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From: jw on 9 Jan 2010 10:02
On Sat, 09 Jan 2010 06:59:31 -0500, Bryce <none(a)invalid.invalid>
wrote:
>
>You could buy a used MBR on EBay and install that. If you
>share a little more about the problem, somebody might have a
>better idea. What operating system? I'm gonna guess that
>this happened during boot. Does the computer still boot
>sometimes? Do you have a recent backup?

XP.

I pulled it from a broken machine, which would not boot.
I mounted it as a second drive in my XP machine to look at it.
It had two partitions in 80GB.
I re-formatted both using xp's 'format'.
I re-mounted it as c drive in my XP machine (removed original).
When I tried to install XP on it, it gave me the bad mbr message.
So here I sit, stimied.

Thanks
Duke
From: Bryce on 9 Jan 2010 10:24
jw(a)eldorado.com wrote:

> On Sat, 09 Jan 2010 06:59:31 -0500, Bryce
> <none(a)invalid.invalid> wrote:
>>
>>You could buy a used MBR on EBay and install that. If you
>>share a little more about the problem, somebody might have
>>a
>>better idea. What operating system? I'm gonna guess that
>>this happened during boot. Does the computer still boot
>>sometimes? Do you have a recent backup?
>
> XP.
>
> I pulled it from a broken machine, which would not boot.
> I mounted it as a second drive in my XP machine to look at
> it. It had two partitions in 80GB.
> I re-formatted both using xp's 'format'.
> I re-mounted it as c drive in my XP machine (removed
> original). When I tried to install XP on it, it gave me
> the bad mbr message. So here I sit, stimied.
>
> Thanks
> Duke

Format just fiddles with the existing partitions, which are
described in the partition table that's part of the dreaded
MBR. The boot record is not altered by format.

Since there's nothing to save on the disk, why don't you use
the manufacturer's utility to write nulls to the whole disk.
That will zero out the entire mbr and leave a like-new disk
for your windows install.

Bryce

From: VanguardLH on 9 Jan 2010 13:34
jw(a)eldorado.com wrote:

> On Sat, 09 Jan 2010 06:59:31 -0500, Bryce <none(a)invalid.invalid>
> wrote:
>>
>>You could buy a used MBR on EBay and install that. If you
>>share a little more about the problem, somebody might have a
>>better idea. What operating system? I'm gonna guess that
>>this happened during boot. Does the computer still boot
>>sometimes? Do you have a recent backup?
>
> XP.
>
> I pulled it from a broken machine, which would not boot.
> I mounted it as a second drive in my XP machine to look at it.
> It had two partitions in 80GB.
> I re-formatted both using xp's 'format'.
> I re-mounted it as c drive in my XP machine (removed original).
> When I tried to install XP on it, it gave me the bad mbr message.
> So here I sit, stimied.
>
> Thanks
> Duke

Since you formatted both partitions, why not delete both partitions and
create just one (or recreate the two of them at whatever sizes you want)?
The setup program for Windows XP should let you delete and [re]create
partitions, and then format them. The install of Windows XP will step on
the bootstrap area of the MBR. The only parts left are the partition tables
and the disk signature.
From: jw on 9 Jan 2010 13:43
On Sat, 9 Jan 2010 12:34:36 -0600, VanguardLH <V(a)nguard.LH> wrote:


>Since you formatted both partitions, why not delete both partitions and
>create just one (or recreate the two of them at whatever sizes you want)?
>The setup program for Windows XP should let you delete and [re]create
>partitions, and then format them. The install of Windows XP will step on
>the bootstrap area of the MBR. The only parts left are the partition tables
>and the disk signature.


You are a mind reader. I did just that using PQ Magic. Seemed to
work. I formatted the large partition, but now the installation hangs
up halfway through the beginning loads.

Duke
From: VanguardLH on 9 Jan 2010 16:35
jw(a)eldorado.com wrote:

> On Sat, 9 Jan 2010 12:34:36 -0600, VanguardLH <V(a)nguard.LH> wrote:
>
>>Since you formatted both partitions, why not delete both partitions and
>>create just one (or recreate the two of them at whatever sizes you want)?
>>The setup program for Windows XP should let you delete and [re]create
>>partitions, and then format them. The install of Windows XP will step on
>>the bootstrap area of the MBR. The only parts left are the partition tables
>>and the disk signature.
>
> You are a mind reader. I did just that using PQ Magic. Seemed to
> work. I formatted the large partition, but now the installation hangs
> up halfway through the beginning loads.
>
> Duke

Bad install CD. Bad hard disk.

The format didn't hang but the install did. So create a c:\tmpinst folder
and see if you can copy all the files from the install CD into that temp
folder on the hard disk. If so, run the install from there. If that works,
you have a flaky install CD (or a CD drive that might need replacing). You
could get the hard disk manufacturer's diagnostic utility and run it against
the hard disk to see if it found a problem with that device.
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