Repair Master Boot Record in Windows 8 and Windows 7

One of the effective troubleshooting steps, to fix boot issues is to repair Master Boot Record, or MBR. One of the common reasons why an MBR can get corrupted is due to malware infections. Improper shutdowns can also lead to MBR corruption. Sometime we may find issues where Linux Grub is installed and Windows is not able to detect it. On some occassions, you may get the Bootmgr is missing error. In such cases you can run the rebuild or repair MBR to fix these issues.

Repair Master Boot Record

The process is almost same for Windows 7 and Windows 8. First and foremost you need a Windows 8 or Windows 7 installation DVD. Without that, it will be hard to proceed.  Please don’t ask where you can download it since we are not at liberty to discuss the sources, where we can find the installation DVD.

• Step 1:

Press F8 while booting the system to go into the Windows Recovery Menu. Unlike other version Windows 8’s recovery menu has the Metro UI style.

• Step 2:

Click on Troubleshoot.

• Step 3:

Click on Advanced options to get into Automatic Repair menu.

• Step 4:

We need to use the Bootrec.exe tool. Click on command prompt and type in the following commands, one after the other:

• bootrec /RebuildBcd
• bootrec /fixMbr
• bootrec /fixboot
• Exit

Now go ahead and reboot your system. In some cases you may need to run some additional commands.

• bootsect /nt60 SYS or bootsect /nt60 ALL

It’s wise to backup MBR or create a System Recovery Disk so that in case something like this happens you don’t have to run for the Windows Recovery Disk. To create a system recovery drive in Windows 8, follow these steps:

• Press Win + R and type in RecoveryDrive.exe
• Click Next
• Once you insert the USB drive it will start creating the Recovery for you’re USB drive.

Note: If this tutorial worked for you (and it should work), please leave a comment below. Thanks.