How to create a boot partition on your hard drive. Recovering the boot sector of the hard drive

As if installing an OS is not something complicated, and my opinion is that it is enough to be friends with the computer and have two more hands in addition to your head - one right and the other left. To install the OS on your computer, you need or.

But what to do if you have neither one nor the other, the optical drive does not work, or you have a netbook? After thinking a little, I remembered that I have an external USB pocket for an HDD and a free old 2.5' HDD too. In general, if you have a pocket hard drive, you can make it bootable.

There are utilities for this purpose that can be used to do this, but I decided to use standard Windows tools.

There are a lot of descriptions and videos on the Internet, but, unfortunately, there is one problematic point that the authors for some reason omit. Well, okay, I'll start in order.

Preparing an external HDD

Before working with a disk, be sure to transfer and save the necessary information from this disk to another medium.

I will carry out all settings using standard Windows 8.1 tools. There may be some differences from previous Windows releases, but if there are any, they are not significant.

First of all, I want to note that making an external HDD bootable is much more convenient. I divided the disk into two partitions, one contains the Windows distribution, the other partition is for my needs.

1. We connect the USB pocket and go to Disk management.

Attention! All data on the disk will be destroyed!

If you have Windows 8 installed on your PC,1 right-click: Start/Disk Management;

If Windows is earlier versions, open the Computer Management console: Start / Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Computer Management / expand Storage Devices / left click Disk Management.

See screenshot:

2. Select an external HDD drive. Be extremely careful; if you select another drive by mistake, all information will be destroyed.

In my case, this is Disk 1. As you can see in the screenshot, the disk is divided into two volumes (partitions):

3. Delete disk partitions:

4. Create new disk partitions. One for the distribution, the second will remain for your needs:

Right-click on a free disk field and select the command in the context menu Create a simple volume:

5. In the Create Simple Volume Wizard window that appears, click the button Further:

Specify the volume size as 4404 megabytes and click Next. Please note that the size is indicated in megabytes. And since 1 gigabyte is equal to 1024 megabytes, then 1024 × 4.3 = 4403.2 megabytes we get for the distribution section (mine weighs 4.18 GB, for example);

In this dialog, you need to format the new partition (FAT 32), click Further then Ready:

6. After this, you need to make the created partition active (don't forget because the computer will boot from this partition), for this:

Right click the mouse and select the command in the context menu Make the section active.

We respond to the confirmation request YES.

The external HDD looks like this:

7. In the same order, we format the second partition on the disk, preferably in NTFS, but do not make it active.

Copying Windows to the active partition of an external HDD

Copying a Windows distribution to a bootable external HDD is quite simple and easy.

From boot DVD:

Open the installation DVD in Explorer, select all folders and files, and copy to the active partition of the external HDD;

From the ISO image:

By and large, an ISO image is a kind of archive. So you can open it using any archiver. You can also open the ISO image through Total Commander or Daemon Tools. Well, if you have Windows 8 or 8.1 installed on your PC, then open it with Explorer. Select all folders and files and copy them to the active partition of the external HDD;

That's it, your external HDD can act as bootable media. Just reboot and set USB HDD as boot priority in BIOS (depending on BIOS type).

• When you turn on the laptop, press F2, to ;
• Go to the tab Boot;
• IN Boot Priority order install USB HDD;
• Click F10, and then OK.

If it doesn’t work, then look at the article.

Save the changes and proceed.

As we can see from the text, preparing an external HDD for installing Windows is quite simple. And my description will not be complete if I do not talk about one problem that for some reason is rarely written about on the Internet.

Making the hard drive partition active

When I divided the hard drive into two volumes, for some reason unknown to me, not a single partition of the disk could be made active. This function was not available in the context menu.

The active partition is the partition from which the computer boots.

There are two ways to make a section active:

1. Using the Computer Management console. We have already considered this method, but, unfortunately, for a number of reasons, the Make partition active command may not be available. The solution to this problem is also not difficult. Remember how to prepare a bootable USB flash drive from the Command Line.
2. Using the Command Line, through the utility diskpart. The second method is a little more complicated, but more effective. You just need to do all the operations carefully and slowly.

