mnosera

One day several weeks ago I had to restart my computer (XP Pro-2) and it came back with an MBR Error 3. Since then I have been unsuccessfully trying to get the boot sector rewritten.

I have tried reinstalling XP w/the installation disk, choosing repair, getting to the c prompt, typing in the fixboot/fixmbr commands (separately) and have ended up with a cursor blinking in the upper left corner of my monitor. I have tried using my acronis boot cd, but that is useless. The company itself has been just as useless in it's assistance.

First question: Can I somehow rewrite the boot sector so it'll boot?

I actually purchased (and suspect wasted my money on) a product called active boot disk, which at least let's me into my computer to do stuff. It will not repair the MBR, as promised. So I cloned the HDD to one of my external drives, which has other stuff on it.

Second question: Can I put a new HDD in my computer and install the clone to the new drive? Do I have to install XP on the new drive first? What are the steps to successfully recovering my settings and data so I don't have to go out and buy another computer? Notebooks are fine for the road and in an emergency, but I love my desktop.

Sorry this is such a long post, but if anybody wants to assist me, I want them to have as much info as I can give, and not need to tell me to repeat steps I've already taken. Any useful information and/or assistance will be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

mnosera