Bad boot sector

so i was doing the usual bla bla on my mac mini, and all the sudden it freezes up, spinning beach ball, black flickering on screen every like 10sec, and then a shadow went over the screen and it told me to restart my mac. So i did, and whenever i try to reboot or start up it does the usual blank white screen, then goes to black screen and this message appears:
"bad boot sector!
Press any key..."
I try to press any key on my apple wireless keyboard and nothing happens...so i pulled out my spare USB keyboard and press keys and nothing happens....
What is wrong and how do i fix this???

Classic kernel panic. See:
What is a kernel panic,
Technical Note TN2063: Understanding and Debugging Kernel Panics,
Mac OS X Kernel Panic FAQ,
Resolving Kernel Panics, and
Tutor

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W520 HDD bad boot sector

Hi All,
My W520 motherboard died on me which has now prompted to purchase a new laptop due to high repair cost.
I've taken out my 320 GB HDD from my Lenovo W520 and attached it to an external USB case in attempts to salvage my files.
When I attempt to open this harddrive on Windows, it tells me that the disk must be formatted to be accessible etc.
So I got the TestDisk utility http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk which recognizes my hard drive and shows me that there are three partitions.
However, attempting to boot into any of these partitions with TestDisk is met with failure as the boot sectors are "Bad" and no identical.
Attempting to rebuild the boot sector also does nothing.
Has anyone faced a similar issue before? What can I do to boot into my HDD and retrieve my old files?
Will overwriting the MBR with TestDisk's MBR cause any issues?
Please help

aiaf wrote:
Hi All,
My W520 motherboard died on me which has now prompted to purchase a new laptop due to high repair cost.
I've taken out my 320 GB HDD from my Lenovo W520 and attached it to an external USB case in attempts to salvage my files.
When I attempt to open this harddrive on Windows, it tells me that the disk must be formatted to be accessible etc.
So I got the TestDisk utility http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk which recognizes my hard drive and shows me that there are three partitions.
However, attempting to boot into any of these partitions with TestDisk is met with failure as the boot sectors are "Bad" and no identical.
Attempting to rebuild the boot sector also does nothing.
Has anyone faced a similar issue before? What can I do to boot into my HDD and retrieve my old files?
Will overwriting the MBR with TestDisk's MBR cause any issues?
Please help
Did you copy off your pics, docs, music, etc. first?

HELLPPP!! No boot sector. No bootable devices...(read on)

Okay, so my boss gave me his laptop as a small project for myself to fix up and keep because he didn't have the time or money to do so. He informed me that the "Dell Inspiron 2200" laptop was not finding the hard drive, and also needed a power supply adapter. Geek Squad had taken a look at it, and they recognized that he just needed a new hard drive. So I get the laptop and find out there's a little bit more to it than just a bad hard drive.
I ordered a brand new Dell power supply and 100gb compatible drive and received them yesterday in the mail. I installed the drive hoping it was going to work because the old drive jiggled around when installed and this new one is a nicer fit and does not move around when installed. I boot up the laptop and after the Dell BIOS screen loads up, I get a black screen with "No boot sector found on internal hard drive." and under that message it says "No bootable devices found." I did not intend o give up, so I popped in my Resources CD and ran the 32-bit diagnostics, and of course got a couple failure messages when it would get around to checking the hard drive. So then just for kicks, I installed my Windows XP CD and it began to load up the setup files. It took me to the partitioning screen and there were no partitions on the new drive of course so I created one and had it formatted. I don't know at what percent it stopped because I fell asleep, but when I woke up it said the hard drive could not be formatted because it was corrupt or damaged or whatever!! Yeaahhh right!! It's a brand new hard drive, so I started it all over again. This time I chose the "Quick Format" instead and I assume it successfully formatted because it proceeded to copying the Windows files from the CD over to the laptop, then the Windows OS installation screens booted up and I installed Windows. A couple of times after the installation, the computer needed to be restarted because of new settings or what have you, and the computer acted as if there was no problem at all. Finally, I had installed Windows, everything was fine, mission accomplished...
...wrong!! I took the Windows CD out of the disc drive, closed the tray, proceeded to give the machine a restart without the CD just to make sure and clear my mind that something terrible was going to happen, and what do you know..."No bootable devices found." again. I closed the laptop, and now have no clue what to do.
Also, I will inform that when I received the laptop, I opened it up and found a silver cylinder-shaped capacitor free-floating around inside that I am still trying to determine its purpose. It goes in the back left side, in the corner next to the power supply port and has the code "5 bY 100 25v" printed on the top of it.
I have done an extensive amount of research on this while waiting for the parts in the mail, and even visited Geek Squad at Best Buy myself. They told me that it could be the hard drive or the motherboard could be shot. I don't believe it to be the motherboard or nothing else would be working successfully, in my opinion. So I really appreciate any and all replies to my post in hopes of resolving the issue at hand. Thanks again. =)

