An update on recent technical problems and more from the admin: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/250292/on-technical-difficulties-mod-coverage-and-other-things/p1?new=1
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[okay, maybe not RESOLVED] Bad Master Boot Record - PC won't start up
Silas Brown
That's hobo style.Registered User regular
That's hobo style.Registered User regular
I'm working on a PC that has been getting the message "bad master boot record" and will not start up. Now it merely says "a disk read error has occured."
Some initial research shows that I can use the Windows XP install disk to run FIXMBR. However, I have received multiple warnings that this poses a serious risk of damaging a partition and subsequently damaging the data. To the people who own the PC, this would be a Bad Thing.
It's also potentially a hardware issue, but I don't have the first clue how to check for that. The hard drive and other components appear to be in place and plugged in correctly.
What are some options I have to work on and check this thing before I take the dreaded FIXMBR plunge? Is it really as bad as all that?
UPDATE 10/27: Okay, the hard drive is toast. There's no way to even recover the data from it.
Some initial research shows that I can use the Windows XP install disk to run FIXMBR. However, I have received multiple warnings that this poses a serious risk of damaging a partition and subsequently damaging the data. To the people who own the PC, this would be a Bad Thing.
It's also potentially a hardware issue, but I don't have the first clue how to check for that. The hard drive and other components appear to be in place and plugged in correctly.
What are some options I have to work on and check this thing before I take the dreaded FIXMBR plunge? Is it really as bad as all that?
UPDATE 10/27: Okay, the hard drive is toast. There's no way to even recover the data from it.
Silas Brown on
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if thats the case then how old is the hard drive, cause i would think it would be a corrupted sector preventing windows from loading.
if that is the case then you can boot windows off of a CD or heck even a different OS and try to save their files before formatting and reinstalling windows. most likely you will want to replace the HDD as it will end up doing it again sooner rather than later.
Nothing bad should happen.
The error message appears shortly after I turn the PC on. Windows does not start up.
Worth noting is the fact that, when I exit out of the setup environment on the XP Install disk, it reminds me that Windows is not installed on the hard drive. I'm assuming this is because it's not actually able to access the hard drive to check (due to bad MBR), but this is just enough out of my league that I could be wrong about that.
try removing the hard drive and booting up. POSTing is that "beep" you hear when you turn on a computer (if you installed the mobo speaker) 1 beep means normal start up. if it doesnt have the HDD plugged in it should say something about "no operating system detected". if thats the case then its probably a corrupted sector (find out how old the HDD is).
i would suggest loading up unbuntu or some other OS from a CD and then back up files and then reinstalling/repairing. if you need i can try to find the "back-up OS" i once had.
Your drive might be FUBAR at this point. The CD should still pick up windows on the drive if your partitions are still in tact. Get a new HDD, install windows on it, plug the old drive as a slave, and see if you can access it to recover data.
booting an OS off a CD is much easier and it doesnt require you to buy a new HDD. though you probably will want to buy a new one anyway. corrupted sectors usually leads to more corrupted sectors (meaning you may have the same problem again in a month)
As someone who might not have experience with Linux, I don't recommend it. Also, depending on the extent of the damage, the Linux NTFS-3G software might not be able to repair or mount the drive, as opposed to the windows one.
I recently had to do this for a laptop drive and it was not fun.
im trying to remember the name of the OS, it had something abotu Back-up in the name but this was years ago when i had my laptop HDD corrupt. basically it let you navigate like windows find the files and then click and drag like windows to an external drive or network. it was really handy. i guess he would have to have a place to back up any data he wanted so....
buy a new HDD and then do either method. both should work and youll probably have to install a new copy of windows anyway.
Are the signs saying that the hard drive is definetly fucked, or is that a general assumption? That is, before I tell my boss that I'm going to have to recommend procuring another hard drive and trying to recover the data, is there anything I should check for and try first?
generally what happens is that when a HDD ages certain sectors that are frequently accessed become corrupt (unreadable). when that happens to a sector where data for windows is, you can see things like blue screens of death, random freezes and windows failing to start up with errors about the OS.
if you do reinstall windows, it will install windows on new sectors... but those sectors will also become corrupted eventually. meaning it will do it again.
get a new HDD is the best option. they arent that expensive (less than 100 bucks) and it will prevent you from wasting hours reinstalling windows every time. i dont know your salary but most likely the ~3 hours you spend reinstalling windows if it happens once more is worth more than 100 bucks (overhead and salary).
yes. you will probably be able to recover almost all of it. if your data is on a corrupted sector you most likely wont be able to access it in order to back it up. however that is unlikely to happen. even if you did copy a broken file, it would not affect anything other than preventing you from accessing that file.
most of the data should be fine, it is the OS that you know is on a bad sector.
the entire drive doesnt go bad all at once.
try this first
Could I bother you to do this, please? Just the name would be very helpful.
also if you want to do it through a windows boot instead BartPE works well.
A general assumption coming from experience. If you want metrics on how fucked the HD is, find a utility that can do a SMART test on the drive. Western Digital has one for download, HDTune is another freeware one, and various diagnostic toolkits have one too.
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I talked to a friend in IT and he suggested trying to create a ghost image of the data and then installing that image on a seperate hard drive. We booted up the ghost software and it has made it clear that this hard drive can not be read.
Thank you, everyone, for your help. I'm just glad that this thing was already toast before I did anything.
Ghost has lots of problems with making drive images. This is not uncommon, for instance, depending on your version of ghost, you may or may not see SATA drives unless PATA/IDE is emulated.
I've looked twice now and maybe I'm blind or am blacking out but I can't see where you actually tried fixmbr.
It's not a doomsday device or something, run a fixmbr and chkdisk if you haven't already. Make sure the drive is actually being detected in the bios.
All I see is a computer being unable to boot and then you jumping to bad sectors and a drive failure without any real basic proof.
I have an SATA II drive that I can't ghost because norton ghost (given the version I have) strokes out when I try, yet I'm reasonably sure this drive works just dandy.
Edit: A drive can have no MBR at all and still be just fine. It's just the first little chunk of a drive that tells it how to go about booting up. (more or less)
I would do the following, in order:
1.)Go into bios, make sure the drive is being detected as connected to the machine itself.
2.)Load the recovery console.
3.)Run FDISK just to look at the partition information, exit without saving.
4.)Fix any hardware connection issue and re-check all the cables if 1-3 give negative results (no drive in bios, no partition information)
5.)Run FIXMBR / CHKDISK
6.)PROFIT
When windows tells you the universe will end if you run FIXMBR it's basically just telling you "whoa partner, if the power goes out in the next 11 seconds while I'm doing this, you may have to do it again." Windows is a silly little bitch.
EDIT: I did remember to try CHKDSK, which returned "one unrecoverable problem." Yeah, real fucking specific.
Probably just a bad sector. Did you run chkdsk /r ?
yeah thats me, i do that sometimes.
but ive seen this same problem so many times that im pretty sure its just a bad sector.
in the end even if fixmbr works, i suggest getting a new hard drive.
Yeah I think it's safe to call it at that. Nine times out of ten a DRE is unrecoverable.
get a new hard drive and install windows on it and then see if you can access the other hard drive from the new install (put the old HDD in as a slave or PC select as long as the new HDD is set to master)
Documents? Yes.
Settings and programs? No. Not easily.
Something tells me I'm going to have to find a way to let my boss down easy here soon.
But this has been fun. I've learned a lot and I can't thank you all enough for your help.