Corrupted MBR -Regular occurrence
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From: Bernard on 30 Mar 2008 20:27 Hi group, I've had to format my hard drive around 6 times in the past 6 months because of a corrupted MBR. Initially, a few runs of CHKDSK in the recovery console and a running FIXMBR has fixed the problem for a couple of months only to have the same problem happen again. Thinking it was the hard drive, I took it back to the manufacturer for a warranty replacement. Now the problem seems to be happening again on the new drive and only 1 month of having it. Just wondering what could be the problem source of the problem. There are a few things that I think could be the problem, you might be able to shed some light on this. 1. Windows XP x64 -I might have a bodgy copy of the O/S, although I highly doubt it as it's a volume license version. 2. The SATA/IDE bus is somehow not working and therefore corrupting the hard drive. The problem seems to pop it's head up straight after a reboot. Either because the machine has frozen or I get "BSoD". Is there anyway of testing the SATA/IDE bus or are there other areas that could be the problem? Thanks in advanced, Bernard
From: Rod Speed on 31 Mar 2008 00:39 Bernard <bernard.herrok(a)gmail.com> wrote > Hi group, Lo groupy, > I've had to format my hard drive around 6 times > in the past 6 months because of a corrupted MBR. > Initially, a few runs of CHKDSK in the recovery console > and a running FIXMBR has fixed the problem for a couple > of months only to have the same problem happen again. > Thinking it was the hard drive, Thats unlikely if only the MBR was affected. > I took it back to the manufacturer for a warranty replacement. > Now the problem seems to be happening again on the new > drive and only 1 month of having it. > Just wondering what could be the problem source of the problem. Something else in the hard drive subsystem, or its a software problem. Most likely a software problem. > There are a few things that I think could be the problem, > you might be able to shed some light on this. > 1. Windows XP x64 -I might have a bodgy copy of the O/S, > although I highly doubt it as it's a volume license version. It wont be that. > 2. The SATA/IDE bus is somehow not working > and therefore corrupting the hard drive. Very unlikely to JUST corrupt the MBR. > The problem seems to pop it's head up straight after a reboot. Thats important. > Either because the machine has frozen or I get "BSoD". That doesnt normally corrupt the MBR. > Is there anyway of testing the SATA/IDE bus It wont be that, if that was the problem, it wouldnt JUST corrupt the MBR. > or are there other areas that could be the problem? Yep, it could be in a wide variety of areas. Most likely something is causing the freeze and BSODs and when that has happened, the MBR is corrupted when the system attempts to boot after that problem has shown up. That might be due to bad caps. These are the usually blue or black plastic covered post like things that stick up vertically from the motherboard surface. The tops should be flat. If any have bulged or have leaked, thats likely the problem. Is there any commonality in what produces the freeze or BSOD ?
From: Bernard on 31 Mar 2008 01:39 Thanks for the quick reply Rod. Regarding the BSoD, that only happened once. The common denominator here seems to be a reboot while the hard drive is "doing something". For example, the last time the hard drive "screwed up", the BSoD was dumping the physicals and this took around 1hr. So I got impatient and restarted the machine. While another time, the system just froze up and the hard drive I/O light was on, so I restarted and BANG. Same problem. As for the only the MBR being affected, I forgot to mention on the original post that the while doing CHKDSK, there were a lot of index, USN journal fixes, orphan files and also it did a step I've never seen before "Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap". The CHKDSK errors happen every time this problem pops up. Does this sound more like an onboard controller fault? Are there any utilities I can use to test the motherboard/chipset and the controllers? I thought something that would send large amounts of data to the hard drive (therefore via the SATA/IDE controller) and checks whether the data was received as expected. Thanks again, Bernard On Mar 31, 3:39 pm, "Rod Speed" <rod.speed....(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Bernard <bernard.her...(a)gmail.com> wrote > > > Hi group, > > Lo groupy, > > > I've had to format my hard drive around 6 times > > in the past 6 months because of a corrupted MBR. > > Initially, a few runs of CHKDSK in the recovery console > > and a running FIXMBR has fixed the problem for a couple > > of months only to have the same problem happen again. > > Thinking it was the hard drive, > > Thats unlikely if only the MBR was affected. > > > I took it back to the manufacturer for a warranty replacement. > > Now the problem seems to be happening again on the new > > drive and only 1 month of having it. > > Just wondering what could be the problem source of the problem. > > Something else in the hard drive subsystem, or its a software problem. > > Most likely a software problem. > > > There are a few things that I think could be the problem, > > you might be able to shed some light on this. > > 1. Windows XP x64 -I might have a bodgy copy of the O/S, > > although I highly doubt it as it's a volume license version. > > It wont be that. > > > 2. The SATA/IDE bus is somehow not working > > and therefore corrupting the hard drive. > > Very unlikely to JUST corrupt the MBR. > > > The problem seems to pop it's head up straight after a reboot. > > Thats important. > > > Either because the machine has frozen or I get "BSoD". > > That doesnt normally corrupt the MBR. > > > Is there anyway of testing the SATA/IDE bus > > It wont be that, if that was the problem, it wouldnt JUST corrupt the MBR. > > > or are there other areas that could be the problem? > > Yep, it could be in a wide variety of areas. > > Most likely something is causing the freeze and BSODs and when that has happened, > the MBR is corrupted when the system attempts to boot after that problem has shown up. > That might be due to bad caps. These are the usually blue or black plastic covered post > like things that stick up vertically from the motherboard surface. The tops should be flat. > If any have bulged or have leaked, thats likely the problem. > > Is there any commonality in what produces the freeze or BSOD ?
