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#1
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fdisk /mbr vs fixmbr ??
after a power cut, win2k pro said "inaccessible boot device".
fdisk /mbr did not fix it fixmbr did. I didn't get the error after fixmbr. Fixmbr did say it "detected" an "invalid" err something. Since it started windows, and the MBR is before that. It indicates that fixmbr does a lot more good stuff (perhaps NT specific?) than just replacing the MBR. anybody got any explanation? |
#2
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fdisk /mbr vs fixmbr ??
On 22 Mar 2007 05:47:22 -0700, "
wrote: after a power cut, win2k pro said "inaccessible boot device". First, did you power off the system and leave it sit for awhile disconnected from AC (I mean a couple minutes or so)? A power outtage should not have touched the MBR, it would seem more likely the system was just experiencing a glitch in operation as when power comes back on it can be poor quality power than jams up things until power is cut and restored while that power is in a better state. I'm just wondering if you needed to do anything to it, and if so, why it happened. fdisk /mbr did not fix it fixmbr did. I didn't get the error after fixmbr. Fixmbr did say it "detected" an "invalid" err something. I think you forgot the imporant detail, something. Since it started windows, and the MBR is before that. It indicates that fixmbr does a lot more good stuff (perhaps NT specific?) than just replacing the MBR. anybody got any explanation? Not why you needed to do anything to your MBR, but http://support.microsoft.com/kb/166454 |
#3
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fdisk /mbr vs fixmbr ??
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#4
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fdisk /mbr vs fixmbr ??
On 22 Mar, 16:24, kony wrote:
On 22 Mar 2007 05:47:22 -0700, " wrote: after a power cut, win2k pro said "inaccessible boot device". First, did you power off the system and leave it sit for awhile disconnected from AC (I mean a couple minutes or so)? A power outtage should not have touched the MBR, it would seem more likely the system was just experiencing a glitch in operation as when power comes back on it can be poor quality power than jams up things until power is cut and restored while that power is in a better state. I'm just wondering if you needed to do anything to it, and if so, why it happened. fdisk /mbr did not fix it fixmbr did. I didn't get the error after fixmbr. Fixmbr did say it "detected" an "invalid" err something. I think you forgot the imporant detail, something. Since it started windows, and the MBR is before that. It indicates that fixmbr does a lot more good stuff (perhaps NT specific?) than just replacing the MBR. anybody got any explanation? Not why you needed to do anything to your MBR, but http://support.microsoft.com/kb/166454 at no point did I disconnect the power wait a few min and reconnect it. To get the so-called "clean power" that you speak of. I never disconnected the power. I got the error, restarted a few times by holding the power button to turn off. Tapping it to turn on. Each time I got the error. I did fdisk /mbr, still got the error. Each time restarting. Did fixmbr, it said it detected an invalid something or other. . Restarted, bam, worked. The error that occurred most probably was not a sudden glitch, it occurred straight after the power cut. It was fine before. It's a low level thing.. so difficult to say why it fixed it. That's fixmbr. An fdisk /mbr story - and demo of this low level thing. I knew a girl that got water in her laptop. She called the techies. One came along and I thought he'd say "fdisk /mbr".. I said "you really think fdisk /mbr will work ?!!" He said "oh yeah, it fixes everything!" . We agreed it was worth a try. It worked! Her computer wasn't starting before, and then it did. |
#5
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fdisk /mbr vs fixmbr ??
after a power cut, win2k pro said "inaccessible boot device".
Tweak your BIOS to perform a self-test. I find with my Win 2K Pro machine the extra ~15 second delay during the self-test allows everything to proceed as expected. PS Doesn't fdisk /mbr wipe the disk of the label of the OS, meaning that you'll then get the more serious and dreaded message "Unable to find OS", meaning that without a lot of hard work, you'll probably have to re-install Windows?! Your initial reaction I must say sounds a bit gungho! |
#6
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fdisk /mbr vs fixmbr ??
