"Gwen Morse" <goldmooneachna.DeleteThis@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:pijeg3llur2sjkqc7uut4b6g9vmqlo0ubv@4ax.com...
>I have a Seagate Barracuda 7200 250 GB SATA drive. It appears to have
> a bad MBR. Why I think it has a bad MBR: It has Windows XP on it. It
> will not boot into windows. Instead, it gives the error message: DISK
> BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER
>
> If I put in a different physical hard drive (older, IDE, also with
> Windows XP on it), I can browse the SATA drive if it's also plugged
> in. I can run programs off of it. Etc. The only thing I _can't_ do is
> boot from it.
>
> My ultimate goal is to restore it to being a functional primary drive
> on my PC. If I have to, I can clone it to another, blank 250 gig SATA
> drive (Although that won't fix the issue with it not booting). But, I
> want to end up with one 250 gig SATA drive (that boots into Windows)
> in my PC. After that works, I want to go back to having two SATA
> drives that mirror each other (the reason I have two 250 gig drives).
>
> Any suggestions on getting the drive working?
>
> Gwen
Hi,
I've run into this same difficulty a number of times. There are a
couple of things to consider before jumping off the diving board before you
attempt a fix. First, since you do have access to the SATA drive back up all
your data. If you have Acronis True Image then by all means make an image of
the drive onto the system drive that you currently have booting if you have
enough room, or onto an external USB drive. If you don't have Acronis you
can download it and use it free for 15 days. It is a magnificent backup
program.
That said before even thinking of doing a Repair Installation of XP
verify that there is not a physical problem with the SATA drive by
downloading Seagate's diagnostic utility and then run it. It is not even
worth reinstalling Windows if you have a physical defect in the hdd. If the
drive verifies as being OK then it's worth trying a repair installation of
XP.
You do that with the XP installation disk. Make sure you have set the
bios to start with the CD-ROM drive and then start the installation. If you
get the screen that asks if you want to repair with the recovery consule
don't choose it and continue with going to install Windows. Hopefully the
next screen will give you the option to do a Repair install of Windows. If
you don't get the screen then it is most probable that you will have to do a
clean install of the OS.
I should mention that I have attempted repair installations using
recovery consule probably three times. None of them worked, although the
last time was the very best adjustment as it allowed me to restart the
computer with the XP installation disk and the Repair Windows installation
screen did come up to allow Windows to recover 'almost' nicely. Strange
things were still happening and I finally did a clean install of the OS.
There are numerous articles that you can find on the web for step by step
procedures to do a repair install of windows and with recovery consule (if
you happen to be in the experimenter's mood. Heck, you might even get the
perfect repair using that method and it sure is exciting if you enjoy using
a DOS-like atmosphere).
--
Jan Alter
bearpuf.DeleteThis@verizon.net
or
jalter.DeleteThis@phila.k12.pa.us
>> Stay informed about: Bad SATA drive 
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