Corrupted MBR

Question

Windows 7 Ultimate, 32bit

Added 2nd drive and created another partition on the boot disk which matched it, setup Raid1 mirror OK on D:\ and sync'd. Then shutdown, now no MBR.

CD boot recovery, shows 2 installs. First is unknown disk, autorepair fails. Second is C:, autorepair finds no errors.

bootrec /FixMbr works

bootrec /FixBoot gets 'Unrecognised Filesystem'

bootrec /RebuildBcd gets 'Windows installs =0'

bootsect /nt60 SYS /mbr works: for E: 'Successfully updated NTFS filesystem bootcode'

                                          for \Dev\Harddisk0\DR0 'Successfully updated disk bootcode'

Diskpart shows all healthy, and matching up sizes I have C on Volume1 Partition 4, E on Volume 0 Partition 2, D mirror

Answer 1

Managed to do a destructive re-install with a Shift/F10 and 'Clean'. The end.

Answer 2

Hi,

How to setup a RAID system

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/How-to-Setup-a-RAID-System/393/1

How to Create a Software RAID Array in Windows 7

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/36504/how-to-create-a-software-raid-array-in-windows-7/

RAID1 Mirroring with Windows 7

http://buildegg.com/bewp/?p=44

RAID on the Cheap: Windows 7 Software RAID vs. inexpensive “fake RAID”

http://kmwoley.com/blog/?p=429

Check with the Experts at TechNet who use RAID on a much more frequent basis.

TechNet - Windows 7 IT Pro

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/category/w7itpro

TechNet - Forums

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/categories/

TechNet - Where is the Forum For…?

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/whatforum/threads

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RAID often causes more issues than it solves. Especially for software RAID which is included on some motherboards and Windows 7.

RAID

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID

Today there are 3 "General Types" of RAID

Software, Hybrid (some hardware with software checks), and Hardware.

Personally I think the Software and Hybrid are a waste of time and misleading when claims of reliability are usually made. In most cases an effective backup plan is better than these. All too often the RAID software and/or Hybrid model actually cause a failure. Or what is supposed to protect the system in drive crashes and failures ends up being the cause of them. Hardware RAID is by far the best.

Hardware RAID

http://www.bestpricecomputers.co.uk/glossary/raid-controller.htm

Hardware RAID is a physical hard drive controller that provides the drive interactions needed to perform a reliable redundant array.

Intel RAID controllers

http://www.intel.com/products/server/raid/index.htm

Adaptec RAID controllers

http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/products/

Many low cost add-in hardware RAID controllers are really a Hybrid where some of the action is done by the hardware card and the rest (and often most important functions) are performed by the CPU of the system using software RAID.

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Why RAID is (usually) a Terrible Idea

http://www.pugetsystems.com/articles?&id=29

Hope this helps.

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Rob Brown - Microsoft MVP <- profile - Windows Experience : Bicycle - Mark Twain said it right.

Answer 3

Did all that, धन्यवाद

First time through it found two installs, which may have arisen from some Windows bug after the mirror setup. Neither were working though.

Killed off one, on the E: drive. Now it finds none, and won't rebuild MBR.

The good thing about Android, is that if ever I brick one after root, then it takes up less landfill than this PC will.

Answer 4

Hi Luke,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community.

Try this to fix your damaged boot environment:

1. Set your BIOS to use the DVD drive as the primary boot device.
2. Boot with your Windows 7 installation DVD or the Windows Repair CD.
3. Press a key when the message indicating "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD …" appears.
4. Select a language, a time and currency, and a keyboard or input method, and then click Next.
5. Click Repair your computer.
6. In the System Recovery Options dialog box, choose the drive of your Windows installation and click Next.
7. In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Startup Repair.

I suggest you to refer to the below Microsoft article and check if it helps.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/927392

Hope this helps. Please reply to us with the status of the issue.

Thanks.

Answer 5

Total veg now. Deleted volume 0 with E: on it and now CD boot finds no installs.

bootrec /Fixboot gets 'Element not found'

bootsect /nt60 all /force worked and now C: is volume 0

bootrec /scanos finds 1 install

But still total veg.

Oh joy.