[NTLUG:Discuss] how to recover windows MBR

[Dan Carlson]

You can boot the Windows 2000 "recovery console" to rewrite the MBR.  The
recovery console provides a limitted command line environment where you can
manually repair an existing Windows 2000 installation.  Once the recovery
console is running, issue the HELP command to see what other commands are
available.  The command that rewrites the MBR is FIXMBR.  There is also a
FIXBOOT command that will rewrite a partition boot record.

You can get to the recovery console in three different ways:

1. Boot a bootable Windows 2000 installation CD and respond to the boot
image prompt appropriately.

2. Boot using the four boot floppies you created when you installed Windows
2000.  You did create them, right? ;)  This takes ~ 10-15 minutes.

3. Boot from the recovery console boot configuration that you previously
installed to your hard disk via "winnt32.exe /cmdcons".  This is the
fastest method, but if you haven't already installed it, it isn't there.

You will need to specify the path to the Windows 2000 installation to
repair, and you will need the administrator password.

The recovery console is documented in the main help file accessible from
the Start menu.  Search the index for 'recovery console'.

Dan Carlson

> On Mon, 4 Jun 2001, sathish subramanian wrote:
>
>  > i installed redhat 7.1 after installing windows 2000 and lilo
>  over-wrote my windows MBR and windows wouldn;t boot up now. is there a
>  way recover from this situation? i am willing to sacrifice the linux
>  install but depserately need to get back the windows install.
> >