MBR is referred to as Master Boot Record on a Windows XP computer. The master boot record points your PC to a place of OS files to boot the system. Your computer will not boot if the master boot record is corrupt or damaged and a message “Missing Operating System” is displayed. Something like “error loading operating system” may also get displayed. If something similar happens, it is possible to repair the casualty and that too without complete reinstallation of the Windows XP. This article will tell you how to restore MBR.
To restore MBR, the Microsoft Recovery Console has a command. This command is able to restore Master Boot Record of Windows XP and enables your system to boot again. Go through the instructions carefully and learn doing it yourself. Difficulty to solve this problem is moderate. To restore the Master Boot Record, you will need a Windows XP setup CD. Now, follow these steps to restore MBR:
- Turn on your computer. Keep Windows XP CD into the optical drive. Turn your system off by pressing power button for a longer time, or just press the restart button. If you have shut down the system, turn it on by pressing power button.
- When the setup prompts, press any key to boot from CD. Press R key to enter into the Recover Console. Your system shall ask for which installation you need to log on.
- Type the number that represents the windows installation. Mostly all computers have one operating system only so you will be required to type 1. Press Enter.
- When the computer asks for password, type the password when it asks for. In majority home systems, the Administrator has no password installed. If this is the case, leave it blank and type nothing. The command prompt shall display C:\Windows>.
- At the prompt, type “fixmbr” and hit Enter. Now the recovery console shall repair the MBR on your Windows XP system. To close the Recovery Console, type Exit when the work is finished.
- Press Ctrl + Alt + Del to reboot your computer. Now the Windows XP system shall start and function properly if the Master Boot Record is repaired and restored.
The procedure described above shall do the work. But sometimes it may not work. So you can try some other methods too. You can also use the Norton Partition Magic BootMagic disk to repair MBR. In the instructions below you will learn to use Norton PartionMagic BootMagic to restore the Master Boot Record of your system. Go through the following instructions carefully.
- Locate Norton PartitionMagic BootMagic disk. A copy or backup of the master boot record of your system will be there on this disc already. Actually this disk was created at the time when you first installed Norton PartitionMagic BootMagic package on your Windows XP system.
- Now insert the BootMagic CD into optical drive of your computer. Press the power button for a long time to shut down your computer and then start again by holding the power button. You can also restart your system by pressing restart key on your computer.
- After the system starts, press and hold down R key on keyboard of your computer. A screen will appear before you which will be the PartitionMagic recovery screen. It will list all the operating systems that are installed on your computer. Click on the operating system for which the master boot record has to be repaired or restored. If a password is installed, type the required password to start up the OS. On the input screen, type FIXMBR. On your computer keyboard, pres Y to confirm that you need to restore the Master Boot Record and want to fix it.
- Click on exit. Now the BootMagic CD will repair and restore your system’s Master Boot record from the CD that has the back up and will fix all the errors. After finishing it, restart the system and resume your work
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