Something happen to a windows Master Boot Record (MBR) that you’re responsible for? Want a very quick, very easy way to restore it with nothing but your craft, native intelligence and a liveCD?
Be cautious here – you’re working with your disks in a very direct manner. If you don’t have everything backed up or are unsure of anything, you may want to wait until you have a standard Windows CD/DVD.
Boot into your Ubuntu LiveCD on the offending machine. Once Ubuntu starts up, go to System -> Administration -> Software Sources and enable (by checking it off) the Universal repository.
Now, open a terminal session (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal) and type the following:
sudo apt-get install ms-sys
ms-sys is a program used to write Microsoft compatible boot records.
Now you’ll need to figure out what partition is the one hosting your Windows operating system. Back in the command line, type:
sudo fdisk -l
That will list the available partitions. You’re looking for a partition that says something like
/dev/sda1 1 9327 74919096 83 NTFS
The two important bits are the ‘/dev/sda1‘ which is the partition itself and the ‘NTFS‘ which tells us it’s a Windows formatted partition. So your Windows partition exists on your drive sda and it’s partition 1. The MBR for drive sda (assuming you boot into windows using it’s native boot loader) is what you want to repair.
We want to fix the MBR on /dev/sda. To do so, type:
sudo ms-sys -m /dev/sda
You’ll want to change the ‘sda’ bit if your results from ‘fdisk -l‘ are different. If for instance your windows install is on sdb or hda.
Once you do that, reboot the machine, removing the LiveCD from the drive and Windows should come back to you.
Sure, you could do this by inserting the correct Windows CD and booting into repair mode from it – but I find the Ubuntu way a bit faster and I’m more likely to have an Ubuntu LiveCD on me than a Windows CD.
Technorati Tags: mbr, ubuntu, linux, windows, fix, repair mbr, howto, how to, repair, technology, geek, compturs
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January 16th, 2008 at 6:32 am
Nice tip
You could also use Super Grub Disk to fix MBR and Grub.
January 16th, 2008 at 9:34 am
lol the average windows user is going to use their own windows CD to fix the MBR, because they will not have copies of anything else lying around. Plus, they would have to go to the local public library to get Ubuntu, something which many people have never done in their lives.
January 16th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
True if you kept the original CD, but it is something that 85% of users don’t do it. Plus the fact that most of computers came with a “recovery partition” that will not help you in this situation.
So, the users will take the computer to a repair shop where the technician will use a good tip like this because it is much faster, and in addition because the increasing Ubuntu’s popularity, many people is having both system on the PC.
January 16th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Awesome! Nice to see this method outlined. A friend has this exact problem (missing MBR) and despite being a pretty much MS Windows guy has just become aware of Ubuntu. Only “problem” is he likes Ubuntu so much already he may not ever repair the MBR on the Windows disk.
Oh, and this method gets around the possible “I forgot the administrator password” problem with the Windows CD repair method.
And to s810 – Ubuntu is available free on “the tubes” – never underestimate the power of free.
January 16th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
just put Ubuntu CDs in every book in your library’s computer section. I didn’t say public library, I mean your own personal library at your house, yeah heehehehehehe.
January 16th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Does this work with a dualboot with Vista?
January 16th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
If it’s got a windows MBR that needs fixin’ then it will work.
January 16th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Bootup goes around in circles and won’t boot up! Tryied to use the windows backup floopy get to the prompt A: but I forgot what I need to enter at the A: prompt. could you please help me?….Thank you and have a good day.
Marie
January 16th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Since the Win CDs that came with my computer will not allow me to repair the MBR (they only restore the backup using Norton Ghost), I’m thankful for this advice as I don’t have to worry about finding a Windows CD somewhere.
January 16th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
For more info …
http://ms-sys.sourceforge.net/
January 16th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
s810 is right. This is interesting but not useful. Why would you go to all that trouble when you just pop in the Windows CD or a boot disk. I wish there were hints for doing anything in Linux that did no inolve lust for the command prompt and assoted switches, spaces, repositories, and caps. Heck, I wish Linux just worked at the GUI.
I like Linux. But it is not user friendly. Linux is a hobby.
January 16th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
If you use MBR boot manager, would it show linux partition as well? In the past I have tried several times to add ubuntu’s entry to the MBR list, but never succeeded. Because, my friend had a wireless keyboard that cannot be read in grub to select which operating system to boot. That is , I tried to add ubuntu’s entry to the MBR and use that, but unfortunately I couldn’t get it working. However, this happened a year and half ago and I am not sure if it is still like that.
January 16th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
If you use MBR boot manager, would it show linux partition as well? In the past I have tried several times to add ubuntu’s entry to the MBR list, but never succeeded. Because, my friend had a wireless keyboard that cannot be read in grub to select which operating system to boot. That is , I tried to add ubuntu’s entry to the MBR and use that, but unfortunately I couldn’t get it working. However, this happened a year and half ago and I am not sure if it is still like that.
January 17th, 2008 at 10:38 am
Its true it does work but you dont have to go to the extent of all teh above (command lines etc.), as long as it physically boots into Unbuntu or Knoppix (does the same), it repairs the Windows MBR automatically, let it go into the live O/S and then restart the system, ive done this a fair few times on customers machines, that have come in for repair!..
The Windows FIXMBR & FIXBOOT commands dont work maybe 1in10 chance of it working.
January 17th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Because my WinXP disk is somewhere in a box in storage and I can’t get to it, but I *can* borrow someone else’s computer and burn an Ubuntu Live CD. (I already posess an Ubuntu Live CD, but that is beside the point)
January 17th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
1. insert the win xp setup cd
2. reboot your computer
3. boot into the cd
4. go to “Recovery Console”
5. select your win drive
6. type “fixmbr”
6a. done
January 18th, 2008 at 12:28 am
“1. insert the win xp setup cd”
Yeah. I have a “recovery” DVD that I had to burn myself using the hidden Sony “recovery” tools. All it’s capable of doing is wiping the entire disc and reinstalling the shovelware that I spent 6 weeks trying unsuccessfully to remove.
If there’s any way to avoid that agony in the future, I express my deepest gratitude in advance.
January 18th, 2008 at 3:23 am
Everyone saying the Windows install CD is sufficient is ignoring the fact that the Windows install CD takes 20 minutes just to load drivers so that you can select the Repair option.
January 18th, 2008 at 3:26 am
I have recovered MBR several times just using FDISK /MBR command form diskette (created on second computer). When diskette is not present, I have the same on CD which emulate diskette. In above, Ultimate boot CD (also mentioned on lifehacker) is available for free and contains MBR tools. Nevertheless, always is good to know more ways how to make the same things in different ways…
January 19th, 2008 at 3:52 am
This doesn’t work, do you people ever check the crap you’re publishing?
My windows partition was ntfs and now it’s all ruined, couple of days at least to rebuild everything… please stop posting stuff that you haven’t actually tried.
idiots.
dan
January 19th, 2008 at 10:28 am
Well, I have grup errors at boot… I’m the little better than average windows user, and tried the windows option, but blocked!! I don’t know the admin password (as I installed ubuntu on a usb key on my work locked up laptop)…. so i will try this option hopefully it will work
January 19th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
I applied the sudo commands from the beginning of this message, it asked me to use the -f option (to force) in additon of -m (mbr) which I did.
Now I still get my grub error when I boot my laptop. When I plug my usb stick in (with Ubuntu 7.10) the grub comes up (as it did before) but when I pick Windows XP… it doesn’t work “partition error”………… !!!! MAYDAY SOS… Help
January 19th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Ok, I just remembered the gparted command for ubuntu… and now I noticed that my partition is “unallocated” and the file system “unallocated”
?
