MBR (Master Boot Record) is the first sector on your Windows Wbased hard drive, including Windows XP based hard drive. The 512-byte boot sector consists of one active/bootable partition, primary partition table, disk media, and bootstrapping operating systems. Corruption in MBR can occur due to many reasons like, improper system shutdown, virus infection, operating system malfunction, and more. In such situations, the bootable partition also becomes corrupt, resulting in unbootability of Windows-based hard drive partition. This further results in inaccessibility of data saved in Windows XP-based hard drive. An ideal way to get past MBR corruption error message is to run FIXMBR repair command. However, if the above command is unable to repair the corrupted MBR and hard drive partition remains unbootable, then you will need to search for a commercial Partition Recovery Software to recover the data.

The above scenario can be explained with the help of the below error message:

“Invalid or damaged bootable Partition”

This error message appears at startup of Windows XP based hard partition. After the above error message flashes, data saved in the hard drive partition becomes inaccessible. Additionally, the same error message appears every time you try to boot Windows XP.

Cause:

The above error message appears due to corruption/damage of MBR.

Resolution:

Below are some guidelines that enable you to overcome the above error message and to access the data saved in Windows XP based partition:

1.Repair the MBR using the underneath command: FIXMBR device name Note: The above command has the risk of damaging partition tables. 2.If the above command fails, then run another repair command: FIXBOOT drive 3.If both the above commands fall short in resolving the above error message then you will need to reinstall Windows XP operating system. Once the re-installation is complete, all the previously saved files and folders become inaccessible. To access those files, restore them from an up-to-date backup. However, in case no backup is available, use advanced Partition Recovery Software.

Such Partition Recovery tools scan the formatted hard drive partition by incorporating high-end scanning procedures and recoup all lost files and folders. These tools recover complete partitions and the entire data stored within them.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is a powerful Partition Recovery tool that is used to recover all formatted, deleted, and lost Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2003, and 2000 based partitions. The recovered partitions can be stored at your specified location. It is compatible with NTFS, NTFS5, FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, and VFAT file systems.

Daisy a student of Mass Communication doing research on Partition recovery software. He is also a freelancer for http://www.partitionrecovery-software.com/window-ntfs-fat-recovery.php