From: Franc Zabkar on 31 Mar 2008 02:44 On Sun, 30 Mar 2008 17:27:38 -0700 (PDT), Bernard <bernard.herrok(a)gmail.com> put finger to keyboard and composed: >I've had to format my hard drive around 6 times in the past 6 months >because of a corrupted MBR. > >Initially, a few runs of CHKDSK in the recovery console and a running >FIXMBR has fixed the problem for a couple of months only to have the >same problem happen again. I can't understand why your OS or your software would want to write to the MBR, unless you were repartitioning the disc or intentionally refreshing the MBR code. Instead I suspect that your drive is developing bad sectors. If you believe that the MBR code is corrupt because FIXMBR is telling you so, then be aware of the following bug (it is also present in Win XP Home's recovery console). ==================================================================== Error Message When You Run fixmbr Command: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/266745/ SYMPTOMS When you attempt to run the fixmbr command in the Microsoft Windows 2000 recovery console, your computer system may display the following error message: This computer appears to have a non-standard or invalid master boot record. FIXMBR may damage your partition tables if you proceed. This could cause all the partitions on the current hard disk to become inaccessible. If you are not having problems accessing your drive, do not continue. Are you sure you want to write a new MBR? RESOLUTION Ignore the error message described in the "Symptoms" section of this article. The fixmbr command can safely rewrite the MBR. STATUS Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. MORE INFORMATION The fixmbr command causes this error message to be displayed on your computer system whenever you run the command, regardless of the state of the Master Boot Record (MBR). ==================================================================== - Franc Zabkar -- Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.
From: Bernard on 31 Mar 2008 02:21 Thanks Franc, The reason I run FIXMBR is because recovery console doesn't recognise the drive. Once I run FIXMBR and restart, the drive becomes available for me to run CHKDSK. Cheers, Bernard On Mar 31, 5:44 pm, Franc Zabkar <fzab...(a)iinternode.on.net> wrote: > On Sun, 30 Mar 2008 17:27:38 -0700 (PDT), Bernard > <bernard.her...(a)gmail.com> put finger to keyboard and composed: > > >I've had to format my hard drive around 6 times in the past 6 months > >because of a corrupted MBR. > > >Initially, a few runs of CHKDSK in the recovery console and a running > >FIXMBR has fixed the problem for a couple of months only to have the > >same problem happen again. > > I can't understand why your OS or your software would want to write to > the MBR, unless you were repartitioning the disc or intentionally > refreshing the MBR code. Instead I suspect that your drive is > developing bad sectors. > > If you believe that the MBR code is corrupt because FIXMBR is telling > you so, then be aware of the following bug (it is also present in Win > XP Home's recovery console). > > ==================================================================== > Error Message When You Run fixmbr Command: > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/266745/ > > SYMPTOMS > > When you attempt to run the fixmbr command in the Microsoft Windows > 2000 recovery console, your computer system may display the following > error message: > > This computer appears to have a non-standard or invalid master boot > record. FIXMBR may damage your partition tables if you proceed. This > could cause all the partitions on the current hard disk to become > inaccessible. If you are not having problems accessing your drive, do > not continue. Are you sure you want to write a new MBR? > > RESOLUTION > > Ignore the error message described in the "Symptoms" section of this > article. The fixmbr command can safely rewrite the MBR. > > STATUS > > Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft > products that are listed at the beginning of this article. > > MORE INFORMATION > > The fixmbr command causes this error message to be displayed on your > computer system whenever you run the command, regardless of the state > of the Master Boot Record (MBR). > ==================================================================== > > - Franc Zabkar > -- > Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.
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