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XP woes - "MBR Error 1. Press any key to boot from floppy"

3K views 12 replies 4 participants last post by  texasbullet 
#1 ·
Hi

I’ve had this problem for a while now… When I turn my PC on, it comes to a black screen saying “MBR Error 1 - Press any key to boot from floppy”. For months it was not much bother as within a few hits of the reset button Windows would load. But then it got to a stage where I’d have to hit the reset button more and more. So for the last few months I’ve just been keeping my PC on….

…. I went on holiday in October and switched off while away. It took several hours of hitting the reset to get Windows to load. Then, a few weeks back, I stupidly switched my PC off by accident. This time it took a whole 24 hours to get Windows to load! I reckon at least 300-400 reset presses!

Anyhow, I’m using this as a calling to update to a more modern OS. But seeing as I have got spare hard drives, I would quite like to keep my current OS as is in case I need to come back to it for whatever reason. So I wondered if anyone knows how to fix my problem?

I did try some stuff a while back but none of it worked. This included FIXMBR and FIXBOOT. I’ve got screenshots from the time if they might help? I’ve also got a BSOD from around the time and another screen with various ISOLINUX messages. My memory is hazy as to what I did exactly though.

One other thing… When I went through the 24 hour resets, I went in to BIOS a few times and the OS system HD was not showing in BIOS. TBH, I thought it was dead. I knew it worked mechanically because I could hear it. But I must admit I was pleasantly shocked when Windows loaded after circa 400 resets!!!

Any help very much appreciated.

Cheers
 
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#2 ·
From reading this, it seems like the HDD is on its last legs. If you really want to keep the data, you could try cloning the drive. However, given how flakey it's been of late, you might not even be able to complete this operation.

Another option would be to convert the physical machine to a virtual one. I've used VMware vCenter Converter before when I had to virtualise an old XP machine which had some ancient accounting software with no installation disc(s). Once I virtualized it, I copied the files to a Win 7 host machine, added the virtual machine under VMware Workstation Player and then it was good to go.
 
#3 ·
Hi lochlomonder

Thanks for the reply and the info... I'm fully backed up on that drive. That's just my C drive, so all I back up from there is app settings and what not. All data is kept on a separate drive completely.

I did wonder if the drive might be on the way out. It is about 10 years old after all so it has not done too badly. The thing is though, once I get pass the resets and Windows finally loads, it's all good for weeks/months. The only thing that makes the problem return is shutting down. Even if I restart through Windows everything reloads with no issue. It's only on a proper shut down that the problem occurs. Does that still sound like a failing HD?

Also, would any utilities such as HDTune, GSmartControl, etc help?

Thanks again
 
#4 ·
You're welcome (y)

This is the excerpt from your post which concerned me most...
When I went through the 24 hour resets, I went in to BIOS a few times and the OS system HD was not showing in BIOS.
When that sort of thing starts happening and even the BIOS doesn't detect the drive, it suggests to me it's on its way out. Thankfully, you don't have any data on there, so you won't lose anything. It's a good idea to have HD Tune check out the disk, paying close attention to the SMART status.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Hi

Back with a few updates.

I ran CHKDSK /R on the drive. Well, actually, I chose C which is one of three partitions on the drive, so I'm not sure if that matters? Anyhow, there were 5 stages. For the first 4 it said file verification completed. The fifth flicked passed so quick I wasn't able to see what it said. But I ended up at a screen which said "The volume is clean. Windows has finished checking the disc."

I also ran some other tests and checks... SMART result seems ok. The HDTune benchmark looks all over the place though. Also, I am just finishing up a HDTune Error Scan and so far it has found 4 damaged sectors. What's weird though is that it is taking an age! Getting towards the 24 hour mark soon and it is still not done. I'm sure it has never taken that long before. I've got results from a 2TB drive I error scanned a while back and that took 5 hours. And it is 4 times larger! So I don't know if the slow error scan signifies a problem or if it is just because it is a different model.

I'm stabbing in the dark a bit tbh, so if anyone more knowledge is able to comment on whether these results point toward or away from the HD being on the way out, that would be fantastic. I'll post the Error scan result when ti has finished.

Many many thanks

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#6 ·
One thing I'd probably do is replace the gray ribbon cable that connects from the hard drive to the motherboard.
(I happen to have a few new spare ribbon cables around so it would be easy for me) If your cable happens to be a red sata with the black connectors, then replace it.

Three things might cause the hard drive disappearing, even if the hd is healthy, the cable could be bad, the cable coulb not be making a good contact either to the motherboard or to the hard drive or the motherboard connector port might be going bad.
If you have no spare cables, at the very least, open up the computer, clean out the port on the motherboard and then re-seat the ribbon cable on the motherboard and at the hard drive.
 
#7 ·
Hi plodr and thanks for the reply

Just to clarify first of all that this is a SATA drive so does not have a ribbon cable.

Anyhow, when I had the "24 hour reset pressing" saga I really thought I would never see Windows open again on the HD. At least not without a re-installation. So because I felt doomed, I did indeed unplug the SATA cable, clean out the ports, try another cable, etc. None of it fixed the problem.

Good thinking though and appreciate your help :)
 
#8 ·
A bit more info... The HDTune error scan finished with 4 damaged blocks. The reason it took an age was because it was running at 3.8 MB/sec.

I'm not sure why, but I decided to run another HDTune benchmark:

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It struck me how different this was to the one above. It was only later that I noticed the scale and that the maximum transfer rate was 3.8 MB/sec (previously 87.4MB/sec). Is this a sign that the HD is close to dying? Or could something else be causing it?
 
#9 ·
I've decided I'm going to make sure I've got everything I need from this drive and then retire it ASAP. I've got a spare, and I want to move on to W7 anyhow. It would have been nice to have this drive working **just in case** I need to go back to it for anything. But never mind, I'll just have to make sure my backing up is very thorough!

Incidentally, I bought three of these drives when I built the PC and the other two seem just fine to me. They have given zero issues or signs of failure, and when last tested they passed with flying colours. I want to keep using them as I HATE throwing things away unnecessarily... But do you think I should let their age (10 years) do the talking, or their performance and test results (all good)?

Someone mentioned that testing a failing drive will make it fail even sooner, and that certainly would explain why the results were getting worse! I'll stop tests now while I get the rest of the info I need from it. For future reference though, could anyone please confirm if this is just the case with a failing drive? Is it ok to run tests on drives that are old but not failing?

Thanks again for the help
 
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