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Is Windows7 (Starter) MBR compatible with Windows XP MBR?
I'm trying to help a friend recover his Windows XP (Professional) Asus Aspire 3000 laptop, which is getting a BSOD Code 'ED' (Unmountable Boot Volume). Months earlier, he had someone else recover by reinstalling Windows XP. In the process, that person blew away the recovery partition which came with the PC when new. I am able to run Linux Mint from a live CD with no problems; everything functions. The person who reinstalled Windows changed 'boot.ini', so, from Linux, I renamed the backup of the old 'boot.ini' and tried that, but I received the same BSOD code.
I have 2 systems of my own, but both are Win7 (1 Starter, 1 Home Premium), and I created recovery DVDs for both. I am considering booting my Win7 Starter recovery DVD on the Asus and running 'chkdsk' and 'fixmbr', which leads to 3 questions:
1) Are 'chkdsk' and 'fixmbr' available on the Recovery system?
2) If I do run 'fixmbr' from the Win7(Starter) recovery DVD, will the MBR still be usable on the XP system?
3) Is the MBR displayable and, if so, which utility should I use to view it?
I am running a surface test on the Asus as I type this, using a bootable utilities CD (Super FDisk). In the end, if the hard drive isn't toast, it appears that we might have to reformat and reinstall Windows XP, but I personally don't have a copy of XP Pro (and the owner of the Asus lost his), so I was hoping for a simpler fix. Of course, my stab at a solution might not even be in the ballpark. Opinions appreciated.
Gratias.....KK