Repairing the MBR of a partition on a removable HDD

In the worst case, you can always try a quick format and later recover all your data with software like Recuva
Computer: a means designed to speed up and automate errors

Neither of the two proposed solutions works...

I read English very well, but Testdisk is particularly difficult and incomprehensible for non-techies.. (in short, a very bad consumer software..) and, in any case, it didn't detect anything unusual on this "unreadable" partition!!

I have no intention of "rewriting the MBR", nor Seven (which could really use it!!!) but at most to repair it...

I don't disconnect my hard drives "wildly" (over thirty years of computing behind me....).

Thank you for your efforts,

See you soon.

Yes, thank you for your tip which I already know (I actually have Recuva)... but what I want is to know, for this time or for future occasions, a way to repair a corrupted MBR... This was possible with XP (I did it...), I don't understand why it seems impossible with Seven since I can't find anywhere a simple way to do it...

Thank you for taking the time to respond to me.. A+

Hello,
Have you tried to read the content of this partition from a live Linux CD? (Which Windows doesn't want to do, sometimes Linux is able to do it).
A partition (whether primary or logical) does not have an MBR.
The MBR of the disk is a unique location at the beginning of the disk regardless of the number and type of partitions on that disk.
I don't see how one can "repair" the MBR of a disk that does not contain an operating system but only data (that's what I understood).

Here is, for once, a reasoned and interesting response..
.. if, as you say, a partition does not have a MBR... it is obvious that we cannot repair it...
So we need to repair "the unique MBR located at the beginning of the disk"... the MBR which should not be too damaged since the two other partitions on this same disk are perfectly recognized, displayed, and read...

So I summarize my problem - which I have probably expressed poorly since I am not a computer scientist but a regular user, albeit experienced:

- I have a removable hard drive connected via USB to my computer,
- this hard drive is divided into three partitions: G:, H: and I:
- the G: (work) and H: (media) partitions are working perfectly well,
- the I: (backups) partition has become "unreadable" for Windows which can’t find either its name or its capacity, names it "local disk" and offers to format it to be able to use it.
Nevertheless, the software "Partition Suite" from Acronis identifies it very well as "I/ Backups, NTFS, 41 Gigas". A Scandisk has identified and studied more than 1300 files, still present.. Finally, the software Testdisk shows nothing abnormal at this partition....

How can I repair the MBR of this disk which seems disturbed in the reading of one of the partitions???
My problem is not to recover all or part of my files but to recover the partition in its entirety... which was possible, as already mentioned, under XP....

Thank you for your help.
....

Hi everyone,

I know, I know, this topic is from 2010...

No matter, I have the answer for future readers.

To redo the MBR of an external USB drive,
if it is recognized but one or more partitions are invisible.

Solution:

Open "Run" from the "Start" menu to switch to command mode, type (without quotes) 'cmd' and then press 'Enter'.
At the command prompt (e.g.: chkdsk d: /f) type: chkdsk 'the letter of the partition to be repaired followed by :' /f

P.S.: under XP

Hello
I followed your info but it indicates that it's impossible to open the volume in direct access :)
help me please..
The same goes for an external hard drive which, despite a year of use without any shocks, is not recognized at all..
it turns on and off the same way after tests, the master boot might be dead..
thank you

I will probably send it back for warranty, but it’s hard since it’s a hard drive from a client and he really knows what happened.. :)
Maybe a bug with the hard drive, but in 5 years I've never had this problem ;)
Best regards
Western Digital guarantees them for three years, we'll see ;)

Hello,

In case of issues, especially with a new OS (Microsoft is good at getting rid of very useful software that worked perfectly on older OS, and yes, they are like car manufacturers, selling what is supposedly a product but in reality, they are selling a service), it's not just that the software is unfinished, but also that to make you come back, they remove all the tools. So, at worst, try to repair with an older version of the OS.

In any case, the first thing to do is to reinstall the ASPI layers, and if the problem persists, perform a repair with Scandisk under an OS like XP. I can't remember the command line, but I had the same issue a month ago, and that's how I solved it.

Good evening, turn off your computer, unplug all USB peripherals, restart it, and plug them back in.
I already had the same problem with my external hard drive under seven.
Computer: average designed to accelerate and automate mistakes.