Trond said:
Thanks. Good news!
I guess that this procedure assumes the presence of a relatively
recent Automated_System_Recovery-set (via the XP-pro backup utility)?
Otherwise the recovery console will hardly know what to recover?
Or does XP make a boot time MBR backup automatically, as part of "the
last good configuration"?
Also, do you know if the partition tables (on all disks) are part of
the FIXBOOT recovery?
Trond
XP, like all versions of Windows (I even think DOS made a backup copy of the
MBR), makes two copies of the MBR. One is used if the default MBR becomes
corrupt somehow (like when "foreign" code is written into it, such as
Linux's boot loader) "FIXMBR' will almost always recover the MBR using the
backup copy.
An Automated Recovery Set is not required for this operation. In almost all
cases, all that is necessary is to boot to the Recovery Console and enter
the command. You may receive an ominous warning when you do this, such as
"The MBR on this computer is non-standard. Using this command could result
is lost data. Are you sure you want to proceed Y/N". Well, of course the
MBR is non-standard. It has code in it which XP did not put there.
I just go ahead and hit "Y" at this point. I have never lost any data from
doing this, and the MBR has been recovered each time, using the backup copy
XP keeps for itself for just such emergencies. However, you should keep in
mind that XP would not issue such a warning if there were not a danger (no
matter how slight it might be) of lost data. Like all major operations to
your HD, you should make backups of all important data, and store it in a
safe place, away from that HD, before issuing the command. Unless, of
course, you are prepared for lost data. Then, it really doesn't matter,
does it?
