Master Boot Record problem - server not booting 1

[1234512345]

I need help please. I have an NT 4.0 Terminal Server which will not boot. I have created a boot floppy with ntldr, ntdetect.com and the server's boot.ini and the server will boot this way. I have tried fdisk /mbr from a Win 98 boot disk but it hasn't helped. When the server boots - it finishes the POST checks and all I get is a black screen with a flashing cursor - it doesn't start loading the OS and I am very much suspecting that somehow my MBR / Partition table is corrupt. Does anyone have any ideas on how I can get my server to boot / repair the table? thanks

 

[ensorg]

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q155053

The above link looks like your problem. Copy and paste the link.

 

[hagar123]

Hi, had the same problem. It has sth to do with defragmentation (according to Technet)
Boot the server from the floppy, got the the c:\ drive and rename ntldr, ntdetect and boot.ini to *.old. Then copy the files from youtr floppy to the c:\ drive thus making them apear on a new (contigious) part of your drive and reboot the thing. It worked with me (I'm running NT Terminal server 4.0 with sp 6a for Term. server)
Hope this helps

 

[ashleym]

If you have enough space on C you could also do a paralell install of NT4TS. Then you could use tools to either figure out what the problem is and/or replace corrupt files.

AM

 

[1234512345]

Hi - and thanks for your responses. :-D Yes - I had come across that article before and the way it reads is that it was fixed in Service pack 6. So I logged a call with Microsoft, they sent me the hotfix which was 2.5 years old - and it worked. Apparently it forces it (MBR + NTLDR) to update whereas the service pack may not have. Yes - the MBR was too badly fragmented to see where to start loading NTLDR.
Yes - I had previously tried the renaming of the files to .old so I had brand new ones but that didn't work either unfortunately.
And yes - the first thing I asked my client was if I could do a 2nd install but they didn't want me to.
Thanks very much for you help

 

[hagar123]

Could you please send me the hotfix or where to find it?