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    #1

    Restoring Windows XP's bootloader in mbr without windows recovery CD?

    Hi

    I have a work computer with Windows in it, in the only HD. I loaded a liveCD to check something, but accidentally I clicked on "install", and next thing you know, even when I cancelled, it wrote a defective grub on the mbr of the only hard-drive

    So, I need to restore the windows bootloader. Apparently, the trick is to use a windows recovery CD (which I don't have, though I could ask in the office) and run "fdisk /mbr":

    http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/29...xp-bootloader/

    I also read someone on the net suggesting to do that in a freedos live-usb. But I used unetbootin to create a live USB of freedos, and I didn't find fdisk. Anyone know any better? Is there a good live CD for freedos? Or anything that'll let me restore the windows bootloader?

    Another useful tool would be a liveCD that autodetects the OS on the HD and lets you boot into it. At least to double check that WindowsXP is still there!

    The HD is encrypted, I am not sure if this would make things more complicated, but I definitely won't be able to freely browse it to see what's in there.

    Many thanks in advance!
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    #2
    Re: Restoring Windows XP's bootloader in mbr without windows recovery CD?

    Try super grub disk: http://www.supergrubdisk.org/wiki/Main_Page

    This could also work: http://www.arsgeek.com/2008/01/15/ho...ubuntu-livecd/

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      #3
      Re: Restoring Windows XP's bootloader in mbr without windows recovery CD?

      Supergrub is your best bet. It's worked for me.

      It's ms-sys is not in the Lucid Lynx repositories but it might be in Karmic's. Ms-sys has problems that leads to reboot looping. From what I've read it's not ready for 9.10 or 10.4. I'd stick with super grub.
      "A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
      – John F. Kennedy, February 26, 1962.
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        #4
        Re: Restoring Windows XP's bootloader in mbr without windows recovery CD?

        a windows xp cd or windows boot flopey ............with the xp cd you boot to recovery console and use "fixmbr" or/and "fixboot" or the fdisk /mbr ................from a win 98 boot flopey do the fdisk /mbr ...........never tryed useing super grubdisk for this as I have a XPcd and 98 boot flopey's ...........PM if you nead 1 mailed to ya acualey I think you can find them for DL on the net freeley.....98 boot flopey's that is.

        VINNY
        i7 4core HT 8MB L3 2.9GHz
        16GB RAM
        Nvidia GTX 860M 4GB RAM 1152 cuda cores
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          #5
          Re: Restoring Windows XP's bootloader in mbr without windows recovery CD?

          Thank you so much all three of you. I already tried super grub CD with no luck (or maybe the hard-drive is screwed up, but it didn't autodetect anything, sorry I missed that in the original post). I'll try Walto's pointer to arsgeek, and if that doesn't work I'll try to get the windows recovery thingie.

          Thank you all!
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            #6
            Re: Restoring Windows XP's bootloader in mbr without windows recovery CD?

            Let's talk about the supergrub... which options did you use and how did it fail?
            "A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
            – John F. Kennedy, February 26, 1962.
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              #7
              Re: Restoring Windows XP's bootloader in mbr without windows recovery CD?

              Linux program to fdisk /mbr:
              This is a Linux program for writing Microsoft compatible boot records. The program does the same as Microsoft "fdisk /mbr" to a hard disk or "sys d:" to a floppy or FAT partition except that it does not copy any system files, only the boot record is written.
              http://ms-sys.sourceforge.net/


              Windows
              How To Repair the Master Boot Record In Windows XP
              http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixthe.../repairmbr.htm
              See Reply#15 by node516:
              http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...9102#msg169102


              I don't know if there's anything there (in the links).
              An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski
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                #8
                Re: Restoring Windows XP's bootloader in mbr without windows recovery CD?

                Hi all

                Thanks again for all the suggestions. I know what the issue seems to be: the disk is encrypted in a way where even the bootloader need to be encryption aware (or so I was told). This explain why I was unable to chainload windows from super-grub CD, and I was also unable to boot using the windows bootloaders that ms-sys installs from you.

                By the way, it was a breeze to install ms-sys, and it seems to have done its job (and most likely, for a non-encrypted disk it would have been the solution). Here is how:

                * Boot off of the live CD (I used live USB created with kubuntu's usb-creator)
                * Install the build-essentials metapackage
                * download the source code for ms-sys from its webpage, and follow the instructions

                There was once compile error, but I figured out what package provided the missing command (the shell tells you when a command you need is provided by a package you haven't installed, which I find fascinating). I think the missing package was gettext. Anyways, it installed and worked fine

                I'll have to take the computer to the office to get this fixed, but I really appreciate all the help.

                Cheers!
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