How do I delete the boot record?

[tonysolomon]

I have a C: drive and a D: drive. The C: drive has Windows ME and the D: drive used to until I did the following.

I went to Tools/Folder Options/View and chose "show hidden files and folders". Then I deleted everything except the folders that I was keeping data in.

Now when I run Norton System Check it tells me that Drive D: has integrity problems, so I run Norton Disk Doctor. But when I do it tells me that there is an "invalid disk table in boot record". If I ask it to fix it I'm told "boot record could not be repaired".

I've posted about this problem a few weeks ago, but this time I don't want to fix the boot record, since I only want the drive for data. I want to know how to delete the boot record, so that I don't get that error message any more. Thank You.

[pave_spectre]

You could try booting into dos with a win98 boot disk and typing fdisk /mbr

Otherwise if everything runs fine I personally would be inclined to just ignore Norton.

[pave_spectre]

Symantecs Answer (http://service1.symantec.com/support/nsw.nsf/ba62122e5d142a6588256d87006b22be/cc542b0519fc1dc585256c370048adad?OpenDocument&src=bar_sch_nam)

Another Possibility (http://www.v-com.com/support/faqsgen17.html)

[tonysolomon]

Originally posted by pave_spectre
You could try booting into dos with a win98 boot disk and typing fdisk /mbr

Otherwise if everything runs fine I personally would be inclined to just ignore Norton.

I would like to try this one. It won't delete any of my data will it?

[pave_spectre]

running fdisk on the master boot record wont destroy any data on your drives partitions it simply removes all the data stored in the mbr so that the next time you reboot it will be rebuilt and you can boot straight into your OS. It have seen it cause problems with booting into 2K/XP(no data loss just booting issues) but never with 9x/ME and have personally used it to remove dual booting information for multiple partitions close to a dozen times.

Based on the symantec answer to your error message it may not solve th problem but it should not destroy anything.

[tonysolomon]

I used booted into DOS, using the floppy, and typed D:. Then I typed DIR to make sure that I was on the right drive. Then I typed FDISK /MBR and hit enter. I got the D: prompt, so I rebooted. I ran NDD on the D: drive, but I still got the same errors. :(
I guess I'll have to ignore that error from Norton System Check, each time I run it.

[ski]

If the C and D drives are two separate physical hard drives(which appears to be the case) and you have a CD-RW drive, then you can save all of the data files on the D drive to a CD, repartition and reformat the D drive, and then reinstall all of the data files onto it from the CD.
This should stop the Norton message from appearing.

This link explains how to repartition and reformat a Slave hard drive:
http://www.cybertechhelp.com/html/tutorials/tutorial.php/id/73

(NOTE: Some users prefer to disconnect the primary hard drive when repartitioning and reformatting a slave drive in order to prevent accidentally R & R the primary drive).

[tonysolomon]

I was afraid that someone would suggest that. Thanks, though.

[Paul Komski]

I think that part of your problem is having so much faith in this Norton Utility. If memory serves from a previous post Norton will report these changes as "faults" by comparing things with its own records rather than as an absolute diagnosis based on the structure of the boot record, which should itself be quite OK if you can access the volume normally.

Running FDisk /mbr would not correct this since although this rewrites the very first part of the MBR it doesn't touch the four partition table entries (bytes 446 through 510 decimal) at all.

You are left with:-
1) Uninstalling Norton, clearing out the registry of any bits it leaves behind and reinstalling it.

2) Deleting the partition and creating a new one etc etc - (and don't use FDisk if you want your data maintained) - and which route you don't want to go down anyways.

3) You could of course edit the MBR directly using a Hex Editor but I doubt if this would prevent the Norton Error Message, unless that error was far more specific such that you could rewrite things accurately.

The final thought is that you have two installations of WinME (on two separate HDDs presumably). Although only booting from one of them, you do have two bootable active partitions in your system, which could be a factor in making Norton throw a wobbly.

PS (A warning).
Running FDisk /mbr when the 4 partition tables are actually corrupt, can actually lead to an unbootable HDD.

Also - The undocumented FDisk /mbr is not an mbr-problem panacea and can cause additional problems in the presence of boot-sector viruses and when drive overlay is in place.

If one wants to be able to "repair" the whole mbr - then the best way is to learn how to keep a backup of it on floppy and how to reinstate it when necessary.

[ski]

I may be wrong on this(it will not be my 1st time), but it appears that removing all of the folders except the ones containing data from the D drive had improperly changed it from a bootable HD to a non-bootable one, and Norton is now simply detecting and reporting this change.

And by using FDISK on the D drive to remove the primary bootable partition(and any other partitions), repartitioning it with an extended partition(or with an extended partition and multiple logical partitions), and reformatting it, the drive will now be correctly and properly changed into a non-bootable one. And Norton should stop displaying the message.

