Quote Originally Posted by geekwannabe View Post
Is there no one out there that wants to give me the answer, or is it just that no none knows? I need to learn how, but it seems that no one wants to help out!


How does one recover files from a drive that has bit the dust, but not too badly. "Not too badly" as in the computer recognizes it, but there is an MBR error, and is not bootable. Any thoughts would be nice. I have a hard drive that I'm trying to learn on/with that I don't care if the files are lost or not. If nobody has the answer, then where can I find the proper resources? If anyone suggests "Norton Ghost" I'll slap them!

Hey, noprob I found some resources that might be helpfull; you use google at all?

This is what I found when searching for [MBR errors]

http://www.ntfs.com/mbr-damaged.htm

""The simplest way to repair or re-create MBR is to run Microsoft's standard utility called FDISK with a parameter /MBR, like

A:\> FDISK.EXE /MBR

FDISK is a standard utility included in MS-DOS, Windows 95, 98, ME.

If you have Windows NT / 2000 / XP, you can boot from startup floppy disks or CD-ROM, choose repair option during setup, and run Recovery Console. When you are logged on, you can run FIXMBR command to fix MBR.

Also you can use third party MBR recovery software or if you've created MBR backup, restore it from there (Active@ Partition Recovery has such capabilities).

What will happen if the first sector is bad/unreadable?

Most likely we'll get the same black screen, which we got when trying to boot. When you try to read it using Disk Viewer/Editor you should get an error message saying that sector is unreadable. In this case recovery software is unable to help you to bring HDD back to the working condition, i.e. physical partition recovery is not possible. The only thing that can be done is to scan and search for partitions (i.e. perform virtual partition recovery), and in case if something is found - display them and give the user an opportunity to save important data to another location. Third party software, like Active@ UNERASER, will help you here.""

you can also try the tidbit that F1 has listed previously http://forum.networktechs.com/showpo...42&postcount=1