Will restore MBR damage partition?

[Rock]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

Hi,

I have XP and in Explore all info has dissappeared from the first
partiotion of a drive and it asks to format it.

In Computer Mgmt is says it is healthy but lists no FAT or NTFS.

It has been suggested I put ther MBR back on but before i do I don't
want to damage any of the files that may be there still.

I have Partition Magic but not sure what the figures mean.

Any help?

Thanks

John

 

[galen]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

In news:u2wE0frJFHA.3916@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl,
Rock <1940@pobox.com> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

> Hi,
>
> I have XP and in Explore all info has dissappeared from the first
> partiotion of a drive and it asks to format it.
>
> In Computer Mgmt is says it is healthy but lists no FAT or NTFS.
>
> It has been suggested I put ther MBR back on but before i do I don't
> want to damage any of the files that may be there still.
>
> I have Partition Magic but not sure what the figures mean.
>
> Any help?
>
> Thanks
>
> John

Nope, it shouldn't format the drive at all:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/using/productdoc/en/default.asp?url=/WINDOWSXP/home/using/productdoc/en/bootcons_fixmbr.asp

In all cases you should back-up the original data just to make sure though.
Pay special attention to this warning, "Writing a new master boot record to
your system partition could damage your partition tables and cause your
partitions to become inaccessible."

Galen

--
Signature changed for a moment of silence.
Rest well Alex and we'll see you on the other side.

 

[pavel]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

Before you go and do anything to the MBR, using the Partition Magic, use the
UNDELETE function just to see if you can get the lost partition back. If the
partition you are missing did not have any important data then the next
step, providing the UNDELETE did not work, would be to create a new
partition . And again this would only work if the area is empty.
Since you have Partition Magic then if this partition area is not empty and
you can not create new partition because of this, you may want to examine
this drive with PM to see if there is in fact a partition but this partition
is not recognized by Windows own Mgmt. If this is the case, use the PM to
delete it and create new one.

The reason I suggested that you not touch MBR is because you seem to be able
to boot to your windows and that requires MBR.

--
Pavel


"Rock" <1940@pobox.com> wrote in message
news:u2wE0frJFHA.3916@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
> Hi,
>
> I have XP and in Explore all info has dissappeared from the first
> partiotion of a drive and it asks to format it.
>
> In Computer Mgmt is says it is healthy but lists no FAT or NTFS.
>
> It has been suggested I put ther MBR back on but before i do I don't want
> to damage any of the files that may be there still.
>
> I have Partition Magic but not sure what the figures mean.
>
> Any help?
>
> Thanks
>
> John
>
>
>