Fixmbr Command (Recovery Console)

Use the fixmbr command in the Windows XP Recovery Console to write a new MBR to a hard drive

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Tim Fisher
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Tim Fisher
Senior Vice President & Group General Manager, Tech & Sustainability
  • Emporia State University
Tim Fisher has more than 30 years' of professional technology experience. He's been writing about tech for more than two decades and serves as the SVP and General Manager of Lifewire.
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Updated on July 31, 2023

The fixmbr command is a Recovery Console command that writes a new master boot record to the hard disk drive that you specify.

This command is only available from within the Recovery Console in Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

Fixmbr Command Syntax

The command takes the following form: 

 fixmbr device_name

The device_name parameter designates the drive location that a master boot record will be written to. If no device is specified, the master boot record writes to the primary boot drive.

Fixmbr Command Examples

Here are two examples of the fixmbr command to illustrate its usage:

Write MBR to HardDisk0 

 fixmbr \Device\HardDisk0

In the above example, the master boot record writes to the drive located at \Device\HardDisk0.

Write MBR to Main Drive 

 fixmbr
Windows XP Recovery Console fixmbr command

In this example, the master boot record writes to the device supporting your operating system. If you have a single installation of Windows installed, which is normally the case, running the command in this way is usually the right way to go.

Related Commands

The bootcfg, fixboot, and diskpart commands are often used with the fixmbr command.

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