Repairing MBR in Windows XP Home

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tom Smith
  • Start date Start date
T

Tom Smith

I tried making my XP system dual boot with Win2000. I used
BootMagic to select which operating system to boot to.
After installing Win 2000 I was unable to get back to XP.
I then removed the 2000 partition and re-set the XP
partition to Active the first time and XP worked fine. So
I tried installing 2000 again and it still doesn't let
select XP. I tried removing 2000 again and reseting the XP
partition Active. It shows the XP partition as active but
now I can't get into anything. It continues to try and
start 2000.
I need to repair the Master Boor Record but am unable to
find a way to do it. I tried a Win 98 boot disk with
fdisk /mbr. No help. I tried the PartitionMagic disk with
the Rewrite MBR option. It won't work as it can't save the
original. I don't want to wipe the HD and start over as
the data is still there.
Does any one know how to beat this?

Tom
 
Tom Smith said:
I tried making my XP system dual boot with Win2000. I used
BootMagic to select which operating system to boot to.
After installing Win 2000 I was unable to get back to XP.
I then removed the 2000 partition and re-set the XP
partition to Active the first time and XP worked fine. So
I tried installing 2000 again and it still doesn't let
select XP. I tried removing 2000 again and reseting the XP
partition Active. It shows the XP partition as active but
now I can't get into anything. It continues to try and
start 2000.
I need to repair the Master Boor Record but am unable to
find a way to do it. I tried a Win 98 boot disk with
fdisk /mbr. No help. I tried the PartitionMagic disk with
the Rewrite MBR option. It won't work as it can't save the
original. I don't want to wipe the HD and start over as
the data is still there.
Click to expand...

Tom,

your immediate problem appears to be in BOOT.INI, which
apparently still points to the Windows 2000 installation, but no
longer to the Windows XP installation.

Remove the read-only property from the file and carefully add a
line for the XP installation.

Of course, if you don't find any way to get to the disk at all,
then this will not be possible, and one of the few ways to get
it back to working order is the repair function of the Windows
XP installation CD. Boot from the CD and select the repair
function for the boot environment. If that doesn't work,
reinstall Windows XP, then choose the repair installation of the
existing XP.

Hans-Georg
 
Back
Top