[Wet Chicken]

Is the boot sector and the MBR considered as the same thing?

If not, then how would you repair a bad (or unreadable) boot sector ?

Thanks

 

[pyritechips]

Hello:

To really simplify the matter, the boot sector is a reserved place on the hard drive where the master boot record is stored.

If a boot record becomes corrupted you can attempt to repair it by using a boot floppy and at the A:> prompt enter:

fdisk /mbr

then reboot. Make note of the space before the slash.

 

[Wet Chicken]

OK thanks, that's what I was wondering. We tried using the fdisk /mbr trick but it did nothing

Is there another way to repair it?

We have another machine with the same operating system on it, can we just make a copy of the mbr from the good machine, and paste it in the C: drive somewhere to fix it?

 

[pyritechips]

No, I don't think that's a workable solution. To the best of my knowledge (and somebody can please correct me if I am wrong) the boot record contains data specific not only to the computer itself but also the drive.

If FDISK /MBR doesn't work you can:

If you're using a Windows 2000 system, you can boot from the installation disks and enter the Recovery Console. When the Recovery Console loads, use the FIXBOOT or the FIXMBR command to cure the problem.

This is from an artice here: http://networking.earthweb.com/netsecur/article.php/625721

If all else fails, consider performing a LLF (low level format). REad about that here: http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/faq/ata_llfmt_what.html