Nakatomi2010 Posted January 4, 2006 Posted January 4, 2006 (edited) How does one go about creating a bootsector, when the system thinks there isn't one?The system suffered hard drive failure, I used GetDataBack to recover the data, then put the data back on the new hard drive, well the data is intact, but obviously the hard drive wont boot since it's not an entirely bootable drive...How would I go about making it bootable again? I've tried doing fixboot in the recovery console, that didn't work. I also tried a Repair install of XP, that didn't work either...Thoughts?Option B of course is that I HAVE the bootsector as a file, but don't know how to reintegrate it into the hard drive again...Title Edited - Please follow new posting rules from now on.--Zxian Edited January 5, 2006 by Zxian
phatcat42141 Posted January 4, 2006 Posted January 4, 2006 Have you tried the FIXMBR in the recovery console? It sounds like its your Master Boot Record that is messed up.
Sonic Posted January 4, 2006 Posted January 4, 2006 you can try fixboot too ... and chkdsk for sure your data is okay.
Nakatomi2010 Posted January 4, 2006 Author Posted January 4, 2006 I do 'Fixboot C:\' 'FixMBR C:\' and 'chkdsk /r' and nothing....
Sonic Posted January 4, 2006 Posted January 4, 2006 Perhaps the data restored aren't 100% okay, in fact some recover program restore file with binary data, there isn't an integrity file check, for example if program restore a .doc file, the file can contain wrong data/corrupted data ... but the file has the good name / good property / good size (because it's get in mft table or something like) ... and you understand if boot files (or system kernel/files) are corrupted so can't boot on system ...Have you tried to open documents/photo/video/music directly on new hard drive with a fresh system ?
Takeshi Posted January 5, 2006 Posted January 5, 2006 The crux of the matter is: how did you put the old OS from the old HD to the new HD? You said you put the "data" on the new HD but didn't say anything about the OS transfer itself.Booting an OS is more than just using the boot sector. You need the partition table, MFT, NT loader etc. Are these there and intact?
Nakatomi2010 Posted January 6, 2006 Author Posted January 6, 2006 Alright, bootsector restored...Here's how I chose to do it....I began an XP install on the new drives, then once it's got through the text setup and into the GUI setup I restarted the system and booted into a WinPE environment, from there I deleted the contents of the drive including the System Volume Information directory and recycler directory, it was blank, but not formatted the bootsector and all that jazz was still there. ThenI copied all the old system files back into place in their "as is" recovered states. From there I saw there was no boot.ini file so I booted into the recovery console and copied ntldr and ntdetect.com to the root of C: then did "Bootcfg /rebuild" to recreate the boot.ini file... Aaand BAM. No repair install even needed the **** thing booted like nothing happened.
Sonic Posted January 6, 2006 Posted January 6, 2006 (edited) Very good m8 Edited January 6, 2006 by sonic
Takeshi Posted January 7, 2006 Posted January 7, 2006 That's what I meant.The NT boot files (boot.ini, ntldr and ntdetect.com) although needed for booting are not part of the "bootsector" technically.
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