January 19th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Ok, Booted with windows CD, chose recovery console, went to dos prompt then fixmbr followed by fixboot. now it’s booting like a charm.
sorry for the 5 messages
January 20th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
I’m currently downloading the LiveCD and running through the howto so I can be familiar with it, and I came to the part that says:
Now you’ll need to figure out what partition is the one hosting your Windows operating system. Back in the command line, type:
sudo fdisk -l
That will list the available partitions. You’re looking for a partition that says something like
/dev/sda1 1 9327 74919096 83 NTFS
Problem is that I have sda1-5, and two of those are HPFS/NTFS, so I don’t know which one to choose. I’m worried about having two and what that means, and that neither are simply NTFS, but rather HPFS/NTFS. What do I do?
January 21st, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Help! E can’t find package ms-sys, but my PC only has a WinModem, so can i download this package from other source and make it available in USB disk together with my Ubuntu LiveCD?
Many thanks.
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:43 am
I recently installed Ubuntu on a Firewire disk and apparently it changed my MBR to point grub to that disk. Since it’s not there during boot-up grub exits with error 21 and I can’t boot neither Windows nor Ubuntu (except from CD)
If you have your Windows Disks handy or otherwise can boot into Windows then maybe it’s best to fixmbr or such. I don’t so I need to download something. Windows disks? Possible but illegal.
So if ms-sys works as outlined here that’s good news for me. I also made a SuperGrubDisk floppy that could work.
(http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/SuperGrubDiskPage.html#How_Make_your_Super_Grub_Floppy_Disk)
May I also say it’s a bad thing that Ubuntu installs an MBR pointing at a disk that may or may not be visible during boot-up? If it is not visible then it’s bad news and not so very obvious to restore.
January 27th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
tnx, this could come in handy someday…
February 5th, 2008 at 12:43 am
Technically /dev/sda1 will have a Boot Record, not a Master Boot Record. There’s only one MBR per physical disk so the MBR would be on /dev/sda.
Each partition can also have it’s own boot record, so there could be one on /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2 and so on.
- rmjb
February 5th, 2008 at 8:19 am
rmjb is right. the correct device would be /dev/sda NOT /dev/sda1.
The person responsible for posting the original erroneous info should think VERY carefully before posting any misleading information ever again. As given, the instructions will definitely hose any windows installed in /dev/sda1.
What is REALLY disturbing is the number of people praising the original article. Obviously they haven’t tried it either.
February 18th, 2008 at 1:38 am
PLEASE HELP ME!!
After reading the comments I was under the impression that this would work for Vista (“If it’s got a windows MBR that needs fixin’ then it will work.”). So, now instead of getting “NTLDR is missing” I get “Invalid Partition.”
Since it didn’t work, I went and found a Vista Recovery ISO and put that in my CD drive upon startup. I go to use “Startup Repair,” and it gives a list of which Vista installation (a list of ONLY Vista installations) that I want to repair. NOTHING SHOWS UP!! I’m assuming that this program above, ms-sys, rewrote my that particular partition (sda2) to look like a former version of Windows (not Vista).
Please help, I’m desperate to recover my MBR so I can access Windows without having to restore and lose all my data.
NOTE:
My partitions are:
(0) Hidden recovery partition that came with laptop (Sony Vaio VGN-FZ160E)
(1) Vista
(2) Ubuntu 7.10
If I write GRUB to the MBR I can boot to Linux but not to Vista….
February 19th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
-mbr doesn’t work in 7.10. Just use -m, so in other words:
sudo ms-sys –m /dev/sda
February 26th, 2008 at 4:40 am
@ rmjb / torchwd
that is so true. I had a colleague who was trying to fix their mbr and ended up killing their entire windows partition because of the misleading instructions:
“You’ll want to change the ’sda1? bit if your results from ‘fdisk -l‘ are different.”
wtf — that kills the entire partition. That sentence needs to be reworded AND a warning added to inform ppl that they should only apply ‘ms-sys’ to entire disks, not partitions. (i.e. /dev/sda NOT /dev/sda1).
February 26th, 2008 at 4:41 am
ARSGEEK PLEASE FIX!!!! Your article is great apart from that potentially misleading statment. (and it also needs a notice warning ppl *not* to do ‘sudo ms-sys –m /dev/sda’)
February 26th, 2008 at 4:48 am
(oops that would be “telling people to do ‘sudo ms-sys –m /dev/sda’ and NOT to do ‘sudo ms-sys –m /dev/sda1′”)
TIA
February 27th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
[...]MBR najpro?ciej przywróci? u?ywaj?c p?yty instalacyjnej systemu Windows. Nale?y dokona? rozruchu z p?yty, uruchomi? konsol? odzyskiwania systemu i pos?u?y? si? poleceniem fixmbr.
Je?li jednak w danej chwili nie dysponujemy p?yt? z Windowsem, mo?emy wykorzysta? kr??ek Ubuntu (lub innej dystrybucji uruchamianej w trybie LiveCD).[...]
February 27th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
[...]MBR najpro?ciej przywróci? u?ywaj?c p?yty instalacyjnej systemu Windows. Nale?y dokona? rozruchu z p?yty, uruchomi? konsol? odzyskiwania systemu i pos?u?y? si? poleceniem fixmbr.
Je?li jednak w danej chwili nie dysponujemy p?yt? z Windowsem, mo?emy wykorzysta? kr??ek Ubuntu (lub innej dystrybucji uruchamianej w trybie LiveCD).[...]
February 27th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
[...]MBR najpro?ciej przywróci? u?ywaj?c p?yty instalacyjnej systemu Windows. Nale?y dokona? rozruchu z p?yty, uruchomi? konsol? odzyskiwania systemu i pos?u?y? si? poleceniem fixmbr. Je?li jednak w danej chwili nie dysponujemy p?yt? z Windowsem, mo?emy wykorzysta? kr??ek Ubuntu.[...]
February 28th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Help. Does this method work with Vista? I tried to make a dual boot Vista Ubuntu 7.10. Using the vista software I resized a windows partition and then installed Ubuntu into the free space using live CD with guided partioning which created two partitions (one swap.) I intended to preserve the Vista bootloader so I tried to install the GRUB bootloader onto the Ubuntu ext3 partition during the install. My plan was to reboot into Vista and use easyBCD to add the Ubuntu boot. However when I rebooted after the install I got “invalid partition table” and cannot boot anything. I don’t know where I messed up since I did not install grub on MBR (I dont think!) Using the Ubuntu live CD I can see the partions and there are 3 windows partions all NTFS and all on sda (1,2,3) and then linux partions sda4 (extended) sda5 (ext3) and sda6 (swap) there is also a partionless other device /dev/hda.
The ext3 partition had boot flag in Gparted, but GRUB reported (hd0,4) as the boottable. I heard that vista may not boot if there are other bootable partitions so I first tried removing boot flag with grub which removed the flag but I still get “invalid partition…” and cannot boot. Then I tried ms-sys -m /dev/sda as explained here and this didn’t make any difference either – I still get “invalid partition table” on reboot. Any ideas would be great. I don’t have a vista disk or any windows repair disks.
March 1st, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Thanks. Very good tip.
March 2nd, 2008 at 2:54 am
I tried this method I had Ubuntu and Widows XP , I used ms-sys command because I do not have access to Administrators Password on my Windows XP.
Now the Windows XP partition is SCREWED, I got ‘INVALID PARTITIO TABLE”
Pls advise.
tejerin
March 3rd, 2008 at 6:33 am
If you have the ubuntu live (install) CD you can try putting GRUB on the MBR, see here:
http://apcmag.com/5045/how_to_dual_boot_vista_with_linux
This worked for me and Ubuntu and vista were both detected and I got multiboot option.
March 4th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
If i use Ubuntu will I loose my files from the hardrive??? Cause there are some files that I need from the hardrive that I didnt back up!!! thnx
March 7th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Hi, I found you post using google… you saved my life! Your trick works also for Winsows Vista, which DVD isn’t shipped with a Console for “fixmbr” command!
I lost my MBR with Dell Media Direct “bugged” system..
Thnakyou! Bye!
