Windows 7: Hard Drive MBR Corrupt

I have Windows 7 RC installed on my computer. It's been running fine since I installed it soon after it was released.

Now, it won't boot up anymore. I've done some testing and it seems that the MBR is corrupt. Windows Startup Repair can't fix it, and when I use the command prompt to restore the MBR (E:\boot>bootsect /nt60 c: /mbr) it gives an I/O device error.

When I run Parted Magic, it reads the HDD just fine. Worst case scenario, I transfer all of my music, pictures, and movies to a new drive, then reformat and reinstall.

However, I would like to fix it if possible. Any suggestions?

btw, it's a fairly new 500GB Seagate HDD. I don't think there's anything physically wrong with the drive.

Thanks, I appreciate any help you can give me.

See Tutorial --==> Here

Please read my post again. The method that I tried is the method in that tutorial - it did not work.

It gave me a device I/O error.

I read your post, again. You did not reference the tutorial. I suppose we could all memorize, in detail, everything written in every tutorial. That would be nice.

What is not nice, is telling someone "Please read my post again".

And on that note, I'm 10-7

I'm sorry, I'm a horrible person. Please forgive my ignorance.

Any ideas?

Hi Socav, format won't fix MBR.

Isn't "E:\boot>bootsect /nt60 c: /mbr" the command for vista?

As far as I know:
/nt60 = Vista
/nt52 = XP

Don't know what Windows 7 is, but suspect /nt61

greetz

Ooh, reformat won't fix it? Good to know. Thank you very much.

I'll try nt61. Thanks for your help, squonksc.

Tried nt61 - would not let me give that command. According to the tutorial, the command is nt60 for any O/S Vista or later.

Here's the exact error message: "The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error."

This might also be helpful to know: I have a Windows 7 Beta install on another HDD. When I boot to that drive and open up 'My Computer', the Seagate drive is present, but I cannot explore it. It gives me an I/O error. But as mentioned earlier, I can access the disk through Part Magic.

Parted Magic is a Linux live CD right?

You might try backing up your data, completely wiping the drive with all zeros (using Linux CD), and then reformatting it inside Windows. Windows will write a new partition table and perhaps even MBR to the disk when you format it.