NTFS Boot Sector Unwritable

[James H. Panknin]

Running XP Pro, getting a message "Second boot sector is unwritable" after
running chkdsk. This same disk ('E' drive, WD 200GB) will not allow me to
store files on it anymore. I can read existing files just fine, but cannot
create new ones or delete existing files. What is the fix to make this
drive useable again?

Thanks in advance.

 

[JeffO]

If you boot to the Windows CD, you can get into "Repair"
and then Recovery Console.
Once you get there, you can run:
fixmbr e:

I've heard of a guy who's used this several times with no
problem and it fixed everything.
I've used it three times and it never fixed anything. In
fact, it trashed the data already present. So back up the
data you currently have before trying this.

 

[Lester Stiefel]

Running XP Pro, getting a message "Second boot sector is unwritable" after
running chkdsk. This same disk ('E' drive, WD 200GB) will not allow me to
store files on it anymore. I can read existing files just fine, but cannot
create new ones or delete existing files. What is the fix to make this
drive useable again?

Thanks in advance.

You may have a bad Data cable on the drive or (gulp) the
drive itself is going bad. You can do 'oneway' traffic. From
but not to. Check for the driver updates to your HDD
controller. If the drive is a logical drive you may need to
back up the E drive, use the HDD utility to hardformat, then
recreate the partition structure. Reinstall windows, and
restore the data to the partition. In NTFS make sure the
partition isn't write protected (readonly), encrypted or
hidden.