Welcome, realvater!
Thank you for starting this thread. I understand that moment of excitement when someone hands you a broken laptop; I also know the visceral moment when you realize, "...this was going to be easy, right?" Keep the suggestions rolling, everyone.
Meanwhile, Have you performed a HDD diagnostics? Have you run motherboard/system diagnostics? Unfortunately, no amount of formatting/reformatting/FIXMBR can repair bad hardware, so it would be a good idea to check out all hardware first. You mentioned a new HDD was ordered and installed? Be sure to re-seat the drive carefully, assuming the port is not faulty. Also, if that capacitor was from the motherboard, and not from the old power supply, then the motherboard could be faulty and render all your hard work for naught. Best of luck, we are here for you!
Matthew|Community Advocate | Best Buy® Corporate
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Boot Sector problems upgrading to WIndows 7 on T61

I'm trying to upgrade my T61 (bought in Canada with Windows Vista) to Windows 7. However, the installation aborts partway through, with the message "Windows cannot write to the boot sector". The most common solutions that I have found online do not work - there doesn't seem to be any problem with my registry - and it appears that the boot sector has become corrupted, although I cannot notice any problem with normal operation.
One solution I have found to this problem is to use the Windows Vista installation disk to "repair" the boot sector. However, my T61 didn't come with Vista disks, just the Lenovo R&R package. I haven't found a way to repair the boot sector this way.
Without some help I don't think I'll be able to perform the upgrade.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Fixed my own problem. The Windows 7 installation disk was able to repair the boot sector. All I needed to do was boot from the Windows 7 disks and follow the instructions for "repair" operating system.

No boot sector on internal hard drive and No bootable devices.

Hello, I hope someone can help me.
I have a dell inspiron 1525. I recently replaced on of my memory 512mb modules with a 2gb memory module. At the same time I change the 120gb harddrive and upgraded it to a 320gb harddrive. After doing this when I start the computer I receive the message:
"No boot sector on internal harddrive".
"No bootable devices - - strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility, Press F5 to run onboard diagnostic".
I have tried to change boot sequence and tried to boot from the Windows Vista Home Basic 32BIT. Regretablly with no results. If there is anyone who can guide me and help me to solve this problem I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanking you in advance.

Whenever we get this error "No boot sector on internal hard drive", it means that our hard drive has no partition/ boot sector to boot/ start operating system (Windows).
The ultimate solution is to install Windows from beginning either by using CD/DVD or USB bootable flash drive. You need to have windows installation disc or bootable flash drive for that.
Visit link for more info. : http://deepes007.blogspot.com/2015/04/solution-tono-boot-sector-found-on.html

How can I install WinPE on a MacBook Pro? (or any other way to repair Win7 boot sector on a MacBook Pro?)

Hello,
I run MacOS X 10.8.5 and Win7 SP1 installed on a MacBook Pro (model summer 2010).
I used to run Win7 using Parallels desktop. I have version 9.0.23036 installed.
Unfortunately, the boot sector for Win7 got corrupted or erased (???)
I have many professional apps installed on Win7, not easy to re-install...
=> I try to find a way to use WinPE to solve the issue.
But I cannot boot directly from WinPE (v3.n?) on a USB memory stick. It stops when loading the system files.
Is there a way to run WinPE anyway? Using Boot Camp? Using Parallels desktop? by copying some Parallels drivers onto the WinPE system? (but which ones? where to copy them?)
Is there any other way to re-create the boot sector for Win7 without a full re-install?
Many thanks for any help.

