MBR Error 3, Blue screen and possible solutions
Hello,
I cannot start-up my computer. Windows fails on loading and reverts to the blue screen. I cannot even load Windows in safe mode. I noticed that I am receiving the MBR Error 3 at boot-up. I am not sure if the MBR Error 3 is a cause or effect of Windows not loading. It may have been there before and I did not notice it. My computer had been working fine until it seemed to freeze. I attempted a hard shutdown and restart (this has worked in the past) with the above results.
I am using Windows XP. I am not sure if I have a Recovery Console or not since my original installation of Windows XP was through an Windows XP upgrade CD.
I am using Acronis True Image 2009. I am not using ASZ. I have a TI boot or recovery disk and a recent TI image on an external hard drive.
How do I proceed? Any hints on how I can recover programs and data would be appreciated.
Thanks
Yes Windows does start to boot and fail.
I am a neophyte at this. How do I "restore my last working disk and partition backup"? What is the the "last working disk"?
Thanks
Try using procedure 3 at the link below. If 3 does not succeed, then use method 2--assuming that your backups is a complete backup of the entire contents of the system disk.
Hi,
Finally, I was able to startup from the Windows installation CD. I did this several times. I did a chkdsk which found a few errors. Don't know what they are or how to fix them. Did a full virus scan, found a few problems in applications that I would have thought had nothing to do with my problem and then I was able to successfully start from the hard drive. So problem solved or just masked? I do not know.
I have a few questions though that I would appreciate input on:
1. The first time I started from the installation CD I got the prompt for the Windows Recovery Console as expected. However every time after that, I did not receive a prompt. It was as if it was starting from the HDD. But I know it was starting from the CD since I could hear it running. Why didn't I get the prompt every time?
2. I did not fix the MBR error using fixmbr because of the ominous warning that if there is a virus or hardware problem it may make partitions inaccessible. So I am still getting the error on start-up. Should I fix this? Is this going to risk making things worse?
3. Also I do not have TI Start-up recovery manager enabled (my bad). I was about to do this until I read that it change the MBR... which already has problems. Should I go ahead anyway?
Appreciate the help and feedback.
1. If the computer boots normally without the CD inside, I wouldn't worry about this,
2. If you have an Acronis backup of your partitions, you can go ahead and use bootrec /fixmbr
3. I wouldn't use the ASRM. IMO it provides just a little bit of convenience compared with the bootable CD, but it won't help you at all when your disk dies. Remember to produce your recovery CD, boot your computer on it and restore a couple of files from your backup to have a higheer level of confidence you can actually restore on a new disk.