Western Digital hard drive boot sector messed up, how to make drive bootable again?!!

May 24th, 2003

Well, earlier i was shutting down my computer, and while it was shutting down (windows xp) the power flickered. When i tried to boot the computer backup it said NTLDR not found.. And i tried recovering the OS using the win xp cd, that would not work. The drive is a 40gig WD caviar. I dont care about the data on the drive because i already used a program called "GetDataBack" to get all my data off the drive. So, i put the hard drive in my other computer and then tried to format it in windows 2000, but at the last second, after formatting it said that it was unable to complete the format. Partition magic 8 said the partition was "Bad". Partition magic would not format it either, it said something like "Bad argument/parameter" or something. So i used Fdisk off a 98se boot disk and formated the drive. Now i can put stuff on the drive and it works fine. The problem is that i cannot install an OS on it, i try to load 2000 or xp and after the first reboot (after it has copied the files to the HD) the computer restarts and then it tries to boot off the HD and continue setup, but it says NTLDR not found still. So my guess is that somehow the boot sector got messed up. Is there anyway i can get this drive where i can install an OS on it again? What programs will fix this?? And no, i did not use the WD Data Life Guard tools to install the drive so i do not have a backup of Track 0 and the boot sector. Please help! I need this drive to be bootable!!
- Mike

**PseudoKiller** · May 24th, 2003

Have you tried to boot to a bootdisk and at the prompt type fdisk /mbr I am not sure this will work but it might be worth a shot.
I use to get rid of Lilo when I get rid of linux and I have used it on a dual boot system with no problems...

**Taurus** · May 25th, 2003

a wipe (all 0's) would probably take care of it. wd should have a program for that. if not, maxtor and ibm do.

May 25th, 2003

Ok, i got it fixed. What i did was use a program called MBRtool.exe to whipe the MBR completely. After that i repartitioned it and it works like a charm! thanks!
- Mike

May 25th, 2003

Got a link to that MBRtool.exe?

May 25th, 2003

Originally posted by kitct
Got a link to that MBRtool.exe?

Yeah, here ya go man http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/~tkuurstra/mbrtool.htm
- Mike

May 25th, 2003

Thanks PG!

May 25th, 2003

so no ones heard of the recovery console on xp disk oh well!

May 25th, 2003

Originally posted by XP Abuser
so no ones heard of the recovery console on xp disk oh well!

That doesnt work if you wanna fix a hard drive that you have already erased XP off of

thats the point of the MBRTool.. so you can fix ANY hard drive with a messed up boot sector

- Mike

May 25th, 2003

yeh if its pre installed but if you have the golden disk just boot from it and select repair windows by typing R

May 24th, 2003	Top \| #1
ThePunkerGuy Unregistered Posts: n/a	Western Digital hard drive boot sector messed up, how to make drive bootable again?!! Well, earlier i was shutting down my computer, and while it was shutting down (windows xp) the power flickered. When i tried to boot the computer backup it said NTLDR not found.. And i tried recovering the OS using the win xp cd, that would not work. The drive is a 40gig WD caviar. I dont care about the data on the drive because i already used a program called "GetDataBack" to get all my data off the drive. So, i put the hard drive in my other computer and then tried to format it in windows 2000, but at the last second, after formatting it said that it was unable to complete the format. Partition magic 8 said the partition was "Bad". Partition magic would not format it either, it said something like "Bad argument/parameter" or something. So i used Fdisk off a 98se boot disk and formated the drive. Now i can put stuff on the drive and it works fine. The problem is that i cannot install an OS on it, i try to load 2000 or xp and after the first reboot (after it has copied the files to the HD) the computer restarts and then it tries to boot off the HD and continue setup, but it says NTLDR not found still. So my guess is that somehow the boot sector got messed up. Is there anyway i can get this drive where i can install an OS on it again? What programs will fix this?? And no, i did not use the WD Data Life Guard tools to install the drive so i do not have a backup of Track 0 and the boot sector. Please help! I need this drive to be bootable!! - Mike

May 24th, 2003	Top \| #2
PseudoKiller Zug Zug Joined: April 2002 Location: Ice Crown Citadel Posts: 3,858 Reputation: 490 Power: 162	Have you tried to boot to a bootdisk and at the prompt type fdisk /mbr I am not sure this will work but it might be worth a shot. I use to get rid of Lilo when I get rid of linux and I have used it on a dual boot system with no problems... )\|( I reject your reality and substitute my own )\|(

May 25th, 2003	Top \| #6
ThePunkerGuy Unregistered Posts: n/a	Originally posted by kitct Got a link to that MBRtool.exe? Yeah, here ya go man http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/~tkuurstra/mbrtool.htm - Mike

May 25th, 2003	Top \| #9
ThePunkerGuy Unregistered Posts: n/a	Originally posted by XP Abuser so no ones heard of the recovery console on xp disk oh well! That doesnt work if you wanna fix a hard drive that you have already erased XP off of thats the point of the MBRTool.. so you can fix ANY hard drive with a messed up boot sector - Mike

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May 25th, 2003	Top \| #3
Taurus hardware monkey Joined: May 2002 Location: Sacramento, CA Posts: 3,206 Reputation: 90 Power: 151	a wipe (all 0's) would probably take care of it. wd should have a program for that. if not, maxtor and ibm do.

May 25th, 2003	Top \| #4
ThePunkerGuy Unregistered Posts: n/a	Ok, i got it fixed. What i did was use a program called MBRtool.exe to whipe the MBR completely. After that i repartitioned it and it works like a charm! thanks! - Mike

May 25th, 2003	Top \| #5
kitct Unregistered Posts: n/a	Got a link to that MBRtool.exe?

May 25th, 2003	Top \| #7
kitct Unregistered Posts: n/a	Thanks PG!

May 25th, 2003	Top \| #8
XP Abuser Unregistered Posts: n/a	so no ones heard of the recovery console on xp disk oh well!

May 25th, 2003	Top \| #10
XP Abuser Unregistered Posts: n/a	yeh if its pre installed but if you have the golden disk just boot from it and select repair windows by typing R