HELP! MBR Destoyed, Can't Boot!

squeakypants · 02-02-2005, 03:36 PM

I just did fdisk/mbr. I rebooted and it said "no active partition". I went into a partiton manager and it says (for my windows drive) Used %0.0 NOT GOOD I hope it's wrong. How can I make the partition active, and what exactly did I do originally (posted the site, it was dd something something)?! It didn't take long, so I wasn't worried that it had deleted anything but the mbr (deleting 20-30gb shouldn't be instant, should it?)

kevinalm · 02-02-2005, 03:57 PM

Wiping 30+ G instantly while fiddling with the partitions sounds about right. Actually, the data is probably still there but the FAT may be toast, so there is no way for an os to know the files are there.

squeakypants · 02-02-2005, 04:09 PM

How do I get them back w/o windows?

squeakypants · 02-02-2005, 05:59 PM

thorn168 · 02-02-2005, 06:33 PM

squeakypants,

If you do find your Windows recovery CD, you should be able to restore the MBR via the recovery console. However you do need the administrator password to do it.

Otherwise you will have to do a new full clean install of windows which may include a call to MS to reactivate your registry key.

Good luck,

Thorn

squeakypants · 02-02-2005, 06:36 PM

Being the administrator, that shouldn't be a problem

Thanks, I still can't find it but I'm looking now :-/

squeakypants · 02-02-2005, 07:10 PM

I hate to ask, but could someone send me an ISO of it? It wouldn't be illegal or anything, as I do have the original, and I think I found the serial numbers on the paper case (might be a different software, though). I just had the one copy that was from dell when i got the computer, i didn't buy it separately.

squeakypants · 02-02-2005, 07:26 PM

Is the recovery cd the same as the reinstallation cd? if not I still can't find it...I'm gonna try the reinstallation cd...

squeakypants · 02-02-2005, 07:29 PM

it is the right disc! WEEEEE

I'm in the recovery console, what should I do? fixmbr?

squeakypants · 02-02-2005, 08:01 PM

squeakypants · 02-02-2005, 09:05 PM

PLEASE

ehawk · 02-02-2005, 09:46 PM

I haven't tried this before, but look at this:

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/d...d_tro_ldau.asp

Gato Azul · 02-02-2005, 10:31 PM

Don't reinstall Windows just because your MBR got erased. All you need is a bootloader to get to it. If you can't get you I'd personally recommend GAG for its extremely easy install and setup. You can add/delete operating systems to boot from the main screen, and it'll handle just about any OS. It's all graphical and really quite a nice piece of software. Now if only they'd work on the name a bit...

kevinalm · 02-02-2005, 10:40 PM

First try fixmbr. If all that is wrong is a blown mbr then that should fix it. But from your previous post (0% used) I suspect you have other problems. Here's hoping I'm wrong.

squeakypants · 02-03-2005, 02:11 PM

thanks for the help. the microsoft link didn't work, but I'm checkin out GAG right now. i'll post my outcome :-(