How do I edit a hard drive's MBR?

[redbeacon]

I've searched high and low for a software that can edit the Master Boot Record of a hard drive but to no avail...

 

The reason why I need this kind of software is because XP refuses to install properly.

 

I'm sure some of you know that you can copy the files off of the XP CD to the hard drive, and run the setup from there.

 

I did not completely clean out my hard drive (usually done via low-level formatting) and so, when I installed Windows XP on a notebook using the abovementioned method, the first phase of the XP setup reboots and gives a "NTLDR is missing" error.

 

Any gurus here to help? Appreciate it if you could!

 

FYI: My notebook's CD-ROM drive is malfunctioning so I have to run the XP setup from the hard drive. This method has been mentioned above...

[elephant]

just a thot...

can u take out ur lappy hdd.. put it in a external hdd casing. hook it up to another system and format it with a format X: /s and then reinsert it back into ur lappy and install windows.

[moccajava]

there are some tools able to fix ur boot loaders. even xp cd itself got option to fix it. can search for it.

[IvikaRazI]

One other option is to back to the basics. Run FDISK under DOS to repartition everything back. Should be able to solve the problem.

[redbeacon]

Hey yall,

 

Thanks for the advice, I'll take those into account should I ever wanna scrub my hard drive clean.