March 10th, 2008 at 3:35 am
GoodToKnow:
“s810 is right. This is interesting but not useful. Why would you go to all that trouble when you just pop in the Windows CD or a boot disk. I wish there were hints for doing anything in Linux that did no inolve lust for the command prompt and assoted switches, spaces, repositories, and caps. Heck, I wish Linux just worked at the GUI.
I like Linux. But it is not user friendly. Linux is a hobby.”
But when you use a Windows CD to restore the MBR it is done at the MS-DOS command prompt by typing in commands.
RTFM before you rant!
Also learn to spell “inolve” and “assoted”
March 21st, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Thank you so much! I had dual boot for ubuntu and XP and I didn’t like Ubuntu. Used Gnome partition to delete it and resize back to XP, and got the error. Unfortunately I couldn’t find my XP disk and didn’t have a floppy drive. You helped me out alot!
April 2nd, 2008 at 6:54 am
HOW TO: Recover Windows MBR using Ubuntu LIVE CD
THANKS TO INOXLLOR & GONK THE FINAL FIX WOULD BE SOMETHING LIKE THIS:
HOW TO: Recover Windows MBR using Ubuntu LIVE CD
Tested on Ubuntu 7.04; Ubuntu 7.10 and Linux Mint 4.0 Live CDs
If want to restore Windows Bootloader and for some reason cannot use the windows installation cd, there is a simple way to do it:
NOTE: make sure you have internet working.
Before the first step:
(I needed to enable the ‘universe’ repository (System->Administration->Software Sources) before I could install the ms-sys package. I also needed to put “sudo” in front of the ms-sys command (e.g. “sudo ms-sys –mbr /dev/sda”) otherwise I got permission denied.)
1) Boot with Ubuntu Live CD or Linux Mint Live CD
2) On the terminal:
sudo apt-get install ms-sys
then
ms-sys –mbr /dev/hdX
NOTE: in my case the main windows xp system is located in hda1 so I used
sudo ms-sys –mbr /dev/hda
***
it will look like this at the end in terminal:
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo ms-sys –mbr /dev/hda
Windows 2000/XP/2003 master boot record successfully written to /dev/hda
***
3) Reboot.
This should get your windows back.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=622828
April 25th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Great tip, saved my weekend, thanks!
April 28th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
ok,good to know how to fix windows using Ubuntu live CD but how to fix Ubuntu by Ubuntu life CD??
– i have Ubuntu 7.10 i gotta problem with log in into system i could only by using failsafe Gnome session otherwise was message with ( ~/.session-errors file)i did try reinstall some packages etc but now i can only use terminal ,i have life cd and how can fix Ubuntu problem without loosing private data?
i did try : sudo mkdir /mnt/repair
sudo mount /devhda2 mnt/repair doesn’t work
so now I’m stuck with windows xp from second partition to look for help :S
thnx
April 30th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
True Ass Saver for dealing with Windows XP. Heard a few whines about “Why don’t you insert the Windows XP disk and go into recovery mode?” somewhere up there.
Well Dearies, I have a whole company full of Windows XP install disks. Umm, only problem, they’re Smell System Recovery Disks, and the recovery mode seems to only boot you to C drive, and once you get there, FIXMBR seems to be totally lacking along with all the other utilities that should be there.
However, for all it’s lack of REAL (TM) Windows XP Professional SP2 install disks on the premisis, the company does have a live internet connection and a paid for copy of Nero. So it was a real pleasure not having to drive down to the local Staples to fork over another couple hundred dollars to get a really high dollar Windows XP boot disk with all the missing utilities.
Thanx a bunch.
May 8th, 2008 at 8:26 am
This is awesome tips. My windows CD would not boot for some reason (some incompatibility with the SATA driver – I am not even sure how I installed windows the first time). So the only way I could add the partition to the mbr was using this method. Unfrortuently to get online i had to install unbuntu to harddisk to get it to work to view this page, but luckily i had the free space on the drive to make partitions for ubuntu.
May 13th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
- This *is* excellent, and I was hoping Knoppix did it as well ’cause I have that already. (grin) Only just got bright enough to research if it would work.
- As someone pointed out, essentially NO systems ship with a REAL install disk. They have this f*****g “recovery” disk that caused this problem to start with … it did NOT install the MBR correctly after a drive failure. Since to took FOUR HOURS to not install correctly, TWO HOURS to rip out all the bloatware I didn’t want to start with, and the only option is a full re-install, I’m not too hot on letting it try again.
- Companies should be run out of town on a rail for shipping that crap with systems. Even the “recovery console” that’s available from HP (after two reboots) does NOT have access to the hard drives! What??? Tell me how useful is that?
- I’m sure it’s not even the companies. It’s the source … mickeysuck … that’s driving the licensing requirements. Oh to have a job that uses Linux. (wistful sigh)
- Kudos to Linux *again*…
May 21st, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Thank you. This worked brilliantly for me.
Toshiba supplied me with a CD that only enables a complete restoration of my hard drive to “out of the box” state or re-installation of the crappy software they supplied.
Thanks again, Brian
June 20th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Fantastic just what I need to recover the MBR on my ASUS EEE 900 because I dont have an external DVD drive
June 26th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
Hi,
When I try to do the first step (sudo apt-get install ms-sys), I get this error:
E: Couldn’t find package ms-sys
What do I have to do?
July 1st, 2008 at 7:13 pm
ms-sys has been removed from ubuntu repository as it was removed from debian repository. So this mbr-recovery tip does not work with new hardy (8.04) live cd.
July 1st, 2008 at 11:22 pm
Thanks for the tips. I have both ubuntu and windows xp installed on my pc, and windows keeps restarting after ten mnts. This happened when I installed Faronics Anti-exetable along with deepfreeze. I wonder if ubuntu could help me undo the changes in this case? and will the previous tips help here?
thanks
July 24th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
THANK YOU!! I needed this!
August 21st, 2008 at 10:07 pm
You have no idea how much stress you just saved me. Thank you so
so much.
August 23rd, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Thank you thank you thank you!!! This was so easy and to all of those people who say stuff like “windows users would never need this” you are all so very very wrong. I erased my linux partition, had GRUB problems, but couldn’t repair using my Windows CD because I didn’t know my administrator password. I was totally screwed. But this worked great, again, can’t thank you enough.
August 31st, 2008 at 4:50 pm
There are as many scenarios of NOT having a LEGALLY LICENSED copy of a windoze installation CD as there are users of that lame operating system. Try to repair a windoze-hijacked machine using a LEGAL installation CD that came with your system. What happens? You end up with all the crapware you so meticulousy removed before your windoze machine broke. Plus, in your haste to get updated and patched to the latest windoze version (after all, it’s not safe to surf without a fully updated windoze-hijacked machine!) you forgot to install the Recovery Console. So you go to install it from your LEGAL OEM installation CD, only to be told that you have a newer windoze version and you will have to:
a) re-install the original LEGALLY LICENSED windoze version and install Recovery Console, after which you must install all hotfixes, patches, and service packs (you did download them and burn to CD previously, did you not?)
or
b) create a slipstreamed CD with all the installation files, hotfixes, updates, and service packs you downloaded and burned to CD via another safe and LEGALLY LICENSED windoze-hijacked machine. Now install.
After that, install your $$$$ anti-virus/firewall software, connect to the internet (finally) and hope that no crackers are able to hijack your machine before you get the latest virus definitions downloaded and installed.
… WTF!?
I have a better way. Get a LiveCD of any distribution of GNU/Linux, boot it, click Install and leave windoze behind.
Of course, if you must have windoze so you can run apps that can’t run on Linux, use whatever tool you need such as outlined above to get your lame operating system to boot.
But do yourself a favor and configure your machine to dual boot with Linux. You are definitely capable of installing and running a GNU/Linux distribution if you can repair a windoze-hijacked machine! If you can point and click, you can install a user-friendly and stable operating system with tons of productivity, entertainment, and education software — FOR FREE (donations accepted)! Expand your horizons. Learn something new. You’ll save tons of money too!
