MBR error 3

shwaip

I tried to update the firmware on my seagate 2tb drive, and it failed miserably. The seagate firmware updater uses acronis true image (or something else by acronis) to edit the MBR of your boot disk and then reboots your system. I'm assuming at this point, it updates the firmware, and then fixes the mbr.

However, it didn't make it to the fw update/fix mbr stage. I was left with a broken boot partition and mbr, unfixable by bootrec or MS's bcd tool. I just reinstalled windows and it's loading just fine, however, before windows loads, a "MBR Error 3" message pops up for a second or two.

bootrec /fixboot and /fixmbr don't fix the problem. HALPs.

*Note that the boot problems are happening on my OCZ SSD, not any of the seagate drives in my system.

Straight_Man

Umm, did you unhook your SSD while updating??? Possible it updated the wrong drive if you left it plugged in/connected to SATA. Possible to restore the SSD if there is a firmware updater for it and firmware file.

Is this Windows 7??? Or earlier???

shwaip

Windows 7!!!

Tushon

Can you do a DBAN type wipe to make sure there is no MBR to cleanup and just patch the firmware?

shwaip

would a dban wipe be different than just reformatting using the windows install?

Tushon

not really, but I was just aiming for having no MBR, trying to update firmware again.

ardichoke

would a dban wipe be different than just reformatting using the windows install?

Yes, actually, it would. A standard format doesn't touch the MBR or the partition table. DBAN writes zeros (or pseudorandom data) to the entire disk. DBANing (or otherwise low-level formatting the drive) should fix the MBR error.

That or you can ignore it: http://www.computer-repair-reading.com/computer-tips/mbr-error-3.html

Tushon

That's a better answer. Thanks!