No MBR on Startup

[DROONE14]

Ok, so the problem i have is very complex and looking on the net i found nothing else that was the same, some were similar but had a few diffrent things so its led me here.

I have a dual boot system and used easyBCD to manage this however when trying to format the partion that had windows 7 on it i managed to muck up my startup and now i have no option to choose my OS so i have been trying to muck about with it and get it working. I tried formatting both partitions and i am able to start my OS CD and it goes fine untill the point where it has to restart . . because i have no MBR the installation cant continue and im left not being able to finish my new installation.

I am pressuming it is my MBR that is defunked and i need to repair this in order to complete the installation?

any help on this will be brilliant.

Thank You,

Dean

[Alan2273]

http://www.ehow.com/how_4836283_repair-mbr-windows.html

[DROONE14]

The problem i am facing now is when i am in the CMD program when i switch to my CD drive which is the X:>

instead of getting a simple

X:> then i can navigate to the required bootsect folder i infact get

X:\Sources>

am i doing something completely wrong or stupid?

Thanks, Dean

[Alan2273]

Correct me if I am wrong, but are you running the CMD line from within Windows, if so you will not be able to repair the MBR.

You need to boot from the W7 DVD to repair the MBR.

[DROONE14]

right to be honest i dont think i am describing the problem the best way i could so i am gonna start again in the hope that someone will have a better understanding and be able to give me some advice.

1. Firstly my computer had a vista on one partition and a windows 7 on the other
   
2. i got rid of the windows 7 installation by formatting and tried to merge both partitions together
   
3. somehow during the process i managed to delete/loose my MBR and was getting a message "DISK READ ERROR press ctrl + alt + del"
   
4. so i decided ohhh well thats that gone i will install a new copy of vista and start over
   
5. everything went fine . . until . .the installation needs to restart and upon a restart after it sayin press any key to boot from DVD i left it as i normally do and then the message appeared "DISK READ ERROR press ctrl + alt + del" again so i am left without an installation being able to complete
   
6. so i read up and have tried numerous things. When i enter the repair vista i get like 7 different installations that havent completed which are only on 2 partitions.
   
7. i have tried such things as bootrec.exe /FixMbr and /FixBoot it comes up saying successful but upon reboot it gives me the same error message.
   

i am really unsure as to where to go from here. If anyone can give me further advice it will be much appreciated.

Thank You, Dean

[Alan2273]

Now I understand.

Use the UBCD disk to wipe the drive, (Hard Disk Tools > Wiping Tools > Darik's Boot And Nuke), after you have used that tool, use Parted Magic, (which is also on the UBCD), to partition and format the hard drive, then insert your Vista disk and away you go.Download the latest version, V5.0.3, from here.
/>http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html

[DROONE14]

Now I understand.

Use the UBCD disk to wipe the drive, (Hard Disk Tools > Wiping Tools > Darik's Boot And Nuke), after you have used that tool, use Parted Magic, (which is also on the UBCD), to partition and format the hard drive, then insert your Vista disk and away you go.Download the latest version, V5.0.3, from here.
/>http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html

Okay Alan, thanks for your help gonna download it now and i will try that once i am home, will let you know i get on. cheers

[DROONE14]

Alan will this boot up when i insert on start-up?

just that i cannot access any of my Operating Systems, the MBR isnt appearing so i cannot acces anything. thank you dean.

[savage24x]

i didnt open the link, but fixmbr worked for me when i wiped a partition. I booted with a live copy of ubuntu and installed the necessary tool and ran the command "fixmbr"

[DROONE14]

Thank You very much Alan, worked a treat. Very handy piece of kit the UBCD that i wasnt aware of.

Again Thank you.

Dean

[bludgard]

+1

Maybe a UBCD tut of some kind?

It is a very handy piece of software.I recovered a working system image from a thrice formatted external partition with the recovery tool TestDisk which is included on UBCD.I was impressed by this.

[Alan2273]

Thank You very much Alan, worked a treat. Very handy piece of kit the UBCD that i wasnt aware of. Again Thank you.Dean

Glad you are all sorted now.

[Boris]

Maybe a UBCD tut of some kind?

Some info. - http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/tutorials.html

[bludgard]

Maybe a UBCD tut of some kind?

Some info. - http://www.ultimateb.../tutorials.html

I looked it over.Very limited and generic for a tutorial.Unless I missed something-as usual-I found nothing helpful.

I'm sure that we can all use the search engine of our choice to dig up the howtos and wheretofors.;)

Thanks Boris.