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Introduction

If you have damaged the boot sector of one of your partitions (e.g. by installing GRUB in it by mistake), you may have troubles. For example, if it is a Windows partition, you will not be able to boot into Windows any more.

Remark: if you have this problem, Boot-Repair should automatically warn and tell you the name (eg sda2) of the broken partition.

Here is how to repair it:

Via an Ubuntu disc

Step 1 - Boot on a liveCD or liveUSB

Boot your computer on a Ubuntu live-CD or live-USB, then choose "Try Ubuntu".

Step 2 - Install TestDisk in the live-session

Once in the Ubuntu live session, install TestDisk this way:

  • Connect internet

  • Open the Software Center, in the top bar click Edit -> Software Sources -> enable the Universe repository

  • Open a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and type : 

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install -y testdisk && sudo testdisk

Step 3 - Use TestDisk

  • Via the arrows and the Enter key, go to the [No log] menu,
  • then select the disk where the broken partition is,
  • then select [Proceed],
  • then choose the type of partition (generally [Intel]),
  • then[Advanced],
  • then select the broken partition with [Boot], it will display something like : 

 Boot sector
 Status: Bad

 Backup boot sector
 Status: OK

 Sectors are not identical.

 A valid NTFS Boot sector must be present in order to access
 any data; even if the partition is not bootable.

 [  List  ]  [Backup BS]  [Rebuild BS]  [  Dump  ]

7. Check that you have "Status ok" below "Backup boot sector"

8. select [Backup BS].

Done

Via a Windows disc

This method is only able to fix the bootsector of a Windows partition.

1. Get a Windows recovery disk, as explained on this page

2. Boot on it, and use the 'fixboot' command (not the 'fixmbr' one). This should fix the bootsector of Windows.

External Links

BootSectorFix (last edited 2013-07-17 19:31:50 by yannubuntu)