I accidently deleted MBR

  • Thread starter Thread starter Wolfie301
  • Start date Start date
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Wolfie301

I was trying to encrypt a laptop with Becrypt and it crashed so i thought if
i deleted the MBR then i would be able to boot into windows xp and try to
install it again. Unfortunately all i get is missing OS.
Will i have to install everything again or can i recover a MBR to get back
into windows?
All help very much appreciated
 
Wolfie301 said:
I was trying to encrypt a laptop with Becrypt and it crashed so i thought if
i deleted the MBR then i would be able to boot into windows xp and try to
install it again. Unfortunately all i get is missing OS.
Will i have to install everything again or can i recover a MBR to get back
into windows?
All help very much appreciated
Click to expand...

Boot using a bootable floppy and run 'fdisk /mbr'.

http://www.bootdisk.com
 
I tried what you posted and it still comes up with missing operating system,
do you have any other suggestions?
 
Wolfie301 wrote (in
I was trying to encrypt a laptop with Becrypt and it crashed so i thought if
i deleted the MBR then i would be able to boot into windows xp and try to
install it again. Unfortunately all i get is missing OS.
Will i have to install everything again or can i recover a MBR to get back
into windows?
Click to expand...

I did a quick search using “restore mbr” and found some useful links including
the second one from Google:
http://www.geocities.com/thestarman3/asm/mbr/BootToolsRefs.htm


HTH
 
Wolfie301 said:
I tried what you posted and it still comes up with missing operating system,
do you have any other suggestions?
Click to expand...

Because you didn't just modify (replace) the MBR. You also changed the
boot.ini file in the Windows partition.

After the POST, the BIOS looks for the first drive from which it can
boot. When looking at hard drives, it uses the first hard drive found
and reads the first sector from the first track in the unusable first
cylinder which contains the MBR. The MBR contains both the partition
table (showing which primary partition is marked "active") and the
bootstrap code. The bootstrap code uses the active primary partition to
load the first sector (boot sector) of that partition and passes control
to it. That is the OS loader.

So is the active primary partition listed in FDISK the one containing
your Windows install?

Did the boot.ini file get modified in that Windows partition? It may
not be pointing at the correct partition number, especially if a hidden
partition got created and is now deleted which changes their relative
index numbering.

Boot using the Windows install CD. Go into Recovery Console mode. If
that loads, in the command console enter "fixboot <drive>:", where
<drive> is wherever you installed Windows (and is now the drive letter
that would be assigned by the BIOS to that partition). You might also
want to use "bootcfg" (see Windows help on how to use it).

"It crashed" says nothing about WHEN the crash occurred. If Becrypt
already encrypted your partition(s) and didn't install its replacement
bootstrap program in the MBR then you will never gain access to those
partitions. They're encrypted. You are required to load their
decryptor on startup so the BIOS loads their bootstrap program to
decrypt those partitions. In that case, you'll have to figure out how
Becrypt can reinstall its bootstrap program in the MBR. Becrypt's web
site isn't user friendly in providing self-help. They have absolutely
nothing on their site to help any user with any problem when using their
software. You'll have to call them for instructions if their manual
doesn't tell you how to restore or reinstall their bootstrap program.
 
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