A Master Boot Record (MBR) or partition sector is the 512 byte boot sector that is the first sector of a partitioned data storage device such as a hard disk. The MBR plays an important role in disk partitioning, system bootstrapping, and disk identity. It is the main program that is used for bootstrapping the operating system after BIOS executes the machine code instructions. The MBR is not located in the partition, but in the Main Boot Record area in front of the first partition. Sometimes, the first sector of the partition gets corrupted because of various reasons such as virus infections, power surges, damaged operating system, abrupt system shutdown, etc. In such situations, the system gets corrupted and fails to boot. In such cases, you should look for a third-party partition recovery software to recover the partition from its corrupt state.

Consider a scenario wherein your system fails to boot when you switch it on. A black screen is displayed and an error message is displayed, that is: “Operating system not found.” OR “Missing operating system.”

Cause: There could be various reasons for such behavior such as: The basic input/output system (BIOS) does not detect the hard disk. The hard disk is damaged. Sector 0 of the physical hard disk drive has an incorrect or malformed master boot record (MBR). An incompatible partition is marked as Active. A partition that contains MBR is no longer active.

Resolution: For the first cause, you can configure the BIOS settings and ensure that the BIOS lists and recognizes the hard disk. For the rest, you are advised to use a third-party partition recovery software that will enable you to recover lost data and rescue lost partition. These tools are read-only in nature and, hence, do not overwrite the data while scanning the damaged part.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery software is an efficient tool that is used to recover lost or formatted partitions. It is a highly interactive tool that does not require prior technical knowledge to perform advanced recovery options. It also provides a Boot CD to recover data from the PCs that fail to boot. It can recover lost/formatted data from various file systems such as FAT16, FAT32, VFAT, NTFS and NTFS5. It is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, 2003 Server, XP, 2002. What's more, it also provides you RAW recovery, disk cloning and imaging, resume recovery and even email recovery options.

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