MBR- XP problem - Help!

[ozrock]

Hello,

I ghostpe cloned a primary HD with XP Pro and the new drive worked fine except at the boot up it gave the message after BM2 screen..

MBR Corrupt Run Boot Magic Configuration
Press any key to boot to active partition.

I was trying to get info what to do about this when on the next boot, I got the first message above then this..

No operating system (or sim)

In dos I looked in the boot.ini file and this was there..

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect

I went back to the original HD I cloned from and it still boots fine to BM2 screen and goes in to XP fine. So why doesn't the cloned one?

What should I do now?


Thanks

Someone from a ng suggested I use fixmbr in XP recovery as cloning dpoesn't do it. Will this ruin anything?

Another suggested a debug (gave me script) to get rid of BM, however I am not sure about doing any of this until I am told by a 2nd opinion.

 

[wolluf]

Fixmbr & fixboot in XP recovery console is a good idea.
Just one thing - message about Boot Magic - did you have boot magic installed on the disk you cloned? (ie, are/were you dual booting using it - because fixmbr will just put you back in single boot mode).

 

[ozrock]

Thank you for the help. I actually only had the 1 os on it anyway and BM2 was just left there after some else before me took the other 98se off. It has worked for a year I guess as it is, so that part of it was done okay.

I cloned the whole drive over 'as is' so it will pick up only the one os ,XP on disk1, Part1. (Or is it disk 0, part 1)?

I have actually cloned the clone so I can work on it without worrying I will lose the one I want to fix. When I get the answer, I will do that one then.

I thought that maybe I should do as the message says for BM, 'Run the configuration file' and see what it does.

I am not sure what file it is and I can only access it via dos of course.

I can't believe how hard it is to find any info on Boot Magic except for the later Partition magic versions which now incorporate BM.

Once I find what file it is I will try and initiate it in dos and maybe it will write whatever it needs to. I guess it's own code is corrupt somehow.

I am in the process of writing a short but concise method of how to clone properly taking all the necessary steps that will help if anything does go wrong. I will spread it around and maybe it will help others at some time.

Thansk again

 

[wolluf]

If you run fixmbr it should remove Boot Magic code from master boot record & fixboot should make sure the XP boot sector is bootable (assuming ntldr, ntdetect.com & boot.ini are present). So, machine should just boot straight into XP after this - assuming boot.ini looks something like:-

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect