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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : W10 MBR Problem
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Chopperp Guru Joined: 03/01/2018 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1028 |
Hi, My main PC played silly buggers trying to boot this arvo. HDD LED stuck on. Went into the BIOS & noted that another drive was in the boot list, not C (disk 0). Changed to C & got the message that OS not found or something similar. After a lot of ginning around, I found that the MBR (Master Boot Record) was actually on my E drive (disk 1) & not the C drive so I actually needed both drives connected to boot up. I had downloaded the latest W10 ISO & got nowhere in trying repairing the PC using the repair options from the disk & following stuff off the NET. My conclusion is that I will probably have to reformat the C drive & re-install W10 & all my programs. (with no other drives connected). If I do nothing about it & E drive crashes, I won't be able to boot up. Bugger!!!! It is behaving itself again with all disks connected but doesn't boot with E disconnected. Brian ChopperP |
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Atomizer_Zero Senior Member Joined: 04/07/2020 Location: United KingdomPosts: 134 |
You should be able to install windows 10 over the top of the current windows 10 on the drive. It'll put your current win10 into a folder on the c drive. It *SHOULD* retain all settings and installed programs and such.. Also theres a linux boot image you can get that will let you rebuild the MBR. I can't remember what its called right now though.. |
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MikoKisai Newbie Joined: 10/07/2020 Location: GermanyPosts: 6 |
Assuming that Windows itself actually is on the C drive, you should be able to create a new boot partition and recover that way without a full reinstall. See e.g. this post on Microsofts forums on how to install a new boot partition. You might have to shrink the existing partition first to fit it on the drive - the boot partition should generally be something like 100-200MB. I don't remember if Windows lets you do that from the recovery environment, but otherwise you can use a different recovery environment like SystemRescueCD to shrink it and then install the bootloader afterwards. |
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HellbentHorse Regular Member Joined: 08/07/2020 Location: AustraliaPosts: 55 |
I have used this method a few times and it has sorted out broken W10 machines. Fix the MBR in Windows 10 Edited 2020-08-12 08:37 by HellbentHorse |
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Chopperp Guru Joined: 03/01/2018 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1028 |
Thanks for the replies guys. I just have the normal MBR & no EFI (as far as I know). The Fix MBR guide was one of the things I did (several times) without success. "Element not found" message or something similar. I seem to remember ages ago playing with MBR's & to change it, it meant reformatting the drive but I could be wrong. PC booted OK this morning. May use the problem as an excuse to update the SSD & put the old one into a sluggish laptop. More playing Now comes up with BOOTMGR missing. Followed some instructions using DISKPART on the recovery disk but would not accept the SET ID=...... command Still booting up OK with all disks connected. TBC Brian ChopperP |
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Chopperp Guru Joined: 03/01/2018 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1028 |
FYI Finally got around to fixing this problem. Getting worse. Was at time having to get into the BIOS & resave it before it would boot up. Got a new SSD for it (500GB) & re-installed W10 on that being sure to disconnect all other drives beforehand. The fun part was going through all my programs to find out all the install details, Files & passwords etc. I got most of them I think. Ccleaner was a help in getting an installed list for a start. Now slowly going through deleating MS crap & reinstalling some of my programs programs. The only major problem I've had so far is that MS wouldn't accept my password. Had to update it, & I can't map one of my laptops yet. Boot up time seems OK for a fairly old 3MHz Quad Core. Brian ChopperP |
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Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9029 |
Now that you have everything working, download Macrium Reflect, and make an image of your new SSD, that way, if something goes horribly wrong again, you can re-image your SSD using the image file and another computer with Macrium Reflect on it, then you don't have to re-install W10, activate, install all the drivers, install all your programs, copy all your data from the backups etc.... Makes life much less stressful if you have to do a full system restore. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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Chopperp Guru Joined: 03/01/2018 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1028 |
Thanks Grogs. Downloaded & installed Reflect. Will wait for a bit before using it to make sure all is OK. Brian ChopperP |
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Paul_L Guru Joined: 03/03/2016 Location: United StatesPosts: 769 |
@Brian ... I've been using Macrium for over a decade. It actually works. I've had to restore the full disk a few times thanks to Microsoft breaking older drivers with their updates. Other image software, including microsoft's, would not restore the disk. Make sure you create a boot disk or thumb drive, and test it. Paul in NY |
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Womble Senior Member Joined: 09/07/2020 Location: United KingdomPosts: 267 |
@Paul_L ... I can second that ++ Another option which works is to use the "Boot Menu": I used to use Acronis (for Win7 and earlier) but Macrium is now my goto imaging software. |
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Chopperp Guru Joined: 03/01/2018 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1028 |
Thanks guys (Paul & Womble & Grogs of course) Looks interesting. Will follow up on the suggestions. Had a bit of trouble with my 2TB D: drive. Did one disk repair. Windows Explorer having a slow time with it periodically. Got everything off it & reformatted it. I tried a old version (V6) of GPARTED.ISO but obviously didn't like the 2TB size as it wouldn't recogise the 2TB drive. OK on 500GB. Had to download & burn the lastest ISO file which had to be on a CDR & not a DVD. (I do have one of those units). Worked OK. I also now have my drives in order of the SATA ports which I don't know why I didn't do the last time I was playing with the PC. They now come up in the proper order in Disk manager etc. Slowly putting things back on the D drive as well as reinstalling programs on C. I certainly have built up / downloaded a whole lot of crap, I mean stuff since my last rebuild. I should look at the E drive with GPARTED to see if there is a boot partition on it. I only had D drive connected when I ran GPARTED in earnest. Brian ChopperP |
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Chopperp Guru Joined: 03/01/2018 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1028 |
Update: All now appears OK. E drive was listed as a boot drive. Now a normal partion & the intermittent problem with the D drive turned out to be a power lead adaptor. Working OK since being replaced. Now to continue on with sorting out all the crap I have scattered across the various drives. Brian ChopperP |
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Paul_L Guru Joined: 03/03/2016 Location: United StatesPosts: 769 |
Brian ... Get yourself multiple pairs of suspenders (braces??) to add to your belt. I use an external USB drive for all backups and I disconnect it except when I'm updating the backup data. I've never seen any malware that can mess with a disconnected drive! Make frequent Macrium image backups of the C drive. Run ROBOCOPY from a batch file to copy ALL changed files on C to your backup drive every day. Run Belarc Advisor, MSifo32.exe (part of Windows), Produkey and LookInMyPC after every major update or program addition. Save any information they produce on your backup drive. You'll have a whole lot of data about software keys, and installed gadgets which will help enormously if you ever have to rebuild the whole mess again. Paul in NY |
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Chopperp Guru Joined: 03/01/2018 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1028 |
Hi Paul, thanks for the tips. I do have a couple of USB drives which I do use for backups, but are not always disconnected. I haven't used ROBOCOPY for years. Must have another look at it. Still sorting stuff out. I've found I have backed up lots of rubbish at times. Have a good holiday season (or whatever the politically correct term is for this time at the end of the year) Brian ChopperP |
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Paul_L Guru Joined: 03/03/2016 Location: United StatesPosts: 769 |
Hi Brian, Storage is so cheap today you should not worry about backing up rubbish. Amazon is currently advertising a 4TB USB 3.0 Elements drive for $94.99. ROBOCOPY will take hours to fill it. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=4+tb+usb+external+hard+drive&crid=3SY2KRDZTUXOC&sprefix=4+tb+usb+%2Caps%2C478&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-a-p_3_9 Paul in NY. |
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Chopperp Guru Joined: 03/01/2018 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1028 |
Thanks Paul Not a bad price (AU$146). Just purchased & paid almost as much as a normal 4TB HDD to replace the one I though was faulty. Only money. Re Rubbish. Should do some house keeping at least once in awhile Keep safe Brian ChopperP |
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lizby Guru Joined: 17/05/2016 Location: United StatesPosts: 2989 |
If I did that I wouldn't have been able to find the C code linked list sort and binary search that I wrote in 1987 and recently found a need for. Reconstructing it would have been hard for me at this point. PicoMite, Armmite F4, SensorKits, MMBasic Hardware, Games, etc. on fruitoftheshed |
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Paul_L Guru Joined: 03/03/2016 Location: United StatesPosts: 769 |
Rubbish is all that stuff Windoze does on the system drive. I can run CCleaner and five minutes later it will find a couple dozen brand new junk files. I NEVER SAVE ANY OF MY DATA ON C:. I have a separate mechanical drive where I keep my stuff. I lost the priceless C source code for Clipper Summer 86 decades ago when I had a nearly simultaneous failure of two drives. That was a good six months of intensive work gone in a flash. I will not let that happen again. Paul in NY |
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Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9029 |
I'm building a NAS for a buddy of mine(Linux, naturally!) and he wanted 2x 4TB, and they are only NZ$218 or so in our money at the moment. Amazing value when you consider that the first new HDD I purchased as a twenty-something back in the 1990's, was a Seagate series-5 5400RPM, 20GB capacity and cost about $250 at the time. I have a special NAS box that is dedicate ONLY to system images, but a good external USB3 HDD also works well as Paul has indicated. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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Paul_L Guru Joined: 03/03/2016 Location: United StatesPosts: 769 |
@Grogster ... forget Linux. Most modern routers have built in Samba server functionality. Just plug in a USB 3.0 drive and go. The WiFi link will slow it down a lot. It works pretty well when you connect to the router using Ethernet wiring. I have a 1.828 GB copy of the movie "Fiddler On The Roof". As a test I just copied it to the Samba drive using 5 GHz WiFi in 1:35. Then I copied it again using Ethernet in 0:19. It makes a big difference when you are replicating an entire internal drive using RoboCopy. Paul in NY |
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