Setting the active partition using the command line

1. Connect an external USB HDD;

2. Click Start/All Programs/Accessories/Command Prompt. Right-click and select Run as administrator.

3. In the window that opens, write the command diskpart and press the button Enter. An invitation line to work with the utility will appear – DISKPART>;

4. Enter the command list disk and press the button Enter. You will see all the disks installed on your computer;

5. We select the disk with which we will work. To do this, enter the command select disk 0, where “0” is the disk number in the list, i.e. for my external drive there will be a command select disk 1. Click the button Enter, the message Disk 1 selected will appear;

6. Next, you need to find all partitions on the selected disk. Enter the command list partition and press the button Enter.

7. We select the section we will work with. Enter the command select partition 1, where 1 is the section number in the list, i.e. for the section that we make active. Click Enter, a message will appear Section 1 selected.

8. Mark the selected partition as active, to do this, enter the command active. Click the button Enter, a message will appear DiskPart: Partition marked as active.

That's all. Good luck.

Also on the site:

How to make an external USB HDD (hard drive) bootable using standard Windows tools? updated: February 6, 2018 by: admin

I have long wanted to have a portable hard drive that would have a boot partition and a second partition for other information. And today I will explain how to do this from my own experience. As a result we will have portable USB HDD with separate multiboot section. We will look at how to add your components to the disk and create a menu for it.

In this section you will be able to:

1) Install Windows XP SP3 Zver + autoinstall + WPI

2) Installing Windows 7 ALL Version

3) Live CD - Alkid

4) Acronis Utilities

To get started, we need an empty external hard drive; I have a 250 GB Seagate lying around.

On the forum OSZone.net There is a topic called "MultiBoot USB - Multiboot flash drive & Windows XPE/7PE" created by Jekson07 in which you can download a package of utilities in one shell, 17.5 MB in size.

Screenshot:

1. Format the hard drive.

All information from the hard drive will be deleted!

Launch the utility HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool, v.2.2.3.

In point Device select your external hard drive (determined by volume letter and size).

File System it is advisable to choose NTFS.

Choose Quick Format and press Start.

Formatting will begin.

2. Install the GRUB bootloader.

Launch the utility Grub4Dos Installer 1.1.

IN Device Name choose Disk, in the window we find our disk (look carefully at the size, in theory it should be the last one).

We don’t touch anything else, just click Install.

When finished a message will appear The MBR/BS has been successfully installed, meaning everything went as planned.

3. Divide the disk.

We launch a program to partition the disk, for example, Acronis Disk Director.

Find your portable drive, select it and select “split”.

Let's leave, for example, 30 GB for the first disk.

The second will have about 200 GB.

Click on the finish flag to apply the changes.

4. Zver DVD.

Download ZverDVD, which can be easily found via .

We mount it into the program Daemon Tools Lite any version.

Launch the utility WinSetupFromUSB 1.0 b7.

In the top window, select our portable disk on which to save the installation disk of the beast.

Check the box next to Windows 2000/XP and select our Daemon Tools virtual disk in which our installation disk is mounted ZverDVD and click GO.

In order to be able to install ZverDVD in automatic mode, you need

a) open the file from our portable disk j:\WINSETUP\XPpSP3.ISO in the UltraISO program. And add the SETUPLD1.BIN file to the I386 folder in the image, which can be taken here j:\WINSETUP\XPpSP3\I386\SETUPLD1.BIN.

b) edit menu.lst, see below

For WPI to work and normal driver installation, you need to copy the OEMDRV and WPI folders, as well as the WIN51 file (marker) from the j:\WINSETUP\XPpSP3\ folder to the root of the j:\ drive.

5. Windows 7.

I tried it with the 18 in 1 assembly found on the Internet, which includes all modifications of the seven for x86 and x64.

Also using WinSetupFromUSB 1.0 b7 Check the box Vista\7\Server and select the virtual disk into which you mounted the Win7 assembly. And click GO.

Once completed, a message will appear.

6. Alkid CD.

I downloaded version 2011.05 in the image of which I had to change the name of the folder from A386 to I386 (UltraISO utility) so that I could upload it to our portable disk using the same utility WinSetupFromUSB 1.0 b7.

Having launched it, now you need to select the third item UBCD4WIN/WinBuilder/BartPE, select the virtual disk into which the modified Alkid CD image was mounted.

Click GO.

The minint and programs folders will appear on our disk.