September 1st, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Thanks, this saved my life. I removed my Linux partition (planning another install in the near future) and then wasn’t able to make it past the boot loader.
sudo ms-sys –m /dev/sda
What got me stuck was stupidly putting a “1″ at the end for the first partition, when this works mainly on the whole disk resetting it.
September 7th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
I thought Linux was to help the poor. A free operating system ?? BS !! I went to the library and the only copies of Linux are on APC magazine dvd’s. I needed to borrow a external dvd burner from a nieghbour (dont like to intrude either).
Oops ! go back a bit, first I needed a windows computer to make all happen with windows xp or above and nero to drop and drag “ISO” from dvd and compile image for my cdrom to read ! All windows based technology. It appears Linux has a symbiotic relationship with windows, you work out which type of symbosis.
Now I try to load Linux !! oops, has formated my drive and windows no longer available ? Oops only installed live cd and after reboot, nothing but gobblygock, no OS at all.
Go back ! run cd again and do install ! ok ! half way through Linux wants me to build a sql ? wtf !! then build some php’s, insert my dchp details from a library modem dsl ? wtf !
I am not a wealthy tribesperson from a ghetto, where all is laid out for them on a platter. I am a pensioner white person wanting to upgrade fro 98se and have got together $7.90 per month from my budget to buy 10 days a month internet from Dod pre paid !!
Linux is for a bunch of will be yuppies or advantaged poor, well catered for by the international community with everything on a platter. We the “other” white poor, have to beg, borrow and steal windows for time to time, to try and make an allegedly free OS ! bs Linux to work! So I pirate windows for a day, get all this happening and one week later I still do not have (now) any operating system.
I want to stay honest and just leave my pirate days behind me, I want to help all the poor and I have helped many with comnputers “free”, understand “free” I dont charge nothing.
Now I have a drive with messed up MFT ? So i a=want to fix ? yep ! need a windows cd, I dont have ! need Linux, you really need a tech or a friend with dsl and windows for a long time to make it happen !
This is the biggest bs, I have ever heard. I was going to do a Ubuntu vs Vista “youtube” presentation. Ubuntu and Sabayon are all smoke and mirrors in my opinion.
At least I can borrow and xp or vista dvd/cd and have my computer “user friendly” loaded in a little over 36 minutes, I have been working a week to simple install linux bs!
Vista and windows are for real, they are for the poor and disadvantaged, every pc sold in oz, came with a microsoft liscence, I can do more on 98se than linux, except for “smoke and mirrors”.
If I can not resolve this, I will just be running 98se and autopatcher updates on all “poor and disadvantaged” ppls computers. Not the people the UN or HREOC has made billions$$$ available to to provide what “real poor peple” cant get
September 8th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
OK….does this work or does it not?
I’ve got a dual boot machine (XP home, unbuntu 7.10) in which the Windows installation has become unbootable.
Using the XP installation disk produces nothing other than a semi-dark screen. No installation, no recovery console, no nothing. It goes as far as making the statement ‘press any key to boot from cd’ and nothing more.
September 11th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
My sister’s dual boot Ubuntu/Vista computer just got GRUB error 22 after Vista updated itself. We booted it from the Ubuntu CD & downloaded ms-sys but terminal says it can’t find the package. We tried adding it to the packages but it still won’t work and since we’re only dabbling in Linux we have no idea what to do now!
(we already enabled the universe thingy)
September 14th, 2008 at 1:44 am
Hm. Requires an internet connection, though.
September 19th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Help
E: Couldn’t find package ms-sys
November 1st, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Hi… I’m a newbie to the whole linux game and had chosen Ubuntu over Fedora for a Windows alternative… I was trying to create a “run from USB” install and I ended up messing up the MBR on my friend’s WinXP MCE computer…
I tried following the instructions mentioned above a few times, but I keep getting an error stating “E: Couldn’t find package ms-sys”…
What am I doing wrong?
I’m thinking it’s the MBR because when the computer boots up minus the Ubuntu liveCD, I get:
>> GRUB Loading Stage 1.5
>> Error 21
I tried downloading UltimateBootCD because we don’t have any of the boot discs/disks to just run the regular fdisk from the DOS prompt; any of the programs I tried to use from UltimateBootCD (it boots up into it) returns “Invalid Opcode” with a string behind it.
Please note that GRUB is not needed on this computer since it’ll solely be running WinXP MCE.
MUCHOS GRACIAS!!!
=CeR0ZeR0=
November 3rd, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Awesome! Saved my life.
Thank you thank you thank you.
After I busted the MBR on one of the Win2000 machines at work and I couldn’t use the win2000 repair disk because I don’t have the admin passwd. But I used this great little tool and in just a quick flash. My but was out of the fire.
please note that ms-sys is not in Ubuntu 8.10 repositories but can go here to get it.
http://packages.ubuntu.com/gutsy/ms-sys
Powel
November 10th, 2008 at 9:33 am
I just used this method to restore the MBR instead of GRUB on a friend’s machine and it worked perfectly.
Apparently ms-sys is not included in the repositories of more recent Ubuntu releases so I used an old Dapper Live CD.
I enabled the Universe repository, installed ms-sys, and then ran sudo ms-sys -m /dev/sda, exactly as described above. I got a message in the terminal to say that the MBR had been restored, rebooted, and went straight into Win XP.
Thanks very much for this.
Nda
December 9th, 2008 at 4:17 am
For those of you that said this is a nice distraction … just depends on the kind of work you’re doing. Try using an XP CD on a Thinkpad X series. Proprietary MBR, SATA HD that XP doesn’t have the drivers for … boss’ laptop at home over the weekend – a recipe for disaster. I had to download ms-sys from SF.net, and after Clonezilla-ing the old drive to the new one, a quick ms-sys had it back up & running. There WAS no other way to do it.
You don’t need to be a command line jockey to take advantage of the power of Linux & the open source community. Reject the FUD & get productive.
December 31st, 2008 at 3:02 am
Ok, let’s get one thing straight in regards to this “poorandconfused” guy who left that massive comment. Your local library is NOT the only place to access a free Linux install CD. You can easily find a free version of any Linux distro available for download online. Anyone with half a brain can use this download to install Linux.
Ubuntu even has this Windows-friendly install app called “Wubi”, so you don’t need to burn a CD to install it. So, please think before you go around flaming an OS you’ve barely tried getting.
To those of you who say that Linux is nothing more than a “Hobby OS”, again, try Ubuntu. The GUI is so amazing that you’ll really never have to use the terminal (but you still can if you want to).
January 31st, 2009 at 10:32 am
Thanks a bunch for this article, I have been searching for days trying to figure out away to repair the corrupt MBR on my windows drive from my Fedora 10 installation, after reading this a quick update using yum install ms-sys, then fdisk -l to check which drive was needed and ms-sys -m to write the mbr. for something that was beginning to become a pain to fix, this was amazingly simple. Thanks.
February 14th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
another vote of thanks.
However….I had to use the link
http://packages.ubuntu.com/gutsy/ms-sys
from Powel212, copy it to a USB memory stick and install it from there. Once i’d done that, it was smooth sailing.
March 9th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
I did this, but now it boots into my acer recovery partition every time. It won’t boot into xp, only into the recovery partition, even after I run the system recovery.
March 21st, 2009 at 11:40 am
Ruined my windows partition because I put hdb1 instead of just hdb… should of read the comments first. To those who read this comment: If you find out that your partition is “dev/hda1″ or “dev/sda1″ or something similar DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT, keep the numbers at the end, it should work if you type “dev/hda” or “dev/sda”, but NEVER put the numbers in, it’ll ruin your partition.
It’d be nice if the OP could put a note of warning in the original post.
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:32 am
Thanks!
I needed to restore MBR on a new notebook that can’t boot Win XP or Dos (only Vista and Linux). Vista DVD was useless but ms-sys saved the day!
