Master Boot Record Hard Drive Has Been Changed....

[martin1]

Have hp compaq & added a different hard drive as original was damaged. Installed xp operating system everything partitioned fine and installed missing drivers i.e. Audio, VGA, Ethernet controller.( do not have recovery/backup disk);@ restart received this message: 1 long bios beep then into: "Master Boot Record Hard Drive has been changed, press any key to enter setup to update the MBR." When setup is entered there is no option to update available. when escape is actuated the pc reboots and then comes up with the enter security code box. I do not have the original security code for startup or setup. however pressing enter 3 Xs will get it to clear the box and reboot again but then it goes to MBS has been changed & update press any key to update. A circle with no solution. The only way I can get the PC to boot into windows a startup is to leave the OS installation disk in every time the PC is shut down. I,ve read alot of forums on this subject and most are confusing as there are a lot of MBR errors that are addressed. I've put together and rebuilt many pc's but this problem seem rather nebulous as to a solution. Can you help?

[Jon Finley · Accepted solution]

Boot into safemode command prompt only. This "should" be by pressing F8 during boot. In your case, you'll need to leave the install CD in the CDROM drive.

type: fdisk /mbr
and press enter.

Fdisk should update the Master Boot Record.

Reboot without using the CD to see if you're fixed.

Jon

[martin1]

While waiting for a reply I was glancing at the previous Problems & solutions listed in the forums. I found one about not being able to get past the setup password because it was forgotten. The solution was to take out the battery on the motherboard and put it back in after 5 or 10 minutes. This is supposed to reset the bios settings and wipe out any previous passwords. I tried that and it worked. However on startup the message reminded me I had to reset the pc clock & date. But that did'nt prevent booting into windows without the OS startup disk having to be in the CD ROM Player. I reset the clock & date in windows and restarted the PC and it booted into windows no problem. I believe that the MBR security was enabled and not having the password prevented the new operating system installation CD from automatically updating the MBR as it installed. Once the Bios was cleard of the passwords the MBR was able to automatically update. Now all works fine and windows boots up w/out the installation CD. Did not have to use the solution you posted but will keep all this in mind for future problems and I'm sure this will help someone else looking to solve a similar problem. This forum gets high marks and regards from this tinkerer as it was a catylist for the solution. Thanx Alot