How to repair a Master Boot Record (MBR)

Question

1.75Tb INTENSO

My external backup disk, not a dual boot system

mix@mix-Latitude-E5530-vPro:~$ sudo fsck /dev/sdc
fsck from util-linux 2.39.1
e2fsck 1.47.0 (5-Feb-2023)
ext2fs_open2: Bad magic number in super-block
fsck.ext2: Superblock invalid, trying backup blocks...
fsck.ext2: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/sdc
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a valid ext2/ext3/ext4
filesystem.  If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2/ext3/ext4
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
    e2fsck -b 8193 <device>
 or
    e2fsck -b 32768 <device>
Found a dos partition table in /dev/sdc

Please advice

Error message: The file system INTENSO MIX MIX on ST1750LM000 HN-M171RAD is damaged

All error messages should be in English for Ask Ubuntu. Retry switching your localisation to en or provide the best translation you can underneath, perhaps. — moo, Jan 20 '24 at 20:48
You cannot run fsck on a drive like sdc, but on partiitons like sdc1. Also fsck is really for Linux ext family. It looks like partition is NTFS. Then you need Windows and its chkdsk. But partition may have hibernation flag set if you use Windows with fast start up on. Turn off fast startup or hibernation in Windows & run chkdsk from Windows. https://askubuntu.com/questions/843153/unable-to-mount-windows-10-partition-it-is-in-an-unsafe-state You cannot fix NTFS from Windows. And LInux NTFSfix still needs you to boot Windows and run chkdsk. — oldfred, Jan 20 '24 at 20:50
Does this answer your question? Unable to mount Windows 10 partition; it "is in an unsafe state" — karel, Jan 21 '24 at 08:52
The file system INTENSO MIX MIX on ST1750LM000 HN-M171RAD is damaged — MichalisK, Jan 21 '24 at 22:35
Can you show the output of sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdc from the command line please? If it's not an ext partition, then you need to use a different file system checker. Is the drive formatted as NTFS? If so, you need to attempt using ntfsfix on the partition, then use a Windows system to actually run chkdisk to fully repair the system. Unfortunately only Windows can run a system check properly for NTFS. You could get a Windows ISO, follow a tutorial to put it on a USB stick, then boot to the Windows USB to run chkdisk from its recovery environment, which is always an option. — Thomas Ward, Jan 21 '24 at 23:05

score -2 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 22 '24 at 11:59

-2

You might use an old boot loader LiLo to fix mbr.

Install:

sudo  apt-get install lilo

Run:

sudo lilo -M /dev/sdc mbr

answered Jan 22 '24 at 11:59

obayhan

275
1
10

How old boot loader? last update of lilo is 2015 – MichalisK Jan 22 '24 at 13:59
@MichalisK Last update of MBR is 1996 if i am not wrong (: – obayhan Jan 22 '24 at 14:22
1

I'm not sure the issue is the boot loader because the issue is likely a dirty NTFS partition instead. Boot loader only makes sense if the issue is a boot issue and it's not likely this is a boot issue. – Thomas Ward Jan 22 '24 at 15:39
@ obayhan Hi, you have wrong about last update, Thank you – MichalisK Jan 23 '24 at 00:10
@ThomasWard the question is "How to repair a Master Boot Record (MBR)", beyond this I have to trust user's opinion more than guesses... (: – obayhan Jan 23 '24 at 07:01
@MichalisK possible, but not sure because it is a part that is not open for changes if you think millions of pc etc. uses that, do you know when was the last update? – obayhan Jan 23 '24 at 07:02
1

@obayhan The title is "how to fix an MBR" but that's not actually what's broken - read through comments on the quesiton. – Thomas Ward Jan 23 '24 at 17:34
@ThomasWard how do you know "that's not actually what's broken"? If the adress pointer to a partition in MBR is corrupted, it will look to a wrong place for partition description so wont you get "Bad magic number in super-block"? – obayhan Jan 24 '24 at 06:07
In this case fixing mbr by lilo might fix it, else it is harmless. – obayhan Jan 24 '24 at 06:07
It is easy to try, dump any usb stick to your disk by dd, change 457th byte of it and dump it back to stick. You will exactly get the same error when you try to mount it again. – obayhan Jan 24 '24 at 06:13
1

@obayhan 'superblock' is an ext component, not an NTFS component. Bad superblock only triggers in fsck because fsck doesn't support NTFS. NTFS uses a different journaling system entirely which there is no true 'fix' tool for it in Linux - it has a lot of Microsoft components in it and are painful which is why chkdisk is the only true utility to validate/fix NTFS partitions because it's a Microsoft-origin volume type – Thomas Ward Jan 24 '24 at 15:54
@ThomasWard got the point now. I missed NTFS – obayhan Jan 26 '24 at 10:11

How to repair a Master Boot Record (MBR)

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