Cannot write MBR

Hi all. I am having problems with my MBR. I have done my google searching and read the stickies.

Have tried http://www.acronis.com/files/support/mbrautowrite_en.iso, fixmbr, and other things.

The problem first occurred when I got a "unmountable_boot_volume" in XP. Have tried chkdsk /r, chkdsk /p, fixmbr, and fixboot.

When I load Disk Director it tells me it cannot read sector 0 from disk 1. Tried to delete the NTFS and partition and it will not let me. Again, I have tried the mbrautowrite.iso. It tells me "Access Failure: Failure writing MBR."

The hard drive is in a Gateway laptop that is still under warranty so I do not want to crack the case.

 

jhsands:

It sounds to me like your hard drive has failed. Since it's under warranty you should contact Gateway for a replacement.

The only other thing that I can suggest to try is to first find out the manufacturer and model number of your hard disk and then go their web site to see if they have any downloadable hard-disk diagnostics. Try to run the diagnostics to see what is reported.

 

Good call k0lo. Downloaded the Hitachi utility and it has bad sectors!

Thanks!