Thank you very much.
I could make a bootable clone of the Ma OS side using Carbon Copy Cloner. This point is OK.
I sill get trouble with the WinRE environment: I cannot boot directly from the Win7 DVD: the loading of the system files stops at a certain point and I cannot get the Windows menu.
I could read a procedure on the Parallels.com support site (http://kb.parallels.com/en/5223) and tried to follow it (my Windows was installed using Boot Camp). The problem is that, unliked described on step 2 (Choose to "Start Windows Installation"), I can't get this choice in the Boot Camp menu. I only have two choices : "Download the latest Windows support software" or "Remove Windows 7 or later version". Do you know how I can get the "Start Windows Installation" choice, so that I can launch the Windows DVD through Boot Camp?
Thank you in advance

Invalid Partition Boot Sector??

Hi all,
I've just completed the build of a new PC. Post resetting the CMOS I get the AMI screen which shows the BIOS details, below which I see a ', 2GHz'(?) and below this is 'CMOS settings wrong'. If I select default settings I then get 'Invalid partition boot sector and Press any key to restart loading OS'. When I press a key the Intel Boot agent tries to link up(?) and fails.
When I reset the system, I get a no post and my DVD drive light flashes peridically. Placed a boot up CD in the tray and tried resetting and now the PC reboots itself every 30secs or so.
The only way I can get a Post is to continually reset the CMOS.
I have the D-LED's and they typically show LED's 1+2 alternating green/red and 3/4 red.
My system is as below:
MSI 875p NEO(BIOS V3.3)
Intel 3.2 GHZ CPU (Northwood) Not overclocked
2-512Mb DDR 400 OCZ PC3200
NVDIA GeForce2(32MB)
1 x 120G seagate drive(Slave, Non-SATA)
1 40gb Western Digital(Master, Non-SATA)
Hitachi DVD ROM
Sony DVD R
Antec TruePower 380W
Creative Soundblaster5.1
LAN card

Hi again,
Okay. Tried suggestions however still no joy(can't overwrite with XP as DVD drive won't read). I've listed below what my PC currently Can/Can't do:
Can.
1) Only after resetting CMOS, can boot to the A: prompt using a floppy drive(only when selecting F2 defaults from Post)
2) Only after resetting CMOS, can boot to Seagate HD utility(using floppy) and setup new HD ready for OS install. Then asks to reboot and PC doesn't post.
3) Perform as an expensive door stop
Can't
1) Never posts once the PC has been reset from 1) or 2) above.
2) Never posts after I enter the BIOS setup(regardless of what I do)even if I set the defaults which works if I press F2 from Post screen.
3) Read from my DVD drive. Spins the drive up and never seems to read from it.
4) Boot from my old HD(invalid partition). Is this because the HD was setup with a different chipset as indicated in prior replies?
I would really like to know if my processor/memory is okay. Can I assume that as the PC can get to the OS boot part that the CPU/Mrmory checks pass and they are good?

Reading the boot sector from an applet

I want to be able to read the boot sector of a floppy on a Wintel machine from an applet. I realize that I'll need to sign the applet to relax the security restrictions. I suppose that I'll need to use JNI and do the actual disk accesses in C. If that's true, I am not sure if I can bundle up the resulting dll in my jar or cab file along with my class files and have it work.
So far, my attempts to turn the JNI 'hello world' program into an applet haven't been that successful. I get an InstantiationException when I try to run it. Attempts to run it from appletviewer don't yield any output, exception or otherwise. It runs OK as an application.

I'm not sure that makes any difference. It has to be packaged up and signed using the appropriate method for the browser or plug-in. I had tried it with IE packaging it as a cab file and signing it with MS tools. I have now tried it with the 1.3.1 plug-in.
I think the real problem is getting the dll containing the C code to be visible to the client OS. Now I am thinking that the best way to do this would be to have the applet copy the dll from the server if it doesn't already exist on the client and copy it to c:\WINNT\system32 and then run.

