Restore Windows XP MBR without Windows XP disc

Is there a clone of the windows recovery console for windows xp because I no longer have the disc to restore the MBR. I also need to be able to run this off a flash drive because my dvd reader is broken.

2 Answers

ok I see you didn't install the recovery console locally then! or store the ISO.

There is the windows xp 6 file disk set

so-called "Windows XP Setup disks"

It can get you to a recovery console.

You could also try a Windows 98 boot disk. Downloadable.. FDISK /MBR that might do it.

Maybe there are some more modern better ways and then that'd probably be a better answer.

You can do it with Linux. Either boot a USB stick; or if Linux is already installed, you can rewrite the MBR as a "final act", which will make it inaccessible (until you reinstall Linux).

First you have to identify the disk. In the Terminal:

sudo fdisk -l

to list the partitions. The disk will probably be either /dev/sda or /dev/hda. Then:

sudo apt-get install lilo
sudo lilo -M /dev/sda mbr

lilo is no longer installed by default, so the first line will do it (on Debian-based distros, including Ubuntu) if necessary.