7. Required files.

We launch the utility downloaded from OSZone.net and select the item

5) "Copying files and utilities."

8. Acronis.

Installation is simple, if you have an image with Acronis utilities, then replace the dummy file with it j:/boot/Acronis.iso

9. Ubuntu.

Download the image from the developers website and upload the image ubuntu-11.04-desktop-i386.is o to a folder j:/linux/.

From this image you need to extract two files initrd.lz and vmlinuz, which are located in the casper folder of the image.

And put them in a folder j:/linux/.

Edit the menu.lst file (at the bottom of the article).

10. Windows Kolhoz Edition

Now, Windows builds have appeared on the Internet that work from removable drives.

After downloading the distribution, you can install it on our portable disk, like a regular system.

11. Disc menu.

Open the file on the portable disk j:/menu.lst in notepad.

I'm attaching my skin HDDSkin for the menu that needs to be copied to the j:\boot\ folder is shown in the screenshot:

Timeout 30 //time allotted for a simple menu, i.e. After 30 seconds, the default item will start. gfxmenu /boot/Hddskin //skin menu, I have already substituted my skin. default 0 //default item number. //Continue booting the computer title Booting from the hard drive find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /bootmgr || find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /ntldr map (hd0) (hd1) map (hd1) (hd0) map --hook rootnoverify (hd0) chainloader (hd0)+1 //Boot Windows Kolhoz Edition title Running Windows USB HDD rootnoverify (hd0) chainloader (hd0,0)/ntldr //Auto-installation ZVER DVD title Installing Microsoft Windows XP SP3 Zver Edition Auto root (hd0,0) map --mem /WINSETUP/XPpSP3.ISO ( 0xff) map (hd0) (hd1) map (hd1) (hd0) map --hook root (0xff) chainloader /I386/SETUPLD1.BIN //Manual installation of ZVER DVD title Installing Microsoft Windows XP SP3 Zver Edition root (hd0,0 ) map --mem /WINSETUP/XPpSP3.ISO (0xff) map (hd0) (hd1) map (hd1) (hd0) map --hook root (0xff) chainloader /I386/SETUPLDR.BIN //Installing Windows 7 title Installation Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 18 in 1 map --unmap=0:0xff map --unhook root (hd0,0) chainloader /bootmgr // Ubuntu title Ubuntu 11.04 (LiveCD) kernel /linux/vmlinuz iso-scan/filename=/linux /ubuntu-11.04-desktop-i386.iso boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.lz locale=ru_RU splash -- initrd /linux/initrd.lz // Alkid Live title Launch Alkid Live CD map --unmap=0: 0xff map --unhook root (hd0,0) chainloader /minint/setupldr.bin title Running Alkid Live CD (no drivers) map --unmap=0:0xff map --unhook root (hd0,0) chainloader /minint/Setuplns .bin //Call an additional menu title Additional utilities >>> configfile /boot/menu_2.lst title Loading Plop Boot Manager ls /usbdrive.tag || find --set-root --ignore-cd /usbdrive.tag kernel /plpbt.bin title Booting from CD/DVD-ROM cdrom --init map --hook chainloader (cd0) title Booting from floppy disk rootnoverify (fd0) chainloader ( fd0)+1 title Restarting the computer reboot title Shutting down the computer halt

Today, almost every home computer uses a hard drive as the main storage device. The operating system is installed on it. But in order for the PC to be able to boot it, it must know on which devices and in what order it needs to look for the Master Boot Record. This article will provide a guide to help you make your hard drive bootable.

In order for an operating system or anything to boot from the HDD, it is necessary to perform certain manipulations in . You can make the computer always give the hard drive the highest boot priority. It is also possible to download the program you need from the HDD only once. The instructions in the material below will help you cope with this task.

Method 1: Set Boot Priority in BIOS

This function in the BIOS allows you to configure the boot sequence of the OS from storage devices installed in the computer. That is, you only have to put the hard drive first in the list, and the system will always start by default only from it. To learn how to enter BIOS, read the following article.

This manual uses the BIOS from American Megatrends as an example. In general, the appearance of this set of firmware is similar for all manufacturers, but variations in the names of items and other elements are allowed.

Go to the basic input/output system menu. Go to the tab "Boot". There will be a list of drives from which the computer can boot. The device whose name is above all others will be considered the primary boot drive. To move a device up, select it using the arrow keys and press the keyboard button «+» .

