[MattCharles]

Ok, so I recovered my PC. I had an issue back in 2006 I recovered my PC by mistake and lost everything on my PC! Well, I wised up and got a second hard drive and everything I need is backed up on there. So anyway, I did the FULL recovery a couple days ago. I had to reinstall all my software but that was really no big deal to me because I had everything I needed plus all my reg codes.

So now my problem.

Everytime I start up my PC is says "Master Boot Error, Press any key to continue."

I cannot even go into my recovery. I do not have any XP Cds as well.

What do I do to get rid of this message?

Edited by MattCharles, 29 October 2009 - 05:18 PM.

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What do I do to get rid of this message?

Don't turn the computer on, of course :-)

Is there no way at all you can find a copy of XP?
If not, what about Ubuntu? Do you have a copy, or can you download a copy?
There is the ability to re-build an MBR from Ubuntu.

There are other solutions (such as bootable tools like GParted), but I don't recommend you try them until another user can verify they're the right tool to use. I fixed my MBR using GParted when things went a little pear-shaped and everything turned out fine. That said however, GParted can destroy data so consider Ubuntu or wait for someone even smarter than I to come along


Deon

[Deon]

What do I do to get rid of this message?

Don't turn the computer on, of course :-)

Is there no way at all you can find a copy of XP?
If not, what about Ubuntu? Do you have a copy, or can you download a copy?
There is the ability to re-build an MBR from Ubuntu.

There are other solutions (such as bootable tools like GParted), but I don't recommend you try them until another user can verify they're the right tool to use. I fixed my MBR using GParted when things went a little pear-shaped and everything turned out fine. That said however, GParted can destroy data so consider Ubuntu or wait for someone even smarter than I to come along


Deon

[MattCharles]

What do I do to get rid of this message?

Don't turn the computer on, of course :-)

Is there no way at all you can find a copy of XP?
If not, what about Ubuntu? Do you have a copy, or can you download a copy?
There is the ability to re-build an MBR from Ubuntu.

There are other solutions (such as bootable tools like GParted), but I don't recommend you try them until another user can verify they're the right tool to use. I fixed my MBR using GParted when things went a little pear-shaped and everything turned out fine. That said however, GParted can destroy data so consider Ubuntu or wait for someone even smarter than I to come along


Deon

yes, I will wait until a tech helps me lol

It's actually "Master Boot Record Error" I am getting.
I do have my HP recovery discs, I forgot about them, but they wont boot off of them. Well I only tried disc 1. I am sure disc 2 will not boot.

[rshaffer61]

I do have my HP recovery discs, I forgot about them, but they wont boot off of them. Well I only tried disc 1. I am sure disc 2 will not boot.

Did you change the boot sequence in the bios so that the cdrom drive was first?
This would allow the disc one to become bootable.
If you want to make sure you save your data then you need to do a non destructive repair.
This will only repair the system files and hopefully fix the MBR error.
If you don't want to do that then you would need to get to the Recovery Console from your recovery disk bootup and type in the fixmbr command.

[MattCharles]

I do have my HP recovery discs, I forgot about them, but they wont boot off of them. Well I only tried disc 1. I am sure disc 2 will not boot.

Did you change the boot sequence in the bios so that the cdrom drive was first?
This would allow the disc one to become bootable.
If you want to make sure you save your data then you need to do a non destructive repair.
This will only repair the system files and hopefully fix the MBR error.
If you don't want to do that then you would need to get to the Recovery Console from your recovery disk bootup and type in the fixmbr command.

No, I did not change my bios, so that is the problem there lol.

How do I get to the recovery Console? From the Recovery disc? So I would have to boot with the CD, correct, in order to do the fixmbr, correct?

[rshaffer61]

Yes when you boot to the disk there should be a option to enter the recovery console. Usually it means you would push R to do this when prompted.
You will then get what looks like the old DOS screen. Black with white lettering.
That is where you would type in fixmbr

[MattCharles]

Yes when you boot to the disk there should be a option to enter the recovery console. Usually it means you would push R to do this when prompted.
You will then get what looks like the old DOS screen. Black with white lettering.
That is where you would type in fixmbr

Yes, I just tried this, and I pushed the "R" key and it braught me to a colored screen saying it was going to erase everything I installed and that isn't want I want to do again.

Grrrr, so what now lol?

Edited by MattCharles, 29 October 2009 - 06:40 PM.

[rshaffer61]

OK then there should be other options available.
Non Destructive Recovery (Data is saved this way)
Destructive (The system is taken back to factory settings)
Repair (May not be a option on your Recovery Disk and is more like the first option)
Recovery (Not always a option on Recovery Disks)

Does any of this look like what you see at the options screen?

[MattCharles]

OK then there should be other options available.
Non Destructive Recovery (Data is saved this way)
Destructive (The system is taken back to factory settings)
Repair (May not be a option on your Recovery Disk and is more like the first option)
Recovery (Not always a option on Recovery Disks)

Does any of this look like what you see at the options screen?

Hmmm, I was scared to hit the next button LOL. So when I was reading the message it said that all my programs I downloaded myself would be lost I quit right away. I did this mistake once back in 2006 and I do not plan on doing it again!
I did not see any of the ones listed above. Is there anyway to download and put on a CD the XP BOIS?

Edited by MattCharles, 29 October 2009 - 06:50 PM.

[rshaffer61]

Try this, no guarantee it will work but worth a try.


Download Windows Recovery Console HERE
Download, and install free Imgburn
Using Imgburn, burn rc.iso to a CD.
Boot to the CD...let it finish loading.
When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.

[MattCharles]

I am SOOO upset! I just did a recovery for no reason LOL.

That didn't even help the issue!

So it looks like i gotta do what you said above.

It's actually no big deal because I did a recovery last week, so I got everything backed up. The bad part is downloading everything again. lol

[MattCharles]

do you think this is happening because I have my back up drive pluged in while I did the recovery?

[rshaffer61]

Did you get the RC and have you gotten into the Recovery Console with it?

[MattCharles]

Did you get the RC and have you gotten into the Recovery Console with it?

I am confused with this question. I downloaded the RC yes, but I am having trouble burning it. Which option do I use?

[rshaffer61]

Follow the steps in my post #10
You burn the ISO file using Imgburn
Then leave the disk in the cdrom drive.
Reboot the system and make sure bios is set to boot to cdrom first.
Once it boots there should be a message that comes up saying To boot to cdrom push any key
Push a key and then at the command prompt type in fixmbr
click enter
when done then type exit and click enter. System will now reboot.
Change bios back to boot to hd first save and exit and let em know if system boots correctly now.