want to format the volume unless it is the last resort.
Any suggestions on how I can restore the volume to NTFS without
losing my work?
The change was literally made on a reboot, i.e. I rebooted after
using the drive for some time and then got a message that it had an
unrecognizable file system.
Click to expand...

Not really a cure but rather a explaination on what happened.
http://www.z-a-recovery.com/art-raw-filesystem.htm

Good Luck
 
Thanks Mike,
I read your article and many more and still on don't understand it. But
using ZAR I was able to recovery some of my data. I think I am going to
purchase ZAR..........wish it was not so expensive.
I honestly think this NTFS to RAW is the next money make for the software
companys i.e. the cure, data recovery.
Microsoft is probably at the root of it all with the NTFS file system. Never
heard of such a thing unders FAT 16 or 32.
 
NTFS TO RAW ON REBOOT:

After many days and inquiries I have uncovered what I believe is the cause
of the growing problem of Hard disk drives reverted to RAW file systems form
NTFS file systems. It appears the problem stems for the inability of older
IDE controllers not being able to handle the size of newer HDDs, i.e.
controllers on older mother boards don't know what to do with the
organization of newer HDDs.

Mother boards that go back just few years have on board IDE controllers that
are in affect obsolete with larger HDDs. HDD improvements and increases in
size have out distanced the controllers that are attached to. Most computers
older than a couple of years won't recognize a HDD larger than about 128gbs.
If you put a 200gb HDD in a computer built 3 years ago it will probably show
up as a 128gb or smaller. This is where the problem starts.

HDD manufacturers such as Western Digital have no idea where the drive will
be used i.e. a Mac or a PC, or how old modern the IDE controller is. In
order to meet market demand for larger HDDs most include a disk with
software which is used to fool the controller in to believing the drive is
of a size it can handle, most of the time this works ok, but have a bad put
away (shut down or reboot) and all bets are off. The software gets scrambled
and you no longer have accurate and cleanly misleading instructions for the
controller and you lose you NTFS file system image and it reverts back to
RAW which is the same as having no file system. In essence the Master File
Table gets scrambled. The date is still there just like it was before the
reboot but because the controller does not recognize it, it is indicated as
RAW.

Most inexpensive data recovery software with allow you to see it and copy it
to a good drive a properly formatted drive.

Until the HDD manufacturers do a better job with their "fool the computer
software" and make it more stable this NTFS to RAW will continue to be a
problem. In fact the incidence will probably increase as the drives get
bigger and more people put them in older computers. The other thing that
needs to happen is the manufactures not to provide a small application which
will restore the NTFS nomenclature (so to speak) because the all the files
are still on the imaginary volume

created with their "fool the computer software".

Creating this would be easy, it can be done without a format or without
causing a loss of date.

This other solution for those who want to use the larger HDDs in older
computes is to run cable your drives to an after market newer IDE controller
card plugged into a PCI slot.

In summary the problem is in two areas, connecting newer drives to older
motherboards and the quality of the software being distributed by
manufactures such as Western Digital to exploit a larger market.

The the manufacturers I say provide the second part of the fix, the
application to revert back to NTFS from RAW after a bad restart.
 
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