The FIXMBR XP is a Windows XP recovery console command for fixing the MBR file. The MBR file is the first sector, 512 bytes, on the hard drive and is therefore subject to virus infection and other problems. The MBR contains hard drive partition information, boot record pointer information, and information for boot strapping the operating system. The Fdisk DOS utility will do the same thing in the DOS that FIXMBR does in Windows Recovery Console.
The Windows Recovery Console can be started by booting the computer using the Windows install CD to run FIXMBR XP. If your computer didn’t come with a Windows install CD. You can make one using nLite and the i386 folder on your computer. nLite is a great free utility that can be used for creating custom Windows install CDs that are fully automated and setup to include all drivers, service packs, security patches, and other important tweaks and files you might need. You can also use nLite remove keyboards, languages, and other files to lighten the size of the Windows install disk and provide a faster install.
The following is a YouTube video on FIXMBR XP that you might find useful.
FIXMBR
The FIXMBR website has some additional articles you might find useful.
The Fdisk MBR switch is an undocumented switch that can be used with DOS fdisk to replace or repair the MBR file. This can be done if the MBR file becomes corrupted or infected. WARNING if you have a multi-boot drive you could end up loosing access to one or all of your operating systems. It would be a good idea to backup the MBR or drive before you run Fdisk /MBR. I use to have a lab where the computer and students all got infected with the NYB virus which attaches itself to the MBR files and then infects any drive that reads or writes files from the hard drive. To correct the problem and get rid of the virus we would boot the computers from a clean DOS floppy or CD and run fdisk /mbr and this would correct the problem. Once the student floppies or flash drives got infected the virus would migrate rapidly throughout the lab. I wasn’t until we put on a good anti-virus program that we were able to clean and rid ourselves of the problem. The fdisk mbr switch has helped in the past but good anti-virus software is a better long term fix.
FIXMBR
The FIXMBR website has some additional articles you might find useful.
The Fdisk is a DOS command available when you boot your computer to DOS and type in fdisk at the command prompt. Using fdisk you can partition a hard drive and set active the boot partition. You are limited to only one primary partition using the DOS fdisk command and four partitions. This is because DOS will destroy itself if it sees more than one primary partition. Microsoft therefore limited fdisk to creating only one primary partition. However you can create an extended partition and within the extended partition create multiple logical drives. I have created some more resources for running the fdisk command and creating partitions. You can view some additional Fdisk resources at the following sites: Fdisk YouTube video and Fdisk article document.
Another good utility for partitioning a hard drive is GParted a free Open Source utility that runs on Linux. I like to run GParted from a Live CD Linux distribution using Insert. This allows me to have complete control over the computer by running my operating system from just the CDROM and allowing me access to the hard drive. You could also use Insert to recover files on a non functioning hard drive. Insert then becomes a valuable recovery tool and maintenance tool. For more information concerning GParted I have a GParted HuPage that you can view.
FIXMBR
The FIXMBR website has some additional articles you might find useful.
