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No matter how much we trust our electronic equipment, occasionally it will break down. This could be because of age, damage, viruses, or any other reason you can think of. While it can be super frustrating to have your computer break down on you, there are some things you can do to make sure that you don’t lose important files and information that you have stored on your computer. If you have a PC then you are probably running the Windows operating system from Microsoft. Here are some tips that you can use to maintain windows system recovery.
Once you reboot computer you can try to use the system restore to bring back system files that may be important to you. This is great because it will do this without interrupting your other files that are already running (such as documents). You can also try using the “Last known good configuration” setting to try and bring up the last set of drivers and registry settings that you were using. If neither of these work then you should promptly put your computer into safe mode until you can figure out what to do to fix the problem.
One of the next things you can try in Windows recovery is to disable any devices that may be hindering the operating system. You can also restore any running system devices that may be necessary to get it working properly. The way you can do this is by going into the Device Manager and messing with the settings a little bit. Here you can either add or remove programs that will help your system to run smoother.
If things are still not working then you can try the startup repair to try to fix the damaged files and get the most out of your windows system recovery. This startup repair device is located on the Windows Installation disc. If this still doesn’t work, you may need to just reinstall Windows completely. In this case, you will probably lose all of the files you were trying to recover.
The best way to ensure that you can get a complete Windows system recovery is to make sure that you have all of your files and documents saved on an external hard drive somewhere. That way, even if your computer crashes you will still have a copy of your important data so you don’t have to go through the frustration and anxiety of completely losing it all.
The FIXMBR website has additional information that you might find useful.
When files and data are lost due to a system failure because of software issues you can quickly recover and gain access to those important files using a system recovery disk. Recovery disks are available online and most are a free. You could also make your own recovery disk from available tools and utilities using a Live Linux operating system. Also DOS could be used because there are many excellent tools and utilities available for DOS.
My favorite recovery disk uses the Slax Linux operating system. I simply remaster the disk using easy to load utility modules that contain the tools that I like to use for recovering files or operating systems. Likewise DOS has as many tools available so that you can accomplish the same tasks using DOS utilities. However the fastest recovery uses imaging tools that can perform a complete system recovery in a few minutes.
There are two imaging tools that I prefer. The first is North Ghost and the second is a free Open Source utility called Partimage. Partimage is a Linux tool that can image and restore both FAT32 and NTFS files systems. Partimage is fast and is a clone of Norton Ghost. I use Norton Ghost to daily to restore 35 computers in a high school lab. The high school students have complete admin rights to the computers so that they can complete labs that require them to change the software configuration. Each morning I am able to refresh the operating systems by restoring using and image on a DOS operating system. DOS is fast and it only takes about 10 minutes to restore all 35 computers. I can also restore computers during class if needed to provide a fresh known working configuration. This helps me keep the computers available for the students 24/7/365 with about 99.9% availability. I occasionally have a power supply or hard drive failure that takes about 5 minutes to fix.
Sometimes my students ask me why we need to learn DOS. I tell them that Windows is the problem and DOS can be a great solution.
The FIXMBR website has additional information that you might find useful.
Open Source free partitioning software programs can make life so much easier. One of the best ones that I
 GParted frequently use is GParted. GParted is a very popular Linux utility that is very similar to Symantec’s Partition Magic. You can find this utility bundled with several other computer maintenance utilities on Linux Live CDs. When you use a Live CD to boot your computer you are operating the computer from the CD and not the hard drive. This allows you to perform any operation on the hard drive. You can partition the hard drive, re-size current partitions, and also create new ones without destroying the contents of the drive. Some of the bundled utilities will allow you to correct MBRs, partition tables, and also recover deleted or lost file files. This is a must have utility for the computer tech.
I use GParted to setup computer hard drives with extended partitions that I use for storing data, files, and backup images. This allows me to quickly recover from failed, corrupted, or infected hard drives quickly. When I first install the operating system and get it configured with all my need applications, service packs, and security patches and then I create a backup image and store it on my second partition. Now when Windows decides to die, either from a virus or other corruption, I can use the image to restore the primary partition where just the Windows operating system resides. Data, files, and backups are safely stored on the extended partition. Viruses usual only target active operating systems and not data or files. By having the image on a second partition you can quickly and easily restore your computer in a few minutes. This saves huge amounts of time when you have no other recourse but reinstall the operating system.
I use this procedure to daily maintain 35 lab computers where the students have complete admin rights for performing their lab assignments. By having computer admin rights the students can completely wipe out the operating system (which they sometimes do either intentionally or unintentionally). My down time for any one computer has been less than 15 minutes for the last three years. So you can see this system works very well and only takes me about 15 minutes total to restore all 35 computers so that the students have a fresh and highly optimized computer each day.
The Fixmbr website has additional information that you might find useful.
FIXMBR Vista
Bootrec
Use the Bootrec.exe (FIXMBR Vista or 7) tool in the Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) to troubleshoot and repair the master boot record (MBR), boot sector, and the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store. Windows RE can also be used to troubleshoot startup issues. There are two options, Startup Repair and System Recovery Options. Bootrec.exe can be used to troubleshoot additional problems manually.
