Master Record Boot... error?

So, I boot up my desktop computer for the first time since the beginning of April, and it doesn't go past the manufacturer logo. Well, it does... but it turns up as a black screen that says...


"Master Record Boot


Press any key to continue."

Now, when I push a key to continue, it says something about putting in the "System Disc" and I put in a WinXP disc (as the OS is WinXP) and nothing happens.

Does anyone know what's the deal? :|

 

Put the XP CD in and reboot the computer so that it can boot from the disc. If it does not boot from it you may need to go into bios and change the boot sequence so that it can boot from the CD.

 

So am I going to need to reinstall Windows completely? 'Cause that is what it is trying to do... it doesn't matter to me, I was just wondering if there was something shorter.

 

Yes by doing this you will reinstall windows completely from scratch. Otherwise if you can get into windows somehow you could have done a repair install but if you can not try doing it from scratch like i mentioned.

 

This is great, my XP disc is saying there's a corrupted file on it. I guess I'm going to have to find another copy of XP.


I'm going to try the system restore when the computer first boots up. I didn't even think of that.

 

I couldn't figure out how to edit my post, but do you have any idea how this could have happened? :\

 

Sometimes it could happen with the programs we install and run and sometimes it happens if we do not maintain our system. Like regularly defrag your hard drive and do C: clean ups registry cleaning etc...

 

Yeah, I've been reading about these errors, and evidently it's from pulling out my HDD and putting in another one in the master/slave spots.


I do believe.

 

a reinstall may not be necessary. if your using XP, plonk in the CD, boot of the CD. when the disk loads, there should be some options like to install XP, repair XP etc... The one you want is called Recovery Console (and of the top of my head, i think "R" is the command to load it).

selecting that will take you to a DOS like interface.

wait a few seconds and it will load up. It will give you a screen similar to this;



All this screen does is show you all the Windows OS's installed (usually just one), and allows you to select which one you want to fix. In most cases, usually just press "1".

it will then ask you for your administrator password. type that in.

after that, you should be logged in and looking at something like this;

C:\WINDOWS>

from here, run too commands. First type "fixboot" then hit enter.

then type in "fixmbr" and hit enter.

after you have run boot command, eject the CD, and type "exit" and hit enter.

the pc will restart itself, and hopefully load normally (unless there is something wrong with the hard-drive physically)

 

Two options that i see open to you that may fix the corrupt file on the xp disk
1-if it's scratched get the local video store to give it a lite buff
2-try making a backup of it you might get lucky unless it is a backup your using
3-Contact microsoft and see if you can get a replacement disk as you already have a licence,it is possable to download xp recovery disks from microsoft but they're for brand computers like hp etc,you may even be able to downoad xp for yourself from microsoft

 

I recommend you try this program "paragon justboot corrector". I spent 3 days trying to fix my xp pro sp2 computer when it refuse to startup(it kept going into a grey screen). I tried the justboot demo and found that my os was in a drive other than c: , I bought the "justboot" program to get it changed back to c: and after rebooting , I had my desktop back and it has been working fine since. I recommend it only because it is something that worked for me in my situation.The only down side is you actually have to buy the program to make changes to your harddrive, but you can get a view of what your hard drive looks like with the demo, maybe you can see something wrong with it. As far as your corrupt windows installation cd, when I get error messages I take the cd out, wipe it on my shirt and stick it back in and sometimes that fixes it,also if you have another cd/dvdrom drive available, try using that one(some drives are better at reading scratch cd's).
http://www.justboot.us/boot_corrector.htm

 

Thanks a lot guys... I'll be given these things a try. Though, with that pressing 'R' routine, when I boot from the CD, I don't get choices like you would to just do a recovery. I don't know why. All it does is tell me to "Push any key to boot from CD..." then it goes into the install.

Any ideas?

 

when it asks you to press any key to boot from CD, press any key.

it should load up and take you to a screen like this.


from here, you can press "R" to enter the recovery console.

 

I know it SHOULD take me to that screen. Believe me, I've been doing installs and shit since I was like 13. It's just... it isn't taking me to that...



... wait, that could be because of the corrupted file. I'll do some more work on it tomorrow morning. That's the plan.

 

Alright, I cleaned the disc, and I'm in the Recovery Console. The only problem is... it's asking me for a PASSWORD (like previously said), but I've never set a password on this computer. How do I bypass or clear said-password?

 

If there is no password set you should be able to bypass this by trying to log in by clicking ok or login and see if it goes in anyway. Otherwise you may need to download a Boot CD that can crack or wipe the password.

Here is a link to the boot CD that you could use. It will be an image file and then you will have to burn the image file onto the disc and then boot from it and then it will come up with a menu llist and on that list. You should have an option to go to passwords and then when you see your profile there u just choose that one and it will wipe the password.

Hirens Boot CD
http://maxt.dk/archives/2006/08/01/hirens-bootcd-83/

Good Luck