Before we move on to the MBR errors, let us first understand what an MBR is. An MBR, short for Master Boot Record is present in the very first sector of your hard disk. When you turn ON your computer, the first thing the computer reads is the MBR, which tells it where the OS is located.
If there is any corruption or damage to the MBR, the OS cannot be loaded and your PC will not be able to boot. If the MBR is corrupted, you may receive errors such as ‘Missing operating system’, ‘Error loading operating system’, ‘MBR error’ etc.
In this article, we discuss errors ‘MBR error 1’, ‘MBR error 2’, and ‘MBR error 3’. All of these error messages indicate corruption in MBR. Corruption can happen due to various reasons such as bad sectors, virus attacks or physical damage. In some cases, it can also occur due to damage caused by third-party disk management tools generally used for partitioning drives.
Now before we move on to the solutions to resolve this error, it is a good idea to recover all data from the drive using Hi5 Software. It is a wonderful tool when you have to recover data from systems that are not booting (in cases of MBR corruption). All of your partitions and data will be recovered in original format without any change. In addition to this, you can also use it to recover data from formatted drives or recover data after an OS reinstall.
Once data is recovered, it is safe to proceed with steps to resolve the error.
Solutions to Fix MBR Error 1, 2 or 3
Solution 1: Using Startup repair
- To perform automatic startup repair, you will need to enter recovery mode on your system
- To enter recovery mode, restart your computer and keep pressing the F8 Click on Troubleshoot > Advanced Options
- Select Startup repair
This tool will not only try and fix the MBR but will also resolve other startup issues. Hence, as a first troubleshooting step, you should let Windows automatically resolve these issues. However, if this doesn’t help, you can proceed to the next step.
Note: If you don’t have the recovery mode option, you will need a Windows installation disc. Insert the installation disc into your system and boot from the disc. Then click Repair your computer > Troubleshoot > Advanced Options; here you will find Startup repair and Command Prompt (explained below) options.
Solution 2: Using Bootrec.exe tool
- Enter recovery mode using the same steps explained in Solution 1 and click on Troubleshoot > Advanced Options
- Select Command Prompt and type the following commands
- ‘bootrec /rebuildbcd’
- ‘bootrec /fixmbr’
- ‘bootrec /fixboot’
- Click Enter after each command and these commands should help fix corruption in MBR.
- Once corruption is fixed, MBR errors will be resolved and then you should be able to boot normally into your system.
Once this is done, just to be on a safer side, perform a disk check and also SFC scan to check your file systems and system files thoroughly to eliminate problems if any. Also run an anti-virus scan to rule out the possibility of any virus or malware. Then you should be able to use your system without any issues.