To run Bootrec.exe utility, you need to start Windows RE. First startup the computer with the Windows install disk. You might need to set the BIOS to boot first from the DVD/CDROM. Select Repair Your Computer and then select the operating system you want to repair. In the System Recovery Options box select Command Prompt and type bootrec.exe and press enter. You can rebuild the BCD by typing bootrec /rebuildbcd to correct startup issues. To correct a corrupted or infected MBR type bootrec.exe /FIXMBR to write a new MBR. Bootrec /fixboot will write a new boot sector to the system partition to correct a damaged boot sector or non-standard boot sector for FIXMBR Vista. If a Windows XP was installed after Vista or 7 you can use this command to restore the Windows Boot Manager by replacing Windows NT Loader (NTLDR).
Master Boot Record (MBR)
MBR is a 512 byte file located in the first sector on the hard drive. It contains partition information and boot code for starting the operating system.
Recovery Console
Recovery console is a utility that can be started from the Windows install CD. You can also install recover console. Once installed you can select it when you first startup you computer. It will be an option on a menu that is presented during the computer startup.
FIXMBR
The FIXMBR is a command used with Recovery Console with Windows XP that writes a new MBR to the first sector of a hard drive. This command is used to fix or correct a corrupted or infected MBR.
The FIXMBR website has some additional articles you might find useful.
The Fixboot is a Recovery Console command that writes a partition boot sector to a system partition that you can specify.
Boot Sectors
Boot sector is a sector on a hard drive or data storage device that contains code for booting a program stored on some other part of the storage media. The computer BIOS can be set to select any of several boot devices and then copies the first sector from the boot device to address location 0×7C00.
Different kinds of boot sectors can be encountered on computer hard disks and other storage devices. A master boot record (MBR) is the first sector of a data storage device that has been partitioned. The MBR sector contains code to locate the active partition and start its Volume Boot Record.
Volume Boot Record (VBR)
A volume boot record is the first sector of a data storage device that has not been partitioned. It contains code to load and start an operating system installed on that device or within that partition.
Valid boot sectors have a two-byte hex word 0xAA55, called the boot sector signature and must exist at the end of the sector. If the signature is not present either the BIOS or MBR code will report an error message and halt any OS startup process.
The computer BIOS does not distinguish between VBR and MBR. The firmware will only load and runs the first sector of the storage device. floppy devices or USB flash drives will use a VBR to boot. Hard drives use an MBR. The MBR has the partitioning information and will start the VBR which will load the operating system.
Boot Sector Viruses
Since the code in the boot sector is first executed automatically the boot sectors have been targets for computer viruses. As a warning computer BIOS now have included a feature to prevent writing over the boot sectors without user permission.
FIXMBR
FIXMBR is a Recovery Console command that writes a new MBR to the first sector of a hard drive. This command can be used to correct a corrupted or infected MBR. The fixboot command write the partition boot sector.
The FIXMBR website has some additional articles you might find useful.
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 MBR (master boot record) file is on the first sector, 512 bytes, of your hard drive. This file contains the hard drive partition table, boot start-up program, and a drive signature. The file resides outside the hard drive partitions on the first sector of the drive and can be repaired using fdisk mbr in DOS or fixmbr command using the Windows recovery console. It would be a good idea to backup the MBR before any changes or modifications are made. There are many MBR utilities that can be found at CNET download for backing up, editing, or making changes to the MBR. The boot start-up or sometimes referred to as the bootstrap program is used to start the operating system, which is a small machine code program that BIOS uses to start-up the operating system. The last part of the MBR files is a 32 bit drive signature that uniquely identifies the hard drive. Since the MBR file is the first file read before the operating system is loaded it has become the target of a number of viruses. Once the MBR file is infected the viruses will copy themselves into memory and control the operating system. Viruses will normally disable in virus protection and infect any files copies to another other device.
To better understand how the Fdisk program operates or the Recovery Console you can find those posts here at this site under the Categories.
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.
The FIXMBR is one of several Windows Recovery Console commands. After you select the operating system and logon you can type FIXMBR at the prompt and the MBR (master boot record) is rebuilt and replaced with a new MBR file. This can usually correct some of the startup problems with a corrupted or infected MBR record. Since the MBR record is the first 512 bytes read on the boot hard drive it is also a target for many viruses. If the MBR gets infected the virus can move into memory and control all other boot processes and disable any anti-virus programs. Most anti-virus programs like AVG will detect and stop viruses, but if you boot the computer to an infect device, such as, a floppy or CD, it can infect the MBR. Just rebooting the computer to Recovery Console and using FIXMBR will remove the virus and correct the problem. One WARNING that should be mentioned is that dual boot systems where you have more than one bootable operating system on a hard drive can be affected so that you lose the ability to boot the alternate operating system. You might want to backup the MBR record first just so you can restore it if needed. I also have a FIXMBR YouTube video you might find helpful.
FIXMBR
The FIXMBR website has some additional articles you might find useful.
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