Repair Damaged or Corrupt Hard Drive Partition Table in Windows
Damaged partition table and MBR are the major factors that cause Windows boot issues. Microsoft provides a free utility for recovering your corrupt MBR of hard drive partitioning. The tool will let you repair the damaged master boot record (MBR) or the Boot Configuration Data (BCD).
If you are facing boot problems in the Windows OS then, the first thing you must try is Startup Repair. If startup repair fails to fix the problem then, run Bootrec.exe to fix the issue.
How to repair damaged or corrupt hard drive partition table using bootrec?
- First, boot from the Windows Setup DVD or a System Repair Disc.
- After booting your system, launch command prompt. (From Advanced options or the Safe Mode, this varies according to the Windows versions used).
- Run command exe in command prompt.
The bootrec.exe command is available with four options namely:
- /FixMbr
- /FixBoot
- /ScanOs
- and, /RebuildBcd.
1. To repair the corrupt or damaged boot sector:
Run bootrec.exe /fixmbr
2. To write a new boot sector:
Run bootrec.exe /fixboot.
3. To rebuild the boot configuration data (BCD)
Run bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd.
4. To add missing windows installations to the boot configuration data
Run bootrec.exe /scanos
Which bootrec parameter among the four is to be used and when?
- The errors like “Operating System not found“, “Error loading operating system“, “Missing operating system” or “Invalid partition table” indicates that something went wrong with the MBR and it needs to be repaired. In such situation run exe /fixmbr
- Suppose if the boot sector is replaced with a non-standard Windows boot sector (such as Windows Vista, 7, 8 or 8.1) then it may lead to boot time issues. In such case, running bootrec.exe with /FixBoot parameter could help you.
- If the boot sector is damaged and needs to be replaced then, you should run bootrec.exe /FixBoot command. By running this command, a new boot sector will be written to the system partition. This command proves helpful in several other situations too such as Boot issues occurring due to an installation of earlier Windows operating system after your version of Windows.
- Startup issues can also occur due to damaged files in the boot configuration data. In order to rebuild those damaged BCD files, you need to run exe /rebuildbcd.
- In the case of multiple operating systems installed on your system, one of them or some of them may turn unavailable. This happens due to some missing OS installation files in the BCD. Such issue can be fixed using bootrec.exe /ScanOS command. The command scans for all installed OS on the disks and makes them available to you by manipulating BCD records.
- First, run bootrec /fixmbr to clean the Master Boot Record.
- After that run exe /nt60 all /force
Here,
/nt60: This argument specifies the master boot code which is compatible with BOOTMGR.
/all: This argument specifies that the master boot code will be updated on all partitions
/force: This argument specifies that all the volumes will be forcibly dismounted while boot code is updating.
The above commands lead to a new MBR and let the correct Windows boot loader to load the specific Windows installation that was previously unavailable.
You can solve most of your Windows boot/startup problems using the Bootrec.exe. However, it cannot guarantee the fix for the problem. If this fails to recover your corrupt MBR or hard drive partition, then try using advanced hard drive partition recovery tools. These tools are capable of recovering lost/deleted/inaccessible Windows partition data in all sorts of data loss situations.
About The Author
Oliver Powell
Oliver Powell is a Data Recovery Expert at Stellar®. He is a passionate technology blogger & content creator, He explores new applications and has deep understanding of data recovery. He has experience in Windows & Mac data recovery domain.
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The recovery of lost partitions is a very critical task and happy to know that we have reliable solution from the veterans of Data Recovery.
This Stellar Hard Drive Partition software works is full of many advanced functionalities.
i restarted my laptop after that it showing me a black screen when i give it to the dell service they said that the partition is corrupted what solution can be taken??
Hello Shubham,
Most of your Windows boot/startup problems can be taken care by using the Bootrec.exe
This resource may be helpful to you: https://www.stellarinfo.com/blog/repair-corrupt-partition-table-in-windows/
Being a beginner, this blog helps to remove many of my doubts. Since then I am regular reader of your post and even bookmark it on my web browser. Please keep posting more posts.
Hello Peter,
We are regularly updating, many posts during regular intervals. Please read them also. They are also highly informative.
Please don’t forgot to follow us on Twitter.
Very informative blog. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Hi, suddenly one of my partition stopped working, whenever I try to access it shows error message that do you want to format drive. I have doubt that it happens because of ruin partition table, I don’t know how to fix this issue. Please suggest me what I should do to repair the partition table and make the partition accessible.
Hi, just go through this blog https://www.stellarinfo.com/blog/repair-corrupt-partition-table-in-windows/. On this blog, all the issues and fixes for damaged partition table has described very well. I believe it will help you for sure.
Hi, My hard drive file system becomes raw and I am unable to access files. I want to recover data and make the drive usable. Any help would be great!
Hi David,
Your hard drive file system is damage and due to this hard drive becomes RAW and OS unable to read the data properly. To make your data accessible you need to download above mentioned data recovery software, it’ will help you to recover your data within short time.
Good Luck!!
Hi, I have used the above mentioned tool, it really works well to recover files and folders. Many Thanks!!!
hi, My windows 8 partition table is not working properly, I don’t understand what is the reason behind this corruption but now because of this I am unable to access my important files. I have read above commends you have mentioned to repair partition table but I am afraid of using them. I don’t want to lose my files so please suggest me any tool which can recover data after partition table corruption.
Hi Mirenda,
I can understand, sometime using manual repair command can make situation worst. You can try above mentioned software which can easily recover data from damage partition table. This tool is specially created to recover data from lost, damage partition, you can try it.
Hope it will work for you!!
I was getting error message on laptop stating “Operation system not found”. However, I easily detected the route cause and fixed it myself. DVD inside the drive was the culprit and creating problem during startup process. Removing it solved the issue and I can access PC as before.
I’d suggest removing externally connected storage devices such as Flash drive, CD DVD or Micro SD before starting your PC. If do not remove the same, it’ll create problem during startup process and there is high chances that you might face similar issues as in my computer.