| Microsoft Windows is the most used operating system | | | | Sector 0 of the physical hard disk drive has an |
| in the world. There are many reasons for that such as | | | | incorrect or malformed master boot record (MBR). |
| the Windows drivers are easily available, the interface | | | | An incompatible partition is marked as Active. |
| is more user friendly, it is easier to use than other | | | | A partition that contains the MBR is no longer active. |
| operating systems, and lot of many others. However, | | | | Resolution: |
| at times the Windows system fails to boot. There | | | | One of the foremost things that you can do in such |
| could be many reasons for that such as virus | | | | cases, is to contact the manufacturer of your hard |
| infections, power surges, boot sector corruption, etc. | | | | disk. The reason behind this is that the manufacturer |
| In such cases, you should contact your system | | | | might be having a utility to scan the damaged area of |
| manufacturer who will try to address the issue. | | | | the disk and verify the BIOS settings. If the hard disk is |
| However, that may not guarantee safety of your data. | | | | found beyond repair, then the hard disk may be |
| In such case, you should use a third-party Windows | | | | replaced. However, that would not get back your |
| data recovery software to solve the issue. | | | | previous data. |
| Consider a scenario wherein your Windows XP | | | | You can also try out the following workarounds: |
| system does not boot when you switch it on. Following | | | | Verify your system's BIOS settings to ensure that the |
| error messages might be displayed: | | | | BIOS lists and recognizes the hard disk. |
| Operating system not found. | | | | Use Recovery Console: Use the fixmbr command in |
| Missing Operating System. | | | | the Windows XP Recovery Console to repair the |
| When you try to boot your system with the Recovery | | | | MBR of the startup partition. |
| Console to recover its functionality, you may see the | | | | The aforementioned workarounds may be able to |
| following error message: | | | | address the issue. However, if the issue is still not |
| "Setup did not find any hard drives installed on your | | | | resolved then you should consider using a third-party |
| computer." | | | | Windows data recovery software to recover |
| Cause: | | | | Window files. These tools are read-only in nature and |
| There could be the following causes for this issue: | | | | perform Windows data recovery without overwriting |
| The basic input/output system (BIOS) does not detect | | | | the previous data, thereby preserving your valuable |
| the hard disk. | | | | files. |
| The hard disk is damaged. | | | | |