MBR 1FA: --What's this?

[green1152]

Hello there, I'd like to share you a story of my problem.

Here's how it happened in short:
I was installing linux onto my iPod and accidentally wrote the boot record of the ipod (hda) to my master drive (sda). It was a slip of the finger, I knew what I was doing, I just wasn't paying enough attention when it was critical that I did.

I recently went out and bought the very amazing book called Knoppix Hacks, and I tried two hacks in the book related to my problem:
Hack #54. Kill and Resurrect the Master Boot Record and Hack #52. Repair Grub.

I've also tried other various methods I've found on the internet.

When this problem had first started, I was returned an error somewhat like this:
Something something, Insert boot disk and press enter.

I don't know what I did to "sort of fix it", but it now returns:
MBR 1FA:

Anyone got any ideas, I'd like to be able to get an operating system on here that is actually physically on the hard drive...

Thank you very much.

[sakiZ]

When you boot an intel based PC sometimes you experience a strange boot message 1FA:.

Your boot loader is trying to give you options, very cryptically.

(1, F and A are options, the : denotes a prompt). You get that prompt if it cannot find an active partition.

* 1 boots from your first partition.
* F boots from your Floppy drive.
* and A shows the rest of the partitions, i.e. "1234F:".

sakiZ

[spaceinvader001]

If your still having trouble just use knoppix and copy all your files else where. Another hd then just flaten your hd and reinstall from the begining. this might be over kill but it will get the job dome in less than a couple of hours. By flaten your hd I mean kill all other parts and virtual drives. I have found knoppix and qtparted a bit hard to work with at times. and does not recognize partitions or types of fat. If you have that problem download the stabel version of debian disk 1 not the net install and let it partition your hd then either finish the install from their or install knoppix.

[green1152]

sakiZ: I've tried that before, I'm sure you're right, but I think I messed up my actual OS partition to the point that it's not recognizable anymore. It's because I thought that if I had re-installed an OS, that it would partly fix the problem. I don't think it did. Thank you, though

spaceinvader001: I'll try your method, I have nothing to lose on my master drive.

[sakiZ]

One thing that comes to mind is checking to see whether or not you have an active partition.

You could run Qtparted. Right click on the partition you want to be active, check the box that reads
"set active"

sakiZ

[green1152]

QTParted isn't picking up my master. It just hangs, unfortunately.

[sakiZ]

Not picking up your master. Not good.

You need emergency measures. Do you have or can you get a hold of Spinrite? It is very good at bringing back to life trashed drives.

You would probably have to put it on a bootable DOS disk, and run it from there. It will see ANY kind of drive no matter how it is formatted.

Good luck.

sakiZ