On 27 Mar, 12:05, wrote:
after a power cut, win2k pro said "inaccessible boot device". Tweak your BIOS to perform a self-test. I find with my Win 2K Pro machine the extra ~15 second delay during the self-test allows everything to proceed as expected. interesting idea, I haven't tried it, but my solution wasn't a workaround(however your workaround works?). Mine doesn't slow down startup PS Doesn't fdisk /mbr wipe the disk of the label of the OS, meaning that you'll then get the more serious and dreaded message "Unable to find OS", meaning that without a lot of hard work, you'll probably have to re-install Windows?! Your initial reaction I must say sounds a bit gungho! No, it's BEFORE lots of things. Before the OS. The master boot record doesn't know / store anything about the OS. It is harmless. The only time i've ever heard of it being harmful - making data inaccessible! - is in some weird circumstance that i've never encountered, and neither has anybody I know. I think the circumstance is when the partition is encrypted or something. It's not gungho at all. It's very safe. It's actually more gungho to do the next possibilities, such as backing up all the data(asking the whole family where they keep their data). holding your breath. Reinstalling windows or doing a windows repair(safer regarding data!).. It's hours. This is 2min and safe. Though I did chkdsk after it (a bit iunnecessary since windows did it anyway. I just didn't know what switch windows used, so I did /r myself) Here are 2 links I read a little of a while back. I didn't understand them all but they helped. I'm far from an expert and i'm probably wrong but i'll try The MBR is on a hard drive with a partition one might intend to boot off of. It looks for the Active partition. I guess it is exactly the same regardless of your OS (or, differences are irrelevant). Hence win98's fdisk /mbr doesn't write one that only works for windows 98. It will work for windows xp too, and probably linux. There may be different ways to write the MBR, and different OSs have utilities to do it different ways, but they are all doing the same function, and are interchangeable. here are 2 links Disassembly of a Master Boot Record (MBR) http://www.ata-atapi.com/hiwmbr.htm Troubleshooting the startup process (windows xp resource kit) http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro...c29621675.mspx |
#7
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fdisk /mbr vs fixmbr ??
interesting idea, I haven't tried it, but my solution wasn't a
workaround(however your workaround works?). Mine doesn't slow down startup You can normally press esc or some other button during the self-test - the idea being that for whatever reason the timing's out and the extra second or two it takes to start a self-test is all it takes to resolve this issue. PS Doesn't fdisk /mbr wipe the disk of the label of the OS, meaning that you'll then get the more serious and dreaded message "Unable to find OS", meaning that without a lot of hard work, you'll probably have to re-install Windows?! Your initial reaction I must say sounds a bit gungho! No, it's BEFORE lots of things. Before the OS. The master boot record doesn't know / store anything about the OS. It is harmless. I wouldn't say it was harmless! If you didn't have one, your computer would just be a big metal box with flashing lights! The MBR is an area on the physical disk that contains a record of where to look for the OS(es) installed. If that record is lost / wrongly altered / destroyed, then you effectively have to wipe the disk and start again. It's not gungho at all. It's very safe. This is 2min and safe. Though I did chkdsk after it (a bit iunnecessary since windows did it anyway. I just didn't know what switch windows used, so I did /r myself) If you don't know what a command does in relation to the MBR, my advice is to leave well alone until someone can explain properly what the command does. If you have a multi-booting machine for instance, a "very safe", "2 minute" play with some randomly generated command can effectively destroy the setup, in the process ruining hours of configuration. And yes, you may be able to tell, I speak from experience! |
#8
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fdisk /mbr vs fixmbr ??
anybody got any explanation?
Well fortunately, MS have: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/d....mspx?mfr=true |
#9
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fdisk /mbr vs fixmbr ??