Also, FDISK is a viable method for doing this if a CD-RW drive can be used for saving the data to a CD for subsequent restoration, as long as the user is careful to repartition and reformat the correct drive(Thus my recommendation for disconnecting the bootable drive when doing this).

[tonysolomon]

Thank you for your messages, but I haven't been able to read them until today. I've been working on the PC, since I last posted. I have a 30GB and two 120GB drives. The 30GB had Windows ME and all of my other programs on it. One of the 120GB drives was a backup from a while back (I will call it the E: drive). I had made a lot of changes to the current 120GB drive (I will call it D: drive), so I decided to FDISK and Format the E: drive and copy all of the data from the D: drive to the E: drive. After I copied the data to the E: drive, I defragmented it. I then ran FDISK and Format on the two remaining hard drives. I reinstalled Windows ME and got all of the current drivers and Windows updates installed.

Then I had trouble trying to get the PC to recognize all three drives and the CD-RW, simultaneously. I had to move the jumpers and IDE cables around, until I got a good match. I ended up putting both 120GB drives on the secondary IDE cable and making one of the jumpers say that that drive was a master and the jumper on the other drive say that that drive was a slave. I kept the 30GB on the primary IDE cable and made the jumpers say that it was also a master. I removed the CD-RW, because I had to use it's cable for one of the 120GB drives.

Finally, I got Windows ME to recognize all three drives, but only if it was in safe mode. This was okay, since I just wanted to copy the data back to the D: drive. I am still doing that at the present time. After it finishes I'm going to defragment it and store the drive outside of the computer.

I was also having problems trying to install Norton Internet Securities (NIS) onto the 30GB drive, before I decided to quit and start copying data on the other drives. I hope that when the data finishes copying that I can figure that out. I'll spare you the specifics, until I give it another shot. I'll re-format that 30GB drive again, if I have to. I actually had to install Windows 4 times, before it loaded without showing any errors. I had to try a backup copy that I had made of the Windows disk, because I think that the other one is corrupt or scratched.

My 120GB drives have 98GB of data on them, so all of this is taking a few days.

I've also been trying to install a NIC on the other PC, which is running Windows 98. Windows recognized the NIC and the device manager said that it was working properly, but I couldn't get the PC to get to the Internet by dial-up or cable modem. I asked for tech support from the cable modem people, the Best Buy store where I bought the NIC, Best Buy's national help center, and the makers of the NIC. The only one's that I didn't ask were the makers of the router, because I was bypassing the router to track down the problem. Nobody had a good answer for me and my other PC was busy copying and didn't have NIS installed, so I had to figure this out myself. I was mostly told, by the techs, that they didn't know what was wrong. I was told to see if my cable provider registered MAC addresses, but I found out that they don't.

I didn't know what to do. I knew that the cable modem worked on my Windows ME PC, so I thought about installing Windows ME onto the Win98 PC. This would have taken way too much time and effort. I would have had to backup all of the data from the Win98 PC, to one of my drives after they finished what they were doing, format the Win98 drive and install Windows ME, then transfer all of the data back and re-install all of the programs.

I did not want to do that, because I knew there had to be an answer to the problem. I thought about taking the NIC back, but I wanted to know why the 56K modem would no longer connect to the Internet. I realized that it would dial the Internet, like normal, but IE would say that it couldn't display the web page. After trying a few things, I took the CAT 5 cable out of the back of the PC and tried to use the modem, again. This time it worked perfectly. I was very hopeful that the reverse must be true, also. I went to the Control Panel/Network and removed the modem. I went to My Computer/Properties/Device Manager and made sure that it was removed from there, also. Then I physically removed it and put the NIC in it's spot (I moved the NIC, just to be sure). I restarted the PC and went to Internet Options/Setup and chose the options to install a LAN connection. I hit Internet Explorer and it worked perfectly.

I was very happy, but then when I tried to connect the PC to the router and the router to the cable modem I couldn't get onto the Internet. I called the tech support for the router. I was told to go to Start/Run and type command, and then type ipconfig. Then I was told to ping the gateway address. I kept getting request timed out. They told me to replace the CAT 5 cable, but I tried to explain that I was just on the Internet. I replaced the CAT 5 with the shorter piece that I was using to connect the cable modem to the router. I still got request timed out. I was told to hit reset on the router, but that didn't help, so I was told that the router was defective and that I should have it replaced. Then, after hanging up the phone, I restarted the PC and I tried to ping the gateway again. This time it was a different address, so I was hopeful. It worked, so I shut down the PC, replaced the CAT 5 cable and re-connected the cable modem. I turned on the PC and got onto the Internet with no problems.

Now, I'm just waiting for my PC to finish copying the data to the D: drive, so that I can defragment it and move it back to the primary IDE cable, connect the CD-RW, remove the E: drive, re-install NIS and the rest of my programs and connect the PC to the router. I can’t wait until I’m finished.