Repairing the Master Boot Record (MBR)

If your “Master Boot Record” (MBR) is faulty and your PC no longer boots up properly, you need to repair the MBR.

Repair the MBR with the Windows installation CD

To recover the MBR, you will need the Windows 10 or Windows 11 installation CD, depending on which of the two operating systems is installed on your PC, or the Windows 10 or Windows 11 installation software on a USB stick. If you have these, proceed as follows:

• Either insert the Windows 10 installation CD into your CD/DVD drive or connect the USB stick to your PC using a USB port.

• In the BIOS, set your PC to boot from the CD or USB stick rather than from the hard drive. To get into the BIOS, you must press a key when you boot the PC. Often it is one of the F keys, e.g. F12. Which key it is for you depends on the manufacturer of your mainboard.

• Once you have set the correct boot sequence, you will be taken to the Windows recovery environment after the computer has been started.
  • Here you select the entry “Repair computer” in the Repair Centre.
  • Under “System Recovery Options” you will find the “Command Prompt”. Enter the command “bootrec.exe” there -without the quotation marks- and confirm the action with the Enter key.
  • Then enter the two commands: “/fixmbr” and “/fixboot” -also without the quotation marks- into the console.
    • Restart the PC afterwards.
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