How to Fix MBR Error 1, 2, 3 in Windows 10, 8, 7?

Content

• Overview of MBR

• What is MBR Error?

• What causes the MBR error?

• How to fix MBR errors in Windows 10/8/7?

• Conclusion

Overview of MBR

According to Wikipedia, MBR (the short of master boot record) is a special type of boot sector at the very beginning of partitioned computer mass storage devices intended for use with IBM PC-compatible systems and beyond. It holds the information on how the logical partitions, including the file systems, are organized on that medium.

It also contains executable code to function as a loader for the installed OS - usually by passing control over to the loader’s second stage, or in conjunction with each partition’s volume boot record. This MBR code is usually referred to as a boot loader.

When you try to boot your computer, what the PC does first is to look for where the operating system located, and it finds by looking at the MBR. If there is any MBR Error, the Windows can be failed to start.

What is MBR Error?

Many users may meet MBR Errors on Windows startup because the operating system cannot be located, or you may receive no indication at all of what has gone wrong and only stuck with a blank screen. The error may be MBR Error 1, MBR Error 2, MBR Error 3. Here are some truly cases we found in some forums:

1. MBR Error 1

“I have a major problem booting up my PC installed Windows 7 Professional. I keep getting the error message“mbr error 1 Press any key to boot from floppy” every time I reboot my PC.

2. MBR error 2

“Hi, all, My system is locked solid, no problems other than that. Nothing seems to be affected negatively. It just started appearing one day, probably after I removed some software or added something, it showed“MBR Error 2”. My operating system is Windows 7”.

3. MBR error 3

“When I start my Windows 7 Home Premium, I got MBR Error 3. Then Windows 7 starts and work very fine. I have 2 questions: What means MBR Error 3 and how can I repair it?”

What causes the MBR error?

All of those point to corruption or failure within the MBR. The cause of such problems basically boils down to two things.

1. One is your PC is trying to load the operating system from an external device such as an external hard disk, or a USB flash drive, but there is nothing there, so your PC can’t reboot.

2. The boot order in BIOS is incorrect. If the wrong hard drive is set as the prior boot device in the boot order, then your computer won’t boot successfully.

3. The other is the MBR has become corrupted or gone missing for some reason.

How to fix MBR error 1, 2, 3 in Windows 10, 8, 7?

From above, we know that there is more than one causes behind the MBR error. So it is necessary to take the corresponding measure. Firstly, you can try to disconnect the external devices and restart your computer to check if the problem is fixed. Secondly, restart your PC and enter BIOS, access to the Boot tab to check whether the boot order is right or not. If the first boot order is not the primary hard drive, change it using the arrow keys. Then save the changes and exit the BIOS.

If the above solutions do not help with the MBR errors, there are chances that it is the damaged MBR that causes the problem. Then you can try the following two methods to fix damaged MBR.

Method 1. Fix MBR through command prompt

You can follow the procedure to remove the error message successfully.

1. Start your PC with a Windows 7 installation CD/DVD.

2. Click "Repair Computer" -> "Recovery Option"-> "Command Prompt".

3. Type the following commands to remove the error message:

• Bootrec.exe /FixMbr

• Bootrec.exe /FixBoot

For Windows 8 and Windows 10: boot computer from installation DVD or USB device, click the "Repair your computer" on the Windows Setup screen, and then navigate to "Troubleshoot">"Advanced Options">"Command Prompt".

Method 2. Fix MBR via freeware

If you think the Command Prompt is too complicated to understand, you can turn to a free partition manager-AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. It allows you to fix MBR with simple steps.

Before you do:
➤Free download and install AOMEI Partition Assistant, install and launch it to a normal computer.
➤Prepare an empty USB drive and connect it to normal computer as well. Use AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard to create a bootable USB, or CD/DVD.

Then, you can follow the steps below to fix master boot record errors for booting PC successfully.

1. Insert the bootable device you created before to the computer with MBR errors, and boot the PC from the bootable device (You may need to change the boot order in BIOS).

2. It will show you the main interface of AOMEI Partition Assistant. Right click the system disk, and select Rebuild MBR.

3. Select the type of MBR for the current OS.

4. Finally, click Apply and Commit on the toolbar to execute the operations.

When the operation finished, shut down the computer, remove the bootable device and boot your PC from the original disk.

Conclusion

This is how to fix MBR Error 1, MBR Error 2, MBR Error 3. Choose a proper method based on your situation.AOMEI Partition Assistant is a great disk partition manager that can not only help you fix MBR Errors, but also can help you check errors on hard drive, and supports you to do a surface test for disk.

And you can upgrade to AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional edition to unlock more functions for a better experience. For example, it can clone MBR disk to GPT disk, convert MBR and GPT without deleting partitions, transfer OS to SSD/HDD, convert dynamic disk to basic disk without data loss, and more.