How to repair a damaged boot sector by replacing the master boot record (MBR) in  Windows XP

Your computer may continually restart, sometimes load the Windows logo screen, or even just have a black screen. There are a number of symptoms that occur when you have a damaged boot sector such as the master boot record.

What can damage the Master Boot Record in the Boot Sector?

• Having problems when installing Operating Systems can damaged the master boot record. Stopping half way through installation is the most common cause.
• Changing the Windows Registry entries.
• Getting a virus that infects the MBR. Many viruses are built to attack the MBR.

What you will need to Repair the master boot record (MBR) of a hard drive

1. An original Full Version Windows XP. The one you used to originally put Windows on your computer. An OEM version may not have this option, it depends on the company it came from. ( Dell, Acer, HP, etc)
2. You will need to know the administrator password for your Windows installation.

How to repair the master boot record (MBR of a hard drive manually (quicker)

1. Put your original Windows XP CD into the cd drive of your computer.
2. Restart your computer and hopefully it will come up and say press any key to boot from the cd.
3. So therefore you must press any key on your keyboard to start from the cd.
4. If this does not come up you need to enter your bios and change the boot order or sequence. See How to get into Your BIOS and change settings.
5. A blue screen will appear and you are on your way..
6. You may need to press F8 to agree to the Windows Setup agreement.
7. After that the setup options will appear (see screen shot below).
8. Do not press ENTER as it will start installing Windows from scratch and you will loose all of your data on your hard drive.
9. Press the letter R on your keyboard to enter the Recovery Console.
10. When Recovery Console starts you will have to enter the number that corresponds with the installation you want to repair. For example if you have only one Windows installed on your computer then you would press the number one key. If you have two operating systems on your computer and you want to repair the second one then press 2. 
11. Enter your Administrator password for that windows installation. You must enter an admin password here and if you do not, you cannot continue.
12. At the Recovery Console command prompt, type fixmbr.
13. You will be asked to confirm that you want to do this by pressing the Y key for yes.
14. Now your Master Boot record will be fixed.

Now if that did not work you can also repair the Boot sector by following the same steps but typing fixboot instead of fixmbr.

Notes:

• For earlier versions of Windows you can type in Fdisk /mbr at the command prompt.
• Before typing fixmbr or fixboot you can type chkdsk and this will check your hard drive disk for bad sectors and offer to repair them.
• A hard disk only has a MBR if it has been partitioned. If it is a new hard disk drive it will have a Volume Boot Record (VBR). When it has been partitioned it will have a MBR instead.

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How to repair a Windows XP installation without formatting your computer and loosing your files

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Step by step instructions on how to format your computer in windows XP. Starting from the minute you boot from the Original Windows cd and how to make your computer boot from it.

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Just to make it clear for the beginners that have not formatted before. When you first format your computer you have to choose the file system your want. You can choose between NTFS and FAT32.

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