In the window that appears, select the option "OK" and press "Enter". Now your computer will first boot from the HDD, and not from any other device.

Method 2: "Boot Menu"

When you start your computer, you can go to the so-called boot menu. It allows you to select the device from which the operating system will now be loaded. This method of making a hard drive bootable is suitable if this action needs to be performed once, and the rest of the time the main device for booting the OS is something else.

When the PC starts, click on the button, which will bring up the boot menu. Most often this "F11", "F12" or "Esc"(usually all the keys that allow you to interact with the computer at the OS boot stage are displayed on the screen along with the motherboard logo). Use the arrows to select the hard drive and click "Enter". Voila, the system will start loading from the HDD.

Conclusion

This article talked about how you can make your hard drive bootable. One of the above methods is designed to install the HDD as the default boot one, and the other is designed for one-time booting from it. We hope that this material helped you in solving the problem at hand.

Very often, to “treat” the computer, to reinstall the operating system, and in many other cases, the user needs to use a boot disk. It would seem that nothing could be simpler - you can buy such a disc or borrow it from friends (in general, this is not a problem). But there are situations when the optical drive does not work, there is no bootable USB flash drive at hand, or you need to boot a netbook. The problem can be fixed if you have an external hard drive. But you need to take care of making it bootable in advance, without waiting for the moment when you need it.

Some experts recommend using special software to make the hard drive bootable. But we will take a simpler route and use standard tools of the operating system itself. We will consider all operations using Windows 8.1 as an example. However, keep in mind that the process of creating a boot disk based on an external hard drive using Windows operating systems of earlier versions is, in principle, similar (the differences are not too global). So, everything in order.

Preparing an external hard drive

Before you start working with a hard drive, you need to transfer all important information from this device to another medium. After this, it is recommended to divide the used hard drive into 2 partitions. We will use one for our personal needs, and in the second we will create a boot disk.

1. First, connect the external storage device to the computer and go to the control panel section - “Computer Management”.

Attention! Remember - all data recorded on the external hard drive will be deleted as a result of your actions!

If you are working with Windows 8.1, then right-click the manipulator and select Start/Disk Management.

As for previous versions of the system, you should use the control panel in them: Start / Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Computer Management / Storage Devices / Disk Management.

2. Now from the list presented you need to select your external hard drive from which you plan to make a boot one. Be careful when choosing a device, because all data on it will be deleted!

In our case, the external disk is disk 1, already divided into 2 partitions (volumes).

3. Delete the partitions on the disk. To do this, right-click on each partition and select “Delete volume” in the menu that opens.

Note: If your external drive only has one partition, then you just need to format that drive.

4. Create 2 partitions on the external drive - one for the boot disk, the second for various data for your own use. To do this, right-click on the free space that is displayed by the disk and select “Create a simple volume.”

5. The Volume Creation Wizard will open in front of you, in which you need to specify the size of the new volume. For us, a volume of 4404 megabytes (4.18 GB) is suitable. Click “Next”.

We designate the disk with a letter:

We need to format the new partition. Select the FAT 32 file system, click “Next” and then “Finish”.

6. Now we need to activate the created partition (this is a prerequisite and if it is not met, the computer will not be able to boot from this partition). To do this, in the context menu of the section, select the command “Make section active” and confirm by selecting the word “Yes”.

Our external drive will look like this:

7. In the same sequence, format the additional partition, choosing the NFTS file system for it. Please note that it should not be made active.

How to make an external drive bootable - the final stage

Creating a system distribution on an external hard drive after preparing the latter does not look so difficult.

Create a distribution from a bootable DVD:

To do this, open the contents of the installation DVD in Explorer and copy all the files to the activated partition created on external media.

Create a distribution from an ISO image:

What is an ISO disk image? This is nothing more than a special archive. And if this is an archive, this means that it can always be opened. Programs such as Daemon Tools or Total Commander will help you with this. If Windows 8 (8.1) is installed on your PC, then you can even open the archive using Explorer.

You need to copy all unzipped files to an external hard drive (to its active partition).

That's probably all. You now know how to make an external hard drive bootable. In order for the computer to boot from this disk, you just need to enter the BIOS and set the boot priority for the USB HDD.

