Disk Director Trial Expired... now "MBR Error 3"

Hi as it says the disk director trial expired on my dual boot laptop of XP (partition 1) and Vista (partition 2).

I also had OS Selector installed and i guess it expired too.

Now on boot up i have "MBR error 3"

I can still log in, but i have this error which i need fixed.

Haven't tried anything yet, because it took so much effort to get the dual boot working in the first place.

How can i fix this, simply?

 

Ben:

Do you have an XP CD? If so, boot your PC from it and choose to go to the Recovery Console. When there, replace the Master Boot Record (MBR) by entering the following command:

Code:

fixmbr

This will replace the Acronis MBR that is producing the "MBR error 3" with the generic Microsoft MBR.

You can also fix the MBR from the Vista DVD. Boot with the DVD and choose Repair, then Command Prompt. The Vista repair command is:

Code:

bootrec.exe /fixmbr

 

thankyou for reply

yes i have the XP and Vista cds and yes i understand this process.

probably would prefer to do it through vista console because in making it the second OS on the system, it took control of the OS and automatically recognised that XP was already on the system.

should i also do the bootrec.exe /fixboot as well as the bootrec.exe /fixmbr?

Anyway, my concern with fixing the MBR, with bootrec.exe /fixmbr this time round, is that it might not recognise that XP is on there this time and only correct the boot to have Vista running, and hence erase the dual boot

so simply will bootrec.exe /fixmbr erase the dual boot?

 

Fixing the MBR using bootrec /fixmbr won't change Vista's booting files.

The only question would be, did OSS make any changes? If, somehow, XP got removed from Vista's boot menu, a repair should fix it or it can be added back manually.

When you booted Vista from OSS, did you get Vista's boot menu asking if you wanted to boot Vista or the Previous Windows Version or did Vista boot directly?

 

hey mudcrab

When first tried OSSelector yes it gave me the choice of Vista or older version. Just went into Vista.

I didnt like this extra choice list using OSSelector at the start, disabled it after first go, because theres already the choice menu list at the boot up, so why have it twice.

I still have the dual boot option menu, aftyer the MBR error 3 flash up, so i dont think OSS has changed anything.

so the plan...

bootrec.exe /fixmbr (using Vista console)

then if this erases dual boot option...

try VistaBootPro to reconfigure the dual boot.

if no success then be in deeper hole. here goes wish me luck...

 

yeah boys bootrec.exe /fixmbr worked great. Was pretty simple in the end. Took 30 seconds. Just needed assurance before going ahead with it.

Thanks for help

Did it using vista recovery console. Because vista takes control if its installed second to XP. (for any interested readers)

MBR error has gone. There is a slight pause instead now but cant remember if that was there before.

Can True Image "recover" boot files? Ive seen when i recover partitions there is an altenative option to recover the MBR and Track 0....what that about?

 

The first sector on a hard disk contains a small boot loader (called the Master Boot Record), the partition table, and a disk signature. Further details are here. The MBR code is only about 440 bytes and is executed when the PC boots. Its job is to search the partition table to find the partition marked as Active, and then jump to that partition to run another small boot program located there (which loads the program ntldr in the case of WinXP or bootmgr in the case of Vista).

Restoring MBR and Track 0 with TI will restore the first 63 sectors on the disk with the exception of the partition table in the first sector. For a generic Microsoft setup, only the first sector on the disk is used; the next 62 are empty. Other boot managers like GRUB may use some of these other 62 sectors for their code.

When you installed OS Selector, the Microsoft MBR was replaced by one from Acronis. Doing fixmbr replaced the Acronis MBR with the Microsoft MBR again. If you had an image from before installing OS Selector then you could have restored MBR and Track 0 from the image and that also would have replaced the existing MBR with the one from your image.

 

Far out, well explained k0lo,

so could of just done that lol

but hmmm which way would be faster....that is the question

might try it any how cos i do have a slight pause n skip happening at start instead of MBR error.

Maybe OSSelector is stilll lodged in the background somewhere and boot sees it first but skips it now

 

Both methods are probably equally fast from a boot CD. If you're running Windows and have TI open, restoring MBR and Track 0 takes only a second or two.

The pause may be normal. Most motherboards do a power-on self test (POST) at boot time. The last step is reading the first sector from the primary boot device. You may notice a pause when this happens. I see it on most of my PCs.

 

what so your saying i can restore the MBR after ive logged into Windows, and just keep on keeping on? Wonder if it would make u restart

yeah POST check all devices then the first sector yeah?

 

I just tried this in a VM and the MBR restoration took about 1 second and did not require a restart.