unbootable boot volume - mbr/mft fubar - Windows XP64

[Apex]

Right lads this one is anoying to say the least.

Main rig decided to reboot randomly at start of this week and ever since i've been getting the above.

Would not boot into safe mode etc bombs out with the BSOD.

Finally tracked my install cd and attempted to boot the computer to run a chkdsk / fix mbr etc but each time the machine would blue screen at the end of the windows blue txt setup part so could not get to recovery console.....

Finally fixed that issue (have to set sata ports to ide mode from ACHI mode :s )

Now boots past that bit but i am now greeted with something very worrying; my primary partition is seen but it does not reconise the format of the disk and says it's empty (i know it's not empty)

Before i take the drastic action of doing a "quick format" and then spending 3 days installing the os to a new drive then recovering the data are there any tools or tricks you would recomend i try before taking the belt and braces way...

ps to thoes who think formating is a bad idea; generally i would agree with you but i am doing a quick format so all it's doing is writing the file table to the disk the data is still there.

[Copperwings]

I once had a very similar issue when I restored a system image. In my case the main partition was recognised, but not the other two (it was the duplicate copy of the MBR that was corrupted for me)

After loads of research I managed to use this tool to repair the MBR. It's probably worth a try although I can, of course, accept no liability for anything including loss of any data.

Really hope you manage to get things working!

[Apex]

I'll give it a blast and see what happens =)

[mallwood]

Alternatively, try a Linux live-CD - these can sometimes detect drives that Windows can't and will allow you to copy important stuff off it

[Apex]

I once had a very similar issue when I restored a system image. In my case the main partition was recognised, but not the other two (it was the duplicate copy of the MBR that was corrupted for me)

After loads of research I managed to use this tool to repair the MBR. It's probably worth a try although I can, of course, accept no liability for anything including loss of any data.

Really hope you manage to get things working!

Sorry ment to reply back to this sooner but i used the above tool to opy the data off the drive; then it got nuked and copied back - all is well now

Thanks