Note for others:
.
sudo apt-get install ms-sys … doesn’t work on Ubuntu Hardy or newer as the package has been removed from repository
Just download the package from here and install it:
http://packages.debian.org/etch/i386/ms-sys/download
April 26th, 2009 at 10:57 am
This faq is a bit out-of-date. More details regarding recovery and Ubuntu can be found here. MS-SYS tools seem to have been “yanked”.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6361212
May 3rd, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Thanks!!!
You really saved my day.
As other mentioned, it was removed from the repository. I downloaded it from http://ms-sys.sourceforge.net and made a “sudo apt-get install gettext” to get the “make” to work.
Suppose the other links, just above, also should work. (though I didn’t test them..)
Thanks again!!
July 28th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Thanks a lot for the post, it saved me a lot of trouble.
August 6th, 2009 at 8:04 am
Hey you really post here a very nice article, i read it whole and it seems very informative & very useful too..
August 8th, 2009 at 9:46 am
Unfortunately the ms-sys package was removed in hardy.
But one can still download it from here:
http://packages.debian.org/etch/i386/ms-sys/download
September 5th, 2009 at 11:39 am
Thanks for post! You saved my life!
September 5th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
Maybe it’s time to update this post, because this article is actually useful, but the info about where to find ms-sys is out of date (you can still get it from sourceforge)
I needed to restore my MBR after deleting my linux partition – GRUB didn’t work anymore. I’ve done this on a netbook (no CD drive, no recovery CD, 16GB flash drive).
There are many ways to fix the MBR problem. Maybe incidentally, this is what worked for me (after maybe 5 hours, considering nearly every attempt involved juggling the flash drive with ISO images).
The simple reason why it worked is that ms-sys targets the problem directly (rewriting the MBR) and this post provides an accurate strategy used to identify the drive to repair from linux. Coming from windows, sd?#/ stuff makes precious little sense (!)
After you download ms-sys from sourceforge, you need to extract it somewhere and actually build it (they give the source apparently, not the executable) before you can run it. That may seem scary to a non programmer, but it’s actually quite smooth if you follow the readme file step by step, and literally should take no more than 1 hour (it took me 10 minutes or less, and there’s no need to download anything else).
By the way the building/make process throws errors. Ignore them.
Then fixing your MBR goes just like this post describes.
Messing with the MBR seems more common than I would have thought. I hope you’ll update this post – not because it will save 5 hours to everybody (that’s how long it took me to fiddle, google and eventually find this post), but because (a) the process of finding and building ms-sys as I roughly described will put off many users unless simply explained – potentially leaving them without a solution – and (b) there are too many replies to this post, including this one, so it would be great to trash some of this stuff and summarise it all in an update (yes, I know it takes time, and yes again, delete THIS entry while you’re at it, as it’s just meta-information and this post can be improved by removing all meta-info and keeping the essence).
Cheers
Tea
October 21st, 2009 at 9:55 am
Solution to the following problem (losely based on the above article):
Partitioned HD with VISTA and UBUNTU dual boot. I deleted the Ubuntu partition because I needed more (non-ubuntu-Photoshop) space on the Vista partition. Everything was fine till the next computer start-up, when I got a GRUB error 22, and the system would not complete it’s boot.
1) I then entered the system with an Ubuntu Live CD (‘Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop Install’ — don’t ACTUALLY install ubuntu, go with the non-intrusive ‘try ubuntu without any change to your computer’ option, for reference literature https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD ),
2) and opened a terminal session (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal) and typed the following:
‘sudo apt-get install lilo’ [without the quotation marks]
This installs lilo (with a couple of warnings, which didn’t bother me because I wasn’t actually going to USE lilo to boot afterwards, only to get repair my mixed up MBR), with which you can repair your MBR, as ms-sys does.
(I used lilo, which is similar to ms-sys, with the difference that it IS available).
3) then I typed the command ‘sudo fdisk -l’ to check what kind of Harddisk I had (it turned out to be a sda),
4) typed in ‘sudo lilo -M /dev/sda mbr’ (THANKS EVERYONE IN THE COMMENTS SECTION FOR POINTING OUT VERY CLEARLY TO USE THE INDICATION OF THE HARDDISK AS A TOTAL, WITHOUT THE PARTITION-SPECIFIC NUMBER ATTACHED TO IT — i.e. sda and NOT sda1 or sda2 or sda3, ONLY sda), shut down ubuntu live, rebooted, and got into Vista fine again (if you can call getting into vista a ‘fine’ experience…).
Problem solved.
December 12th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
Thanks man, it worked for me after uninstalling ubuntu
December 24th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
This is very nice. I had lost my window’s recovery disk and this saved my day and I had no other ways of removing grub and ubuntu installation.
I don’t know what the other folks are carping about. I found this very useful.
Thank you very much.
December 27th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
This is perfect, as my now 4 yr old Dell desktop came “preinstalled” from Dell, no Microsoft media was supplied at the time (as is typical!!!). I have a dual boot with a Linux distro that is no longer in support and is not easy to upgrade. So this method to restore the MBR is exactly the ticket. Thank you, thank you.
December 27th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
Ah, but one thing – have you people tried printing off the information on this page? It comes out one heck of a mess – the core article starts 2/3 down page 2 and part of page 3 – layout of all the links and other “stuff” is a mush before and after. Some elementary CSS would fix it to beautiful.
January 13th, 2010 at 8:18 pm
Thanks!!
January 24th, 2010 at 2:45 pm
@poorandconfused
Please don’t lump all poor white people in with yourself. Not all of us a dumber than dirt. :\
/@poorandconfused
So let me get thi straight; this fix only works for ubuntu pre-8.04? well crap. Anyone have a fix that works with the hardy heron?
January 25th, 2010 at 7:44 am
I have downloaded ms-sys 2.1.4 as my internet connection is windows-based (and windows went blue-screen after I installed Ubuntu 9)- do I just need to run ‘make’ on the package in linux (on my ubuntu partition) before I can use it?
Also – does it matter that my windows disk is fat32?
February 7th, 2010 at 11:03 am
following worked for me:
“sudo lilo -M /dev/sda mbr”
it’s already on the ubuntu live cd
March 6th, 2010 at 2:38 pm
Thanks for the tip. For the doubters – I need to do this because I am fixing an XP machine and my install CD does not have the right storage drivers, and the machine I am working on does not have a floppy drive anyway (required to load the drivers for the Windows install CD). This is a handy workaround.
March 11th, 2010 at 11:24 pm
??????? ?????? ??? ?????? ?? ????? ?????? ????? ???????. ??????? ?? ??????.
March 12th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
I tried booting with the windows cd so restore it to out-of-the-box condition then attempted to setup as dual boot. This usually works better instead of doing a restore point as it could be corrupted and not to mention, this will speed up your system.
March 15th, 2010 at 11:47 am
I have 4 computers with X.P. Pro and dual boot Ubuntu 9.1.
Ever so often one of the computers will lose the windows from the boot menu. what I have been doing is remove the drive and with a usb drive adapter I connect it to a computer running windows to re format the ubuntu partition using drive management to ntfs. I then put the drive back and install ubuntu to the freshly formatted partition. Windows now appears in the menu and all is well until the next time.
Anybody have a easer way to restore windows to the boot menu?
March 15th, 2010 at 1:28 pm
Thanks for the tip. I’ll have to keep this in mind next time I screw something up with my Windows MBR (which I’ve done a few times lol).
I normally just used the Windows CD in the past, but it does take pretty long and I don’t even have one anymore.
March 18th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
That sentence needs to be reworded AND a warning added to inform ppl that they should only apply ‘ms-sys’ to entire disks, not partitions.
April 7th, 2010 at 6:53 am
Vse ponravilos, respekt!
April 12th, 2010 at 2:48 am
Thanks, this tips very useful for people who lost their original win xp cd
April 12th, 2010 at 6:09 am
Okay, I’ve just fixed my MBR.
I tried to uninstall Ubuntu.
