[XP] Dell recovery problem - Bad PBR signature

[dyoumans]

I have a dimension 8400 with a bad drive. I have tried the ctrl-F11 restore but when it completes windows still won't boot (blue screen). I did a check disk and it has bad sectors preventing windows from booting.

Since I didn't create recovery disks when I initially received the dell (oops), I have pulled the ghost image from the hidden partition of the original and bought a new HDD. I have followed the directions below to restore the image to the new drive but when I try to boot with it I receive:

Loading PBR signature for descriptor 0...done.
Bad PBR signature

Any tips on how to correct this? I tried with a single partition on the new drive and with the Dell Utility partition as the first one and recovered to a second partition to try to emulate the original drive.

Here is the guide I used to pull the ghost image.
http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/recover.htm

[Nix]

Did you try with 3 partitions and use ptedit to set them as DE, 07 an DB ?

[Nix]

Actaully re-reading your post:

1. Have you removed the old drive and installed the new one ?
2. How did you restore the Ghost image to the new drive ?
3. How many partitions are on the new drive ?
4. Do you want the Dell Utility partition on the first partition ?
5. Is the second partition marked active ?

[dyoumans]

Hi.

Here are the steps I attempted based on the questions:

1. Have you removed the old drive and installed the new one ?
Yes.

2. How did you restore the Ghost image to the new drive ?
I used a PE tool to boot from, burned the entire contents from the third partition of the original drive to a DVD. When I set up the new drive I ran the restore.exe from the DVD I created to restore the ghost image to the new drive.

3. How many partitions are on the new drive ?
That is where I'm confused. I'm not 100% on how to make the new drive look so I can restore the image and make it boot correctly. I set up two partitions as of now: the first one being FAT16 about 55MB and the second being NTFS and the rest of the space (300 GB HD).

4. Do you want the Dell Utility partition on the first partition ?
I don't know. Only if it is required. That is why I did what I did on step 3 because I thought it was needed and the would fix the BAD PBR error.

5. Is the second partition marked active ?
Yes.


I have ran the dsrfix utility and it give fatal errors because it does not like the first partition and does not find a third partition. Not sure how to set up the correct partitions on the new drive.

[dyoumans]

Update...

Went ahead with a plain, new XP Home install. Was able to pull the drivers from the old drive to get the PC functional.

[ProfessorU]

I'm thinking maybe I should add PBR to my signature, too.
Glad you got it fixed!

[onlymotstar]

hey ! any one can fix this problem ? pleaseeeee help me !!!!!!!!!!!

[onlymotstar]

i dont know why i deleted file that name is NTLDR .And then when i restart my laptop ,it said NTLDR is missing . So i have tried Ctrl F11 .Then it can completed but when it restarted it said Loading PBR signature for descriptor 0...done.
Bad PBR signature.

and then i have tried Ctrl F11 again but it didnt work.

any one can help me,please. i dont know alot about conputer ,so please step by step .
thanks a lot