Repairing the Windows XP MBR

I had only one OS on my PC, the windowsXP. Now I tried to install fedora linux and due to some problems in between the installation could not be completed. But till that time the MBR was already been modified. So as the installation stopped in between I restarted the PC. But what I will say there is no operating systems found on local drive.

Is it possible to recover the windows MBR using fedora live-usb?

I had some important data in my PC. Please can anyone show me a way to recover the windowsXP mbr?

Surjya Narayana Padhi

Posted 2009-12-28T06:25:01.137

Reputation: 353

Answers

The easiest method is to pop an XP CD in your drive and boot from it. Enter the recovery console and run these commands (press Enter after each one):

fixboot
fixmbr
exit

If all went well you'll reboot into Windows. Don't forget to remove the CD!

John T

Posted 2009-12-28T06:25:01.137

Reputation: 149 037

thanks a lot for your reply.... Can you please suggest if anyway i can recover it using ubuntu linux live CD? Actually I am in need to fix it now and my XP cd got is not running due to some scratch? Any other option except XP cd also welcome.... – Surjya Narayana Padhi – 2009-12-28T12:12:32.073

I got a XP CD and it worked.. Thanks a lot... – Surjya Narayana Padhi – 2009-12-28T14:05:53.690

If John T's suggestion doesn't work out, you might give a try to this free product that specializes in boot problems:

Paragon's Rescue Kit 9.0 Express.

This boot CD fixes boot problems, rescues your data to another local drive / partition / CD/DVD, and more.

harrymc

Posted 2009-12-28T06:25:01.137

Reputation: 306 093