Master Boot Record wiped out..need help please.

[Cyberskeer]

I had a win 2k server and was trying to add a dual boot via a third party software called BootStar. Apparently I forgot to uninstall, my unsuccessful attempt at using, System Commander. After installing BootStar,it (BootStar) completely wiped out the MBR. No partitions or OS is visible or available.

I CANNOT find my Emergency Repair Disk and I have also took the hard drive out and placed it in another box as a slave drive so that I may "look" into the disk.
Without the MBR it shows up totally blank.

Okay, I can deal with the fact that the Master Boot Record is gone, but is there anyway I can still retrieve my data now that there are no signs of partitions because the Master Boot Record is gone or Is it all toast?

Thanks in Advance.

[LPMiller]

This page might help; it mentions NT, but I believe it will work for 2000...not positive though.

http://www.windowsitlibrary.com/Content/435/13/7.html

[coleslaw]

If you simply want to reformat your master boot record, you can use a start-up disk to boot into DOS and then run this command: fdisk /mbr

This will reset your MBR to the default settings without causing data loss.

[Dave_7]

Originally posted by coleslaw
If you simply want to reformat your master boot record, you can use a start-up disk to boot into DOS and then run this command: fdisk /mbr

This will reset your MBR to the default settings without causing data loss.



Wow... nice one 'slaw.





Dave.

[Crunch It Now]

you can also create a win2k bootup disk, if you have another computer or friend with a working win2k computer. just take a blank floppy and copy ntldr, ntdetect.com, and boot.ini from the root c: (may have to unhide system files to make them visible). Then edit the boot.ini on the floppy (if need be) to point to the hard drive and partition that win2k is installed on. If you boot off this floppy, you should be able to start win2k, and you can then reset the c: to be the 'active' partition from disk administrator.

[rajatQ2]

doesnt the MBR contain the partition info?

[Jeffbx]

Originally posted by rajatQ2
doesnt the MBR contain the partition info?

No, just the boot records. You can do a format /mbr on a disk without losing any data files.

[bachviet]

Originally posted by Jeffbx


No, just the boot records. You can do a format /mbr on a disk without losing any data files.
Would this work with Win98SE???