Windows 8 Is my MBR really 'broke'?

IrvSp · Mar 6, 2013

OK, it seems my W8 system is possibly in a bit of trouble...

I ran CHKDSK on my C: drive, and at the end saw this :

=============
Errors detected in the Boot File.
Windows has checked the file system and found problems.
Please run chkdsk /scan to find the problems and queue them for repair.
==============

Hmm, system boots just fine and I appear to have NO errors. I am on an SSD and it is quite possible that I did 'mess up' something in the boot record when I migrated a large partition that was bootable into the much smaller SSD.

So I ran CHKDSK /SCAN... BIG MISTAKE...

At the end it asked to cue it up to check the disk on boot. I allowed it. It ran and then started a troubleshooter, which ran PC Diagnostics and then a message that it could take up to 1 hour to fix. Almost instantly the system rebooted, AND ran chkdsk again. Off it went to the troubleshooter... and it just continued in this loop.

OK, I did break the loop and got an screen with options... one was to go into W8 directly, and again, the loop started up again. Argh... broke into it and I had other options, REFRESH, RESTORE, or shutdown. OK, Shutdown.... nope, power on started the loop again...

UGLY... so I did a REFRESH basically losing installed non-MS store programs. No problem, I've got an IMAGE.

When it was restored, it was OK on CHKDSK... and the few Store apps (Live Tiles) that didn't run before did... good.

I restored my image, and poof, CHKDSK shows the error again. However, this system has been booting for months with no problem and I assume the 'corruption' was present, and will now too with the 'problem'. I just can't run CHKDSK on it?

CAN NOT find anything about this on the web?

Thinking the MBR could be 'damaged'? There are programs to fix that and the boot record, but I'm not about to try this as it could break me?

HELP and SUGGESTIONS appreciated...

Windows 8 remember. Ran CHKNTFS and the FS is OK and the disk is NOT dirty....

I ran a program to check the MBR (MBRCheck.exe), it seems OK?

===============
\\.\C: --> \\.\PhysicalDrive0 at offset 0x00000000`00100000 (NTFS)
\\.\D: --> \\.\PhysicalDrive2 at offset 0x00000000`04700000 (NTFS)
\\.\K: --> \\.\PhysicalDrive2 at offset 0x0000002e`aae00000 (NTFS)
\\.\L: --> \\.\PhysicalDrive1 at offset 0x00000000`00100000 (NTFS)
\\.\X: --> \\.\PhysicalDrive2 at offset 0x00000003`c4700000 (NTFS)

PhysicalDrive0 Model Number: CorsairCSSD-F115GB2-A, Rev: 2.4
PhysicalDrive2 Model Number: WDCWD7501AALS-75J7B0, Rev: 05.00K05
PhysicalDrive1 Model Number: ST31000528AS, Rev: CC34

Size Device Name MBR Status
--------------------------------------------
107 GB \\.\PhysicalDrive0 Windows 7 MBR code detected
SHA1: 4379A3D43019B46FA357F7DD6A53B45A3CA8FB79
698 GB \\.\PhysicalDrive2 Windows 7 MBR code detected
SHA1: 4379A3D43019B46FA357F7DD6A53B45A3CA8FB79
931 GB \\.\PhysicalDrive1 Windows 98 MBR code detected
SHA1: 48F01D7E76A0F3C038D08611E3FDC0EE4EF9FD3E
==============

C: is the SSD that has the problem.

davehc · Mar 7, 2013

If I understand your post correctly, you ran chk dsk on the SSD?

This would have been a waste of time. SSDs do not have sectors, but chkdsk would see warn portions as "bad" sectors and report them as errors. The benefit of SSDs is that they automatically shut down any portions that show signs of error, so the chkdsk would be superfluous.
I understand, from experts, that it can actually be a bad idea to run chkdsk on an SSD.
For a general clean up, the Windows 8 defrag has a built in facility designed for SSDs. Have a look here:

Link Removed

IrvSp · Mar 10, 2013

Saltgrass said:
I found some stuff about $Boot. If it is accurate and you are using a hex editor, it mentions it is 426 bytes with an offset of 0x54 and contains bootstrap code.

The MFT mirror start you mention is also 2 on both of my systems. One with only the one partition for Windows 7 and one a UEFI install for Windows 8. I was checking c: on both systems, but on Windows 8, C: is not the bootable one.

Do you believe the info about the boot sector number being different from the actual partition size is a factor? I am not familiar with something to change just that number, but I believe something like the bootable home version of Partition Wizard can rewrite/repair the records for partitions.

Here is my BOOT SECTOR (MBR) on disk 0 :

Link Removed

It all looks fine to me? On the web are layouts for it.

Used PM as suggested, CHKDSK of the partition finds the same problem.

I think the rebuild just runs the same commands I used before.

The number being higher than the end of the physical disk sectors could be causing the problem as CHKDSK tries to check stuff? Also the $MTF and other metafiles are at the end of the disk. There is probably a field somewhere, maybe in the boot record that defines the start of the partition and length or the partition end? See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_boot_record

Windows 8 Is my MBR really 'broke'?

IrvSp

Extraordinary Member

davehc

IrvSp

Extraordinary Member