Master Boot Record (MBR) is primarily used to hold disk's primary partition table, identify particular disk media, and bootstrapping operating systems. The first sector of the hard drive is located at the Main Boot Record area and consists of entries for primary partition in the partition table. Corruption in MBR can be caused due to numerous logical reasons, like improper system shutdown, operating system malfunction, malicious software like virus, and human errors. MBR once corrupted, halts the booting process of Windows, resulting in inaccessibility of data stored on the hard drive. An appropriate way to access the lost hard drive data is by restoration of data from an updated backup. However, in worst case scenarios, where you have not created any backup, a powerful third-party Data Recovery application acts as a boon.

To illustrate the above case, consider a scenario where you encounter any of the underneath error messages when you attempt to boot your system:

“Input/Output Error” Or “Operating System not found”

Occurrence of any of the above error messages results in inaccessibility of hard drive data.

Cause:

MBR corruption/damage.

Resolution:

To resolve MBR corruption and to access the hard drive data, you will need to follow the below steps:

1.Insert Windows 7 installation CD and select your default 'time','date', and 'language'. Click Next. 2.Click 'Repair Your Computer' option for opening System Recovery window. 3.Go to command prompt and run 'bootsect.exe' utility. 4.Run 'bootsect /nt60 C:\' (in case Windows 7 is installed in C partition). 5.Eject the CD and restart your system.

While the aforementioned steps resolve MBR corruption in most cases, there are some cases where the above steps fail to do so. In such cases, the hard drive data remains inaccessible as any of the error messages pop up while booting your system. To resolve the error messages, it is advisable to format the hard drive partition. Although formatting resolves both the error messages and MBR corruption, it also deletes the data saved on the hard drive partition. In such cases, the formatted data can be recovered by using advanced Data Recovery Software. A Data Recovery utility salvages the hard drive and recoups the formatted data by using advanced scanning methods.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is a partition recovery software that ensures complete recovery of data from a formatted hard drive. The Data Recovery product supports almost all file systems like FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, VFAT, NTFS, and NTFS5 file systems. It is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2003, and 2000 operating systems.