If Windows does not load when you turn on your computer and the process freezes on a black screen, your hard drive's boot record (MBR) may be damaged.

External manifestations

When an error appears on the screen, doubts disappear.

Other information about a malfunction of the HDD bootloader may also be displayed.

The text information may vary depending on the classification of the error. But when the word boot is mentioned, it is clear that there is a problem with loading.

You can find out how to restore the MBR on this page.

Causes

Please note the common causes of HDD boot sector failures.

Two types of bootloader

Older systems prior to Windows XP used the NT Loader (NTLDR). In Windows 7, Vista and subsequent versions of the OS, UEFI and EFI began to be used. Therefore, old and new systems are usually not installed on the same PC. Otherwise, NTLDR overwrites UEFI.

Third party software

Errors in the boot sector of the HDD can occur when using even popular programs for the hard drive partition. This happened to me with Acronis. This happens because such software replaces disk loading drivers with its own. This can corrupt the original MBR entry. Therefore, it is better to use the built-in methods for partitioning a hard drive from Windows.

Viruses

Viruses sometimes wreak havoc on the MBR. Therefore, after restoring the HDD boot, check your computer with anti-virus programs.

If you are sure that the cause is viruses, then clean your PC of them before repairing the MBR. For this purpose, there are utilities from well-known antivirus companies, for example, Kaspersky Rescue Disk. They are provided free of charge on official websites with instructions for use.

Any of these programs is included in the software package for a CD or DVD, which allows you to boot from a CD, find and remove viruses on the HDD.

Windows 7 Boot Recovery

Sector repair is performed from a CD or USB flash drive with the operating system installation package.

1. First, insert the DVD into the drive or flash drive into the USB connector with the Windows distribution.
2. Then you need to allow startup from these devices. This is done in the BIOS settings.

Changing download sources

Technology of the following order:

Be sure to press F10 when exiting, otherwise the changes will not be saved!

Working from a CD or flash device

Proceed in the following order:

1. After the reboot, the following message will appear at the bottom: “Press any key...”. This asks you to press any key. Click. It won't work out otherwise. If the inscription has already disappeared, repeat everything from the beginning. To do this, press three keys at once: Ctrl+Alt+Del. This will cause the computer to restart.
2. When you boot from the DVD or flash drive, the Windows installation window will appear. At the bottom left, select “System Restore”.
   
3. You will be prompted to connect network capabilities, select languages ​​or a drive letter. Don't change anything and get to the choice of systems.
4. Select the desired Windows and check the box next to “Use recovery tools...”.
   
5. If the required system does not exist, it should appear when you click “Download drivers”.
6. Continue with the “Next” button.
7. In the next window, select “Startup recovery”, and the MBR can be reanimated automatically.
   
8. If the sector does not work, then press “Command Line”.
9. On the command line, call the Bootrec utility and write for it to repair the MBR: bootrec/fixmbr. You end each command with the Enter key.
   
10. Then create a new boot sector: bootrec/ fixboot. To exit the program, type exit and remember to press Enter.

If the fixes didn't help

There is another MBR resuscitation command - bootsect /NT60 SYS. After that, try to boot again.

If the attempt fails, write on the command line like this: bootsect/rebuildbcd. A search will be performed for operating systems installed on the PC.

Now try logging into Windows again. Please note that there will now be one more system in the list. Try to enter each of them. It should work!

Non-standard way

If all sector recovery options do not help, it is recommended to reinstall Windows. And no matter how much you want to do it sometimes! Isn't it true?

I thought so too and decided to put another small system nearby. What does "small" mean? This is a bootloader system. It is empty: I did not install drivers or my programs on it, because I don’t work in it. But it's loading!

I achieved what I needed: a working boot area appeared on the hard drive. Now I log into the old system normally. The downside is that I lost about 14 GB of disk space. If you are not afraid, you can use this method!

How to fix a sector in Windows 8-10 and Vista?

For Vista and later versions of Windows, the same methods are suitable as for the “seven”, only the design is different. For example, in the “eight” he is like this.

But the points remain the same. Therefore, we will not describe them. Use the instructions described above for Windows 7.

On Windows XP

In the "experiment" sector, the principle of resuscitation of the sector is similar. But the entrance is a little different. Now you will see it:

1. After booting from the CD, system files are copied to the hard drive.
2. Then the action selection window appears.