Badly boot camped disaster

I have to reset someones iMac but I have been bumping into some problems.
It was badly Boot Camped by a friends son back in 2011.
So badly that he didn't even install the support software.
Running Windows 7 32 Bit Ultimate which is functional but the issue is that the Mac partition has kind of vanished.
Alt at start up brings up EFI, Windows and Recovery options but when I try to use disk utility to try some repairs/wipes the Mac partition is showing but grayed out.
Verify says the partition needs to be repaired but the repair always fails and attempts to erase the HDD fail due to it being unable to unmount the partitions.
Any clue as to why this happened and hopefully a suggestion about how on earth I can fix this mess?

I get three options, EFI, Windows and Recovery.
When I go the recovery route Disk Utility shows the Mac partition but it is greyed out.
Both Verify and Repair fail but when I try to erase the data and go full recovery it says that it cannot unmount the volume.
I suspect that it is the windows partition that is stopping me but since I cannot get into the mac partition I cannot remove Boot Camp I cannot proceed.
Since the windows partition works the hardware must be fine.
Any idea how I can resurrect the mac partition as I'm at a loss here.

New hard drive on dell inspiron 1545 no boot sector on internal hard drive

Hi, need some assistance, bought a new HDD o 500Gb, to replace my old one o 320Gb. but can't reinstall win7 64 bit sp1, it gives me the next message "no boot sector on internal hard drive"

Mr. Osprey is right, windows installation is required to boot the computer. The error "No boot sector on internal hard drive" appears when you have a new hard disk or your old hard disk has not bootable partition.
You can visit the link below for more info.:

Question regarding boot sector virus.

So basicly i have a decent PC that i can run my games on but it was infected when i let a friend use it at his house becouse his PC died and i told him i can give it, but he never told me that he will infect the poor machine to death, i did some research but nothing to my understanding, and i was wondering if anyone here can assist me in finding and deleting a boot sector virus, steps on how to do it and tips. All the information is verry well appreciated, im not an security expert so im requesting the Community's help.
Thanks
Alex

So you need help removing a virus from a PC (presumably running windows)?
This is an Apple user forum, so you are unlikely to get help here.
If you are in fact talking about a mac, you should read this: http://reedcorner.net/guides/macvirus/

New BIOS Update corrupted boot sector

Applied Toshiba Bios last night( Toshiba utility presented it). Boot sector was corrupted/overriden. Won't boot from hd. Toshiba Satellite C55 Laptop. TIA.

If you can't solve your issue and no one in the community can help, contact support to speak with a tech support agent at (800) 457-7777.
- Peter

Creative Zen 4GB bad memory sector

"Creative Zen 4GB bad memory sectork After a few months benI'venoticing that trying to load more media into my Zen gives errors like "Not enough space on disk" or "An unknown erroroccurred". This happened when I load files, it gets to around the 2.GB mark, and then files don'ttransferto it. I've tried formatting via the Zen onboard formatter, formatting it though the computer, uploading files though the onboard SD importer and though the computer. Ibelievethat a sector of my flash memory has died. I want to try and do a zero-out of the data, much like on a regular hard dri've, in witch this feels like the only option. But I don't know a way because of the fun limitations of<span class="Apple-style-span">MTP. And I'vebengoogling for months on how to fix this, but nothingusefulhas been dug up. Is there a way to fix the broken sector I have Macs, most WindowsMachinesand Linuxmachines, so I have no platform limitations. I would like for it to be as easy as a full formatinsteadof the quick-formats it seems to perform every time I try a conventional format.
Thanks, Zack

Zack777 wrote:
coachop94 wrote:
Far as I know the only format that works properly for the player is thru the player itself.Are you doing cleaup>reboot after formatting? If it's still under warranty return it if you can't resolve it. I tried cleanup, and I think the warranty is expired.
If all else failed (format and clean up), you may need to call tech support and send in the device for repair. The cost however is quite expensi've for out of warranty repair/replacement. :smileyindifferent:

Installed Solaris, No OS-boot sector is recognized.