On 28 Mar, 12:20, wrote:
interesting idea, I haven't tried it, but my solution wasn't a workaround(however your workaround works?). Mine doesn't slow down startup You can normally press esc or some other button during the self-test - the idea being that for whatever reason the timing's out and the extra second or two it takes to start a self-test is all it takes to resolve this issue. PS Doesn't fdisk /mbr wipe the disk of the label of the OS, meaning that you'll then get the more serious and dreaded message "Unable to find OS", meaning that without a lot of hard work, you'll probably have to re-install Windows?! Your initial reaction I must say sounds a bit gungho! No, it's BEFORE lots of things. Before the OS. The master boot record doesn't know / store anything about the OS. It is harmless. I wouldn't say it was harmless! If you didn't have one, your computer would just be a big metal box with flashing lights! you didn't understand what I was saying Besides. As useless as a trying to boot a computer off a disk with no MBR is. I don't see why you consider such a metal box with flashing lights useless, since your head is clearly only a box with a pair of eyeballs in it. The MBR is an area on the physical disk that contains a record of where to look for the OS(es) installed. If that record is lost / wrongly altered / destroyed, then you effectively have to wipe the disk and start again. As has been said. fdisk /mbr or FIXMBR rewrites the MBR . It does not wipe the disk. It sounds like you've never done it. It's not gungho at all. It's very safe. This is 2min and safe. Though I did chkdsk after it (a bit iunnecessary since windows did it anyway. I just didn't know what switch windows used, so I did /r myself) If you don't know what a command does in relation to the MBR, my advice is to leave well alone until someone can explain properly what the command does. If you have a multi-booting machine for instance, a "very safe", "2 minute" play with some randomly generated command can effectively destroy the setup, in the process ruining hours of configuration. And yes, you may be able to tell, I speak from experience! I know many people with lots of experience in screwing their computer up. They're smart enough not to offer advice. They are more likely to ask me for my advice. If you even claim to have experience in screwing it up, give me an example of when you've screwed it up. It sounds like you've screwed up lots of things and so you've been afraid of running fdisk /mbr or FIXMBR. So you assume you'd screw it up, and your arrogance makes you think that everybody else would too. I'd put it to you that even you wouldn't be able to screw up a computer with those commands. |
#10
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fdisk /mbr vs fixmbr ??
I wouldn't say it was harmless! If you didn't have one, your computer
would just be a big metal box with flashing lights! you didn't understand what I was saying Besides. As useless as a trying to boot a computer off a disk with no MBR is. I don't see why you consider such a metal box with flashing lights useless, since your head is clearly only a box with a pair of eyeballs in it. Right... The MBR is an area on the physical disk that contains a record of where to look for the OS(es) installed. If that record is lost / wrongly altered / destroyed, then you effectively have to wipe the disk and start again. As has been said. fdisk /mbr or FIXMBR rewrites the MBR . It does not wipe the disk. I clearly said that if the mbr is mangled, you effectively have to wipe the disk, i.e., reinstall the operating system again. At no point did I say that it wiped the disk. If you even claim to have experience in screwing it up, give me an example of when you've screwed it up. It sounds like you've screwed up lots of things and so you've been afraid of running fdisk /mbr or FIXMBR. So you assume you'd screw it up, and your arrogance makes you think that everybody else would too. I'd put it to you that even you wouldn't be able to screw up a computer with those commands. I will repeat here again that you certainly appear to be gungho with your rather amateurish attitude to fixing IT problems. Unfortunately you are making a lot of potentially crucial assumptions about the way a system may be configured to start with. For example. if you were to tell someone who has a dual-boot Windows and Linux OS to "harmlessly" perform the fdisk /mbr command, they run the possibility of corrupting / deleting their boot manager program and subsequently may not be able to boot back into either system. The effectiveness or harmlessness of performing it also depends which upon which partitions and which drives your OS(es) are on. Just because you tried it with your system, does not mean that others are likely to experience no bad side-effects as well. Its rather irresponsible for you to claim otherwise. If anyone is reading this debate and is wonder what to believe, my best advice is to not rush into doing anything that you are unsure about. Research, research, research. |
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