1. Deleted the ubuntu partitions
2. Got the GRUB error
3. Popped a win95 start up boot disk
4. Ran FDISK /MBR
5. Start PC as normal, message to pop the windows DVD in and reboot
6. Select Repair computer
7. Reboots, and ‘tada’ – no errors windows 7 is back
No live cd required, of course you need the windows cd.
May 3rd, 2010 at 3:36 pm
This is interesting but not useful. Why would you go to all that trouble when you just pop in the Windows CD or a boot disk.
May 8th, 2010 at 3:57 pm
I tried to make a dual boot Vista Ubuntu 7.10. Using the vista software I resized a windows partition and then installed Ubuntu into the free space using live CD with guided partioning which created two partitions (one swap.) I intended to preserve the Vista bootloader so I tried to install the GRUB bootloader onto the Ubuntu ext3 partition during the install.
May 11th, 2010 at 5:03 am
Thank you and good job. Great article! I really gotta send it to some friends from college, they would really appreciate it. This is the first time I visit your site, but I can guarantee you’ll see me around. You have some valuable stuff here.
May 16th, 2010 at 1:50 pm
Ah, but one thing – have you people tried printing off the information on this page? Good quality content is important but it’s not everything. I’ve seen blogs with bad content, yet they still manage to rank on top for several keywords. Sure, they will certainly bore the reader with bad content.
May 16th, 2010 at 2:14 pm
True if you kept the original CD, but it is something that 85% of users don’t do it. Just wanna say thank you for the information that you have been shared on your site. Simple but very informative. Hoping that you could give more other information about this.
May 17th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
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May 18th, 2010 at 2:34 am
I am new to this and have to present this project which falls into my dept. I am going to upgrade 350 users from Windows XP to Windows7 (and their applications and files/folders etc) There is a lot of information out there which sometimes can be confusing for a person like myself with lack of deployment experience. If someone out there can give me steps by steps what excatly I need to perform this task I would be very thankful and greatful to the human being. Please send me steps to download tools and steps to deploy. Thanks
May 18th, 2010 at 7:59 am
????? ????? ????
May 18th, 2010 at 11:39 am
? ?????, ????????? ????? ???????????!
May 20th, 2010 at 5:57 am
lol the average windows user is going to use their own windows CD to fix the MBR, because they will not have copies of anything else lying around. I did read this blog and it was very interesting. I liked the second part the most.
May 26th, 2010 at 3:19 pm
Does this method work with Vista? I tried to make a dual boot Vista Ubuntu 7.10. Using the vista software I resized a windows partition and then installed Ubuntu into the free space using live CD with guided partioning which created two partitions. You made some good points here.I had to take a second to write and thank you for introducing me the information. Keep up your good work.
May 26th, 2010 at 3:31 pm
Since the Win CDs that came with my computer will not allow me to repair the MBR, I’m thankful for this advice as I don’t have to worry about finding a Windows CD somewhere. An article very well written. And yet another thumbs up for Schipps.I agree with what your writing. It’s best that people take notice of that.
May 28th, 2010 at 12:23 pm
Technically /dev/sda1 will have a Boot Record, not a Master Boot Record. There’s only one MBR per physical disk so the MBR would be on /dev/sda. Thanks for the information on linking.
May 30th, 2010 at 4:34 pm
Nice, the average Windows user to use their own Windows CD to fix the MBR, because they have no copies of anything else out there. Moreover, they would go to the nearest public library for Ubuntu, something that many people have never done in their lives.
May 30th, 2010 at 8:07 pm
Wow, so many people here are closed minded. “Just use a windows disk. easy” What if you don’t have a disk? What if the partition with your recovery partition is fubar? Also, maybe you just happen to have a LiveCD on a CD or flash drive or something. Or burn it your friend’s or family member’s computer.
This is advice. It may help some people, and not others. So if you are not interested in enlightening yourself with some new technique, then bug off and do it the way best suited for you.
June 8th, 2010 at 4:08 pm
Interesting article.. Very informative.
used cars az
June 9th, 2010 at 5:04 pm
I have tried all I could but could not fix my MBR under VISTA but your solution …. used Arizona cars I am about to do this on a system with XP and Ubuntu, to remove an old … Then boot Linux from a live CD and used gParted to remove the Linux partitions.
June 15th, 2010 at 11:42 pm
Correction to everyone saying that if you run “ms-sys -m /dev/sda1″ it will hose your system completely. This is not true. I did a similar thing on accident on an old computer and was able to fix it. The first block of data in an NTFS partition is backed up at least once if not multiple times. Take it to any knowledgeable computer repairman and they should be able to fix it.
–Connor
June 19th, 2010 at 10:55 am
Hello when i was trying to install u..bouto or something like it wrote the mbr to my hdd and not my flach drive, leaveing both unbootable. I have been useing the super grub disc, but it will only boot, not fix the mbr. so im going to try this, while praying that it will work.
ThX for your hope!
June 26th, 2010 at 12:41 pm
Just wanted to drop a thank you on this page. I recently played around with installing ubuntu on a thumb drive, utilizing my work laptop as the means of doing it. It unfortunately put grub on my laptop..which I didn’t want others to see (for fear they’d know I tweaked my work laptop). In trying to remove grub..I actually deleted the MBR. This page, along with many many other pages on the internet, were key in helping me solve my problem. It was a combination of things that needed to be done. I think that I also made some things worse while trying different ppl’s methods for solving it. I tried the ms-sys and it wasn’t available in the universal depository. I downloaded it from sourceforge and manually installed it, then tried to do the fix described here. I obviously didn’t do it right, because after that I got a partition table error upon boot. Blech. To solve that, I ran an ubuntu live cd then downloaded testdisk. Testdisk was able to copy my backup MBR (apparently there is a backup MBR in case you do something stupid like I did), and then I at least stopped getting the partition table errors. I also had to open Gparted to change the boot partition, for some reason my dell tools partition was set as the boot partition. Every time I’d boot now, it would go into the dell diagnostics screen rather than boot to windows. Easy fix..open gparted, and then right click my windows partition….then set as boot. Easy peasy.
Long explanation for something that most probably don’t care about…but ultimately I’m just thanking the community for the vast wealth of ubuntu knowledge out there. I’d have been screwed if it weren’t for you all. Much appreciation goes out to you…and hopefully one day I’ll have some good knowledge that I can help someone else with.
June 30th, 2010 at 12:00 pm
tnx, this could come in handy someday…
June 30th, 2010 at 4:46 pm
The average Windows user to use their own Windows CD to fix the MBR, because they have no copies of anything else out there. Moreover, they would go to the nearest public library for Ubuntu, something that many people have never done in their lives.
July 2nd, 2010 at 6:24 am
True if you kept the original CD, but it is something that 85% of users do not. Besides the fact that most computers come with a recovery partition “that will not help in this situation.
Thus, users have the computer to a repair shop where the technician will use some good advice such as this, because it is much faster, and because the growing popularity of Ubuntu, many people are having so much on the PC system.
July 3rd, 2010 at 4:19 pm
THAANK YOOOU!!! I was experimenting with dual booting operating systems, but i messed up my Windows xp MBR and windows was then finally able to boot again. When i did what you said, it booted again and i was just ecstatic. Thankx tons for this post and kudos to the guy who wrote ms-sys.
July 13th, 2010 at 7:20 am
? ????????, ????? ????? ???????????? ?????????????
July 27th, 2010 at 9:41 am
worked. thx for your effort. the cmd dd /dev/zero /dev/sdax left grub in the mbr and windows recovery would not work. this helped me fix it.
July 29th, 2010 at 6:22 am
So here’s how to fix it. I am finding ways on how to my window.
August 1st, 2010 at 3:11 am
Nice.. average Windows user to use their own Windows CD to fix the MBR, because they have no copies of anything else out there. Moreover, they would go to the nearest public library for Ubuntu, something many people never have done in their lives.ael!
August 8th, 2010 at 2:10 pm
Something happen to a windows Master Boot Record (MBR) that you are responsible for.
