Windows XP destroys boot record

[Alex G]

I need help with some wierd XP behavior.

Once every few days, when I leave the computer alone at home while I'm
out at work or overnight, XP manages to destroy the boot sector of the
first partition. (I'm not sure what it destroys exactly) Lilo that is
installed in MBR stays properly working and I can load into linux
(multi-partitioned HD) without problems. However it is impossible to
mount my first partition with linux. After selecting a windows choice
in Lilo, I get blank screen without the usual XP boot menu.

After help from Svend Olaf Mikkelsen, I was able to restore the boot
sector using his program findpart. (big thanks to him) It did not
however stop it from happening again. In previous times that it
happened, I've re-formatted and re-installed windows, which lasted 3
months 'till the next problem. Restoring the sector only gave me 3-4
weeks before next crash.

Does anyone know what I can do about it? I'm running XP Pro with SP1
installed.

Alex

PS: this is crossposted across multiple winXP newsgroups.

 

[Guest]

I need help with some wierd XP behavior.

Once every few days, when I leave the computer alone at home while I'm
out at work or overnight, XP manages to destroy the boot sector of the
first partition. (I'm not sure what it destroys exactly) Lilo that is
installed in MBR stays properly working and I can load into linux
(multi-partitioned HD) without problems. However it is impossible to
mount my first partition with linux. After selecting a windows choice
in Lilo, I get blank screen without the usual XP boot menu.

After help from Svend Olaf Mikkelsen, I was able to restore the boot
sector using his program findpart. (big thanks to him) It did not
however stop it from happening again. In previous times that it
happened, I've re-formatted and re-installed windows, which lasted 3
months 'till the next problem. Restoring the sector only gave me 3-4
weeks before next crash.

Does anyone know what I can do about it? I'm running XP Pro with SP1
installed.

Alex

PS: this is crossposted across multiple winXP newsgroups.

No idea. But I'm curious as to why you *think* Windows is responsible? Why
not Linux?

Buster

 

[GTS]

Do you have any processes scheduled to run in that period?

Here's one idea, that's probably a long shot. Some anti-virus programs have
an option to save a boot sector template and to automatically restore it if
a change is detected. Do you have anything like that running (maybe with an
outdated template)?

 

[jazz]

is xp you default operating system? if so windows xp has a habbit of
restarting when it encounters an error. it the trys to run chkdsk, on all my
linux dual boot system the windows NT the chkdsk trys to tell be that the
disk space it being reported improperly and if i let it fix it i have a
problem. i would sugest setting the computer to not restart automatically if
it encounters an error.

you should do this anyways because sometimes you can get cought in a
continuous reboot and not be able to fix the computer, and you can have an
issue with it and not even now about it because it will reboot.

 

[Dr alw]

I need help with some wierd XP behavior.

Once every few days, when I leave the computer alone at home while I'm
out at work or overnight, XP manages to destroy the boot sector of the
first partition. (I'm not sure what it destroys exactly) Lilo that is
installed in MBR stays properly working and I can load into linux
(multi-partitioned HD) without problems. However it is impossible to
mount my first partition with linux. After selecting a windows choice
in Lilo, I get blank screen without the usual XP boot menu.

After help from Svend Olaf Mikkelsen, I was able to restore the boot
sector using his program findpart. (big thanks to him) It did not
however stop it from happening again. In previous times that it
happened, I've re-formatted and re-installed windows, which lasted 3
months 'till the next problem. Restoring the sector only gave me 3-4
weeks before next crash.

Does anyone know what I can do about it? I'm running XP Pro with SP1
installed.

Alex

PS: this is crossposted across multiple winXP newsgroups.

Stick with Linux, it's your best bet.