Restoring ACCESS to unbootable recovery partition?

[nelsonm]

Restoring ACCESS to a recovery partition?

Hi all,

Sometimes i get a computer that has a recovery partition but some how can not be accessed. Since the mbr contains the info to boot to partitions, I think the mbr for the drive may have been altered or rewritten. So the manufactures function key method of accessing the partition no longer works.

Although i have downloaded and used an app that is supposed to repair the mbr, its not always successful.

Other than getting an imaged and undammaged mbr from someone with the same computer, does anyone know if there is an app that will restore access to a recovery partition?

 

[iptech]

Although i have downloaded and used an app that is supposed to repair the mbr, its not always successful.

That's because drives that also contain a bootable recovery partition will somtimes use a custom MBR, using tools such as MBRFIX will mean you can still boot the the primary OS partition, but the recovery partition option will have gone. Dell use a non-standard MBR and have their own MBR fix tool.

 

[nelsonm]

Interesting, i did not get that info from dell when i talked to them about it. They never offered a mbrfix tool.

 

[iptech]

You can repair it using Dell's Media Repair Utility CD or there's DSRFIX which is a third party one-click solution that I've used with success on Dell systems.

 

[vdub12]

I hate recovery partitions. I always reload without them.

 

[DarDar]

Dell (and other manufacturers) won't release those tools to the public. There is a tool for Dells called dsrfix

http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/index.htm

 

[i.t-works]

What you can try is setting the recovery partiton active - and the computer will boot from that partition. It's worked for me a few times. Usually the recovery partition restores the MBR needed for the recovery hotkey to work

 

[KompuKare]

What you can try is setting the recovery partiton active - and the computer will boot from that partition. It's worked for me a few times

An other thing to try (in XP or with Grub) would be to take the bootsector of that partition and add it to boot.ini, I haven't tried that for recovery partitions but I have done it to be able to use ntldr for loading ubuntu. A guide to dual or quad bootbooting will show you how. But yes, making the partition active is ok but doesn't fix the machine back to how it should have been...

 

[nelsonm]

DarDar,

I tried DSRFIX, but it did not work in my case.

However, apparently you can download the XP media repair utility to create a bootable cd from Dell after all but the page does not say that it will repair the mbr to allow access to the recovery partition. But it does say the following:

You may need to use the Dell MediaDirect Repair utility if one of the following scenarios exist:

* Dell MediaDirect is installed but fails to launch when you press the Dell MediaDirect button.
* The operating system is reinstalled on your existing hard drive.
* You want to change the way your hard drive is partitioned.

Dell MediaDirect is a feature available on Dell laptop computers. MediaDirect provides quick access to multimedia and other content. MediaDirect provides "instant on" access to multimedia and other items, including:

* Video
* Music
* Photo slide shows
* The Instant Office feature

Understanding the Dell MediaDirect Partition

Some Dell notebook computers include a special Dell MediaDirect feature. MediaDirect enables you to watch DVD movies, slideshows, or listen to music without having to boot the complete XP operating system. MediaDirect is installed in a special partition on the hard disk, but is hidden so you cannot see it when XP is booted normally. When the computer is off, pressing the MediaDirect button will boot the MediaDirect partition instead of XP.

http://supportapj.dell.com/support/...&s=gen&docid=26B720E7D596B89DE040A68F5B280867



What you guys think?