August 17th, 2010 at 10:01 am
Thanks for this tip, I had this problem before and i reinstalled the system again to solve this issue. but it’s better to use this method.
August 17th, 2010 at 3:29 pm
Hi,
I created a small guide showing step by step how to restore the Windows MBR using ms-sys and how to fix the “Invalid Partition Table” issue using testdisk:
http://forums.lenovo.com/lnv/board/message?board.id=T400_series_ThinkPads&message.id=30899#M30899
Hope it helps. Good luck.
August 18th, 2010 at 8:33 am
Hi Sir,
It’s great to find your post, anyway.
But I got a troubleshot on it. What if, as my Ubuntu live Cd says: “can’t find the package ‘ms-sys’”. It suggests to run “apt-get update”. I did it, then, after running some download, I got the the same output. I hope you can help me.
Syl
August 24th, 2010 at 7:27 am
Big thank you for this info. I think you have done a great job. Big thank you for highlighting this, keep up your good work.
September 15th, 2010 at 10:10 am
That was very helpful. Thanks!
September 15th, 2010 at 12:46 pm
Your article is great apart from that potentially misleading statment.
September 15th, 2010 at 8:12 pm
this worked – you saved me alot of time and nerves! thanks all linux guys
September 17th, 2010 at 4:17 am
Nice tip can also use Super Grub Disk to fix MBR and Grub. somehow it wouldn’t translate when i’m using firefox, but I’m able to understand the article as it’s not that deep. Interesting though..thanks.
September 24th, 2010 at 4:55 am
lol the average windows user is going to use their own windows CD to fix the MBR, because they will not have copies of anything else lying around. Plus, they would have to go to the local public library to get Ubuntu, something which many people have never done in their lives. This award is given for the place with a good condition of weather. So it’s really depend on their luck to win this award.
October 6th, 2010 at 1:41 pm
True if you kept the original CD, but it is something that 85% of users do not do it. Plus the fact that most of computers came with a ‘recovery partition’ that will not help you in this situation. So, the users will take the computer to a repair shop where the technician will use a good tip like this because it is much faster, and in addition because the increasing Ubuntu’s popularity, many people is having both systems on the PC. I usually run into a bunch of junk when it comes to this niche, but this is some good useful information I found here.
October 24th, 2010 at 7:46 pm
Wonderful article, Was so bored, this post made my night! LOL at some of ya guys!
October 25th, 2010 at 8:41 pm
I used to have a dual boot with linux and windows xp back in the day. Great articles
October 26th, 2010 at 11:29 pm
Wow, thanks for sharing national geographic information, I have learned so much here on your site, thought I’d let you know your efforts are appreciated.I really enjoy the information. I wish to come again on your site in future
October 30th, 2010 at 2:19 pm
just put Ubuntu CDs to every book in your library’s computer section. I did not say public library, I mean your own personal library at your house, yeah heehehehehehe. People are so kind if they can realise to help other people. Even they are rich, but they aren’t selfish to another.
November 5th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
This is really one of several much better articles involving people who I’ve got continue reading this matter recently. Excellent function.
November 11th, 2010 at 3:14 am
Please tell others about this Everyone wants to see their sales unexpected spike by the roof. But so many people, in which adrenaline rush, consider as well big, attend to as well many self-appointed gurus, as great as finish up blank out
November 11th, 2010 at 5:09 pm
So, the users will take the computer to a repair shop where the technician will use a good tip like this because it is much faster, and in addition because the increasing Ubuntu’s popularity, many people is having both systems on the PC.I did it, then, after running some download, I got the the same output. I hope you can help me.
November 16th, 2010 at 6:32 pm
I have always had issues with the master boot record. Thanks for this article.
November 21st, 2010 at 1:52 pm
This is awesome tips. My windows CD would not boot for some reason (some incompatibility with the SATA driver – I am not even sure how I installed windows the first time). So the only way I could add the partition to the mbr was using this method. Unfrortuently to get online i had to install unbuntu to harddisk to get it to work to view this page, but luckily i had the free space on the drive to make partitions for ubuntu.
November 21st, 2010 at 10:12 pm
Thank you so much! I had dual boot for ubuntu and XP and I didn’t like Ubuntu.Used Gnome partition to delete it and got the a lot of errors too.Thank you so much for the use.
November 23rd, 2010 at 7:29 pm
If it’s got a windows MBR that needs fixin ‘then it will work. I wonder if I can get information for this conference. It’ll be more helpful if you can give me more details or contacts.
November 29th, 2010 at 1:13 pm
Thanks for the quick tip. Definitely useful. I’m impressed that your website came up so high on Google.
November 29th, 2010 at 9:38 pm
Remember NO SPAMMING! I like lists of commentLuv blogs, so go ahead and leave your favorite dofollow blogs in the comment section.
December 3rd, 2010 at 4:54 am
The start moving in circles and will not start! Tryied to use the Windows backup floopy reach the A prompt: but I forgot what I need to enter the A: prompt. Could you help me ?…. Thanks and have a fine day. Marie I equal how you indite.Are you newsworthy in a location instance communicator job?
December 3rd, 2010 at 4:10 pm
Since the Win CDs that came with my computer will not allow me to repair the MBR (they only restore the backup using Norton Ghost), I’m thankful for this advice as I do not have to worry about finding a Windows CD somewhere. If they can make it better, then it is a way to confirm the identity again. I am not fluent in writing Mandarin, sorry..
December 5th, 2010 at 1:22 pm
I can not thank you enough for this info! This one really saved my arse!
Best regards!
André
December 13th, 2010 at 8:36 am
If you use MBR boot loader, it also showed Linux partition? In the past I tried several times to add the entry of Ubuntu to the list of MBR, but never succeeded. Because, my friend had a wireless keyboard that can not be read in the grub to select the operating system to boot. That is, I tried to add the entry of Ubuntu to the MBR and use, but unfortunately I could not make it work. However, this occurred a year and a half ago and I’m not sure if it still is. Elections should be held on April 16th- the day after we pay our income taxes. That is one of the few things that might discourage politicians from being big spenders.
December 20th, 2010 at 5:44 am
If you use MBR boot loader, it also showed Linux partition? In the past I tried several times to add the entry of Ubuntu to the list of MBR, but never succeeded. Because, my friend had a wireless keyboard that can not be read in the grub to select the operating system to boot. That is, I tried to add the entry of Ubuntu to the MBR and use, but unfortunately I could not make it work. However, this occurred a year and a half ago and I’m not sure if it still is. He that rises late must trot all day.
January 4th, 2011 at 4:56 am
Ubuntu saved my life many times !
January 6th, 2011 at 5:12 pm
It is true that works, but you do not have to go as far as all the (command lines, etc) above, if physically Unbuntu or Knoppix boots (do the same), it repairs the Windows MBR so automatically, go into the concert of O / S and then restart the system, I’ve done this a few times just in the client machines, which have come to repair! .. The FIXMBR FIXBOOT Windows commands may not work 1in10 chance of working. Thanks. Maybe the price should be balanced with gov intervention,. The invisible hand “formula” doesn’t work all the time.
January 7th, 2011 at 2:38 am
Since the Win CDs that came with my computer will not allow me to repair the MBR (they only restore the backup using Norton Ghost), I’m thankful for this advice as I don’t have to worry about finding a Windows CD somewhere.
January 7th, 2011 at 7:23 am
Great post. I like to read articles like this one.
January 7th, 2011 at 12:23 pm
Thank you so much! I had dual boot for ubuntu and XP and I didn’t like Ubuntu.Used Gnome partition to delete it and got the a lot of errors too.Thank you so much for the use.
January 17th, 2011 at 6:34 am
“This is interesting but not useful. Why go to all the problems when they just put the Windows CD or a boot disk.” Because my WinXP disc is somewhere inside a storage box and I can not get to it, but * can * borrow from another computer and burn a Live CD of Ubuntu. (You already have a Live CD of Ubuntu, but that’s beside the point) When someone is impatient and says, “I haven’t got all day,” I always wonder, How can that be? How can you not have all day?