Hello,
I just installed Solaris 10 11/06 version on x86 Intel pentium. I followed through every steps, ejected the DVD and upon restart ,nothing happens, it mentions press a key to continue and restarts and comes back to the same point.
My assumption is that the menu.lst is not updated or not sure. There is no operating system boot happening,How do you set the bootloader to pick the Solairs Operating System from disk partition C0D0S0, what are the main entries in the menu.lst, is this what i should be doing. I logged via the DVD boot and get a prompt, i tried bootadm and other utilities, any help.
Basically the Solaris is installed but just need to configure the bootloader or bios to recognize Solaris OS is installed. My bios setting points to HDD.
Any help would be great
Thanks
MJ

A couple things you can I'd look at or do. First I'd make sure that your ribbon connected to your hdd is not loose. A bad ribbon, or intermitten one will cause your hdd not being recognized. If you're sure it good then try booting from the installation DVD and at the prompt type the following command:
installgrub
That should reinstall grub for you.
You can also try booting in safe mode and run the following command:
- bootadm update-archive -f -R /a.
That should update your boot archive.
More good grub info is located at:
http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/features/articles/grub_boot_faq.html#q19
Also, if you want to try editing you're copy of /boot/grub/menu.1st. Here's a copy of what mine looks like:
# default menu entry to boot
default 0
# menu timeout in second before default OS is booted
# set to -1 to wait for user input
timeout 10
# To enable grub serial console to ttya uncomment the following lines
# and comment out the splashimage line below
# WARNING: don't enable grub serial console when BIOS console serial
#     redirection is active!!!
# serial unit=0 speed=9600
# terminal serial
# Uncomment the following line to enable GRUB splashimage on console
splashimage /boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
# To chainload another OS
# title Another OS
#     root (hd<disk no>,<partition no>)
#     chainloader +1
# To chainload a Solaris release not based on grub
# title Solaris 9
#     root (hd<disk no>,<partition no>)
#     chainloader +1
#     makeactive
# To load a Solaris instance based on grub
# title Solaris <version>
#     root (hd<disk no>,<partition no>,x)     --x = Solaris root slice
#     kernel /platform/i86pc/multiboot
#     module /platform/i86pc/boot_archive
# To override Solaris boot args (see kernel(1M)), console device and
# properties set via eeprom(1M) edit the "kernel" line to:
# kernel /platform/i86pc/multiboot <boot-args> -B prop1=val1,prop2=val2,...
#---------- ADDED BY BOOTADM - DO NOT EDIT ----------
title Solaris 10 11/06 s10x_u3wos_10 X86
root (hd0,0,a)
kernel /platform/i86pc/multiboot
module /platform/i86pc/boot_archive
#---------------------END BOOTADM--------------------
#---------- ADDED BY BOOTADM - DO NOT EDIT ----------
Message was edited by:
mrmdls
Added a copy of /boot/grub/menu.1st

Does Mac Migrate copy bad files/sectors?

I upgraded my MBP internal hard drive to a Samsung 1TB and it crashed for the 2nd time (will never buy another Samsung). So this time, I purchased a WD and migrated my system to the new drive sucessfully. I just wanted to see if anyone knew if the migrate function simply copies files or if it copys sectors of the hard drive. Basically I just want to know if Mac Migrate will copy the crap from the Samsung drive that might cause my new WD to act up - or if that's possible?

Migration copies files. If the files are corrupt, the corrupt data will be copied, but it won't affect the integrity of the disk in any way. If the disk that you are copying from has bad sectors, the copy may fail outright. If the disk can't be read, it can't be read.
Contemporary hard disks track bad blocks in firmware on the disk. Formatting and zeroing out the disk will force the disk to refresh it's internal map of bad blocks. All disks have a certain number of bad blocks on them at the time of manufacture, and these blocks are already mapped and ignored when you receive a new drive. The appearance of new bad blocks on a disk generally indicates either wear or a manufacturing defect. I would treat a drive that 's accumulated new bad blocks as a drive that has reached then end of its operational life and replace it.

Bad boot sector

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