Repairing the windows boot sector and/or master boot record (MBR) of Windows XP using Windows 7 commands

Question

I have a SSD drive with Windows XP SP3 32-bit edition. Now, in order to repair the boot sector or the master boot record (MBR), can I only use a Windows XP Recovery disc or will a Windows Vista or Windows 7 Recovery disc also work, even though the command syntax is different?

Thank you.

Solution

Repairing the boot sector will not be possible from anything newer than XP. Beginning from Windows Vista, Microsoft changed how the boot sector was stored and handled. In Windows XP, the boot information is stored in the boot.ini file located on the partition where Windows is installed.

In newer versions of Windows a BCD (Boot Configuration Data) Store is now used, and while they're working in similar ways the setup and reovery of the boot.ini and BCD is different and thus Windows XP boot sector can not be reovered using Windows Vista or Windows 7 discs.

Comments

[user301234]

As an aside, the Volume Boot Code can be fixed using the bootsect command for either XP (NTLDR) or Vista/7 (BOOTMGR). But you're saying the Volume Boot Record can only be fixed for XP with an XP disc and the same applies to Vista/7. (source: pcsupport.about.com/od/bios-booting/ht/bootsect-nt60.htm)

[Patrick Jørgensen]

A fix to the MBR is more related to the give partition table used and not the OS installed on the given partition. Logically there should not be any reason as to why you could not use either of the discs. But a quick Googling gave this result: Fix MBR for XP: support.microsoft.com/kb/314058 Fix MBR for Viasta/7: support.microsoft.com/kb/927392 I dont have any experience in repairing the MBR so I can't tell you this works or not.

[Yorkziea]

-1 as it is very well possible to fix MBR and partition boot sector for XP using Windows 7 tools. My answer below.