January 17th, 2011 at 11:32 pm
Thanks for sharing your expertise. I have this problem at the moment but hopefully your advice will help me fix it. Thanks again
January 18th, 2011 at 9:09 pm
Thats really good
January 18th, 2011 at 9:32 pm
uif you have to do something you really should do it
January 21st, 2011 at 8:21 am
Well, the tips are very suggestive and useful. It will helpful for those who haver lost the original ones. So, thank you for providing such useful points in order to fix your Windows MBR with an Ubuntu liveCD.
January 21st, 2011 at 1:42 pm
1. insert the Win XP installation CD “Yes. I have a DVD of “recovery” I had to record using the tools of “recovery” hidden from Sony. All you can do is to erase the entire disk and reinstall the shovelware that I spent six weeks trying unsuccessfully to delete. If there is any way to avoid the agony in the future, I want to express my deepest gratitude in advance. I was very studied. We wish to express our gratitude. Hereafter, a lot of information will be obtained.
January 21st, 2011 at 10:55 pm
This works so well. The idea behind this are so good. I love to use this at work.
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January 31st, 2011 at 2:43 am
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February 2nd, 2011 at 6:19 am
arsgeek,can you please suggest that whether online purchase for ubuntu live cd is available and whether it is downloadable
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February 8th, 2011 at 7:54 am
Nice, the average Windows user to use their own Windows CD to fix the MBR, because they have no copies of anything else out there. Moreover, they would go to the nearest public library for Ubuntu, something that many people have never done in their lives.
February 12th, 2011 at 4:46 pm
Used this method with decent success. Thanks
February 15th, 2011 at 5:20 am
Everyone saying that the Windows installation CD is enough to ignore the fact that the Windows installation CD 20 minutes just to load the drivers so that you can select the Repair option. Stop acting as if life is a rehearsal. Live this day as if it were your last. The past is over and gone. The future is not guaranteed.
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February 22nd, 2011 at 7:12 am
A great thanks for you for this post.Only this type of post make us aware of all these modern techniques.
February 23rd, 2011 at 5:23 pm
I have said that the establishment of a screensaver with a background in still creates burning Is this true? Puppy For doing a transaction, kind of the file system is really important. It can affect the process of sending data, so it’s better use the same file system each other.
February 25th, 2011 at 8:38 am
Awesome! Nice to see this method outlined. A friend has this exact problem (missing MBR) and despite being a pretty much MS Windows guy has just become aware of Ubuntu. Only “problem” is he likes Ubuntu so much already he may not ever repair the MBR on the Windows disk
March 3rd, 2011 at 1:37 pm
Hey you really post here a very nice article, i read it whole and it seems very informative & very useful too..
March 5th, 2011 at 10:27 am
lol the average windows user is going to use their own windows CD to fix the MBR, because they will not have copies of anything else lying around. Plus, they would have to go to the local public library to get Ubuntu, something which many people have never done in their lives.
March 6th, 2011 at 3:46 am
make a good work!
March 6th, 2011 at 3:48 am
will do something and restored. Then use ms-sys; it’s pretty reliable and easy to use. And here’s a post on how to use it on an Ubuntu live CD. Just use the ‘–mbr7′ flag where the author uses ‘
March 8th, 2011 at 12:17 pm
thanks for this information really helpful for me!
March 9th, 2011 at 3:37 am
Thank you
March 9th, 2011 at 3:38 am
That really helped
March 9th, 2011 at 3:42 am
That solved my dual booting problem!
March 28th, 2011 at 2:08 pm
Thanks for the tip. For the doubters – I need to do this because I am fixing an XP machine and my install CD does not have the right storage drivers, and the machine I am working on does not have a floppy drive anyway (required to load the drivers for the Windows install CD). This is a handy workaround.
April 12th, 2011 at 5:09 pm
Valuable info. I had been feverishly looking for the solution to the problem. Glad I finally came across your timely article.
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May 20th, 2011 at 6:12 pm
Ubuntu is the way to go for tools like this. Thanks for sharing this info.
May 25th, 2011 at 8:59 am
An update on the newer acquisitions is in the works. I’ve been figuring that timing it near the fifth anniversary of this post might make some sense.
May 26th, 2011 at 2:47 pm
You have no idea how much stress you just saved me. Thank you so
so much.
May 27th, 2011 at 2:37 pm
ms-sys is no longer in the active Ubuntu repositories. You have to download it from the Dapper ones:
http://packages.ubuntu.com/dapper/ms-sys
June 10th, 2011 at 9:15 am
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June 15th, 2011 at 1:54 pm
You saved me a lot of work. Thank youu
June 22nd, 2011 at 9:17 am
When I try to install the ms-sys package it says there is an error:
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get install ms-sys
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
E: Unable to locate package ms-sys
I need help!
June 23rd, 2011 at 3:25 pm
Great post! Thank for sharing useful tips!
June 24th, 2011 at 11:40 am
Cheers for the tips, I’m not too clued up on terminal sessions and commands for it etc.
June 24th, 2011 at 1:55 pm
lol the average windows user is going to use their own windows CD to fix the MBR, because they will not have copies of anything else lying around. Plus, they would have to go to the local public library to get Ubuntu, something which many people have never done in their lives.
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For better resources, you know where you need to look.
July 6th, 2011 at 11:36 am
This was exactly what I was looking for! Thanks!
July 7th, 2011 at 8:40 pm
That is a GREAT tip ! And FYI, it works using latest ubuntu distros because, since ms-sys only depends on libc6, you can download it from packages.ubuntu.com.
July 10th, 2011 at 8:30 pm
ha the avg windows user is not going to have their windows cd to use to fix this. Additionally, they would have to go to the public library to get a copy of Ubuntu, something which many people have never done before
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July 21st, 2011 at 10:46 am
MBR now fixed using a liveCD. Short and to the point. Thanks for this
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July 31st, 2011 at 4:20 pm
ha the avg windows user is not going to have their windows cd to use to fix this. Additionally, they would have to go to the public library to get a copy of Ubuntu, something which many people have never done before
July 31st, 2011 at 4:22 pm
Thank you so much! I had dual boot for ubuntu and XP and I didn’t like Ubuntu. Used Gnome partition to delete it and resize back to XP, and got the error. Unfortunately I couldn’t find my XP disk and didn’t have a floppy drive. You helped me out alot!
August 2nd, 2011 at 2:17 am
Save your data as a last resort. But Live CDs can do more. For example, an Ubuntu Live CD can also fix your Windows MBR (Master Boot Record), if it’s broken. If you want to get advanced
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August 17th, 2011 at 1:07 pm
ms-sys is not in the repositories anymore, but is still available at http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/m/ms-sys/ They took it out of the repositories due to copyright issues. Thanks so much. Since I had a netbook without a CD ROM, this post was a lifesaver, since I can boot ubuntu from a USB thumb drive.
August 25th, 2011 at 7:21 am
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August 26th, 2011 at 7:51 am
Thanks this saved me! I didn’t have a Windows disk on me and this worked great!
September 8th, 2011 at 8:08 pm
OS: Windows XP SP2
Disk: SATA
Problem: The systems would boot to a black screen with a blinking cursor in the top left corner of the screen.
Solution: ms-sys -m /dev/sda
Booting from a Windows XP install disk did not have the drivers to detect the SATA disk so I could not run fixmbr from the Windows Repair Console.
“ms-sys -m /dev/sda” was the only method that worked. The complicating factor in this case was that Windows was running on a SATA drive.
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October 22nd, 2011 at 11:13 pm
Please help, I’m desperate to recover my MBR so I can access Windows without having to restore and lose all my data
November 4th, 2011 at 7:15 pm
Brilliant tip, much easier than all the tips using winxp alone. Worked like a charm, thanks!
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November 17th, 2011 at 1:00 am
I carelessly used “ms-sys -f -m /dev/sda1″ instead of “ms-sys -m /dev/sda”. How to undo that? Please help …
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