MBR Repair & Backup Tools: 11 Best We Tested in 2023
The Master Boot Record (MBR) is quite possibly the most important piece of data stored on you hard drives or USB flash drives. For those that aren’t exactly sure what the MBR is, it’s basically a small dedicated section of the drive which holds vital information about the disc including its boot information and the layout of all the partitions stored. The MBR area itself is tiny being only a 512 byte sector and is the very first piece of information held right at the beginning of the disc.
If your Master Boot Record becomes corrupted through drive errors or malware etc, it could stop you booting your operating system and in the worst case, cause all the partitions on the drive to be lost because the drive doesn’t have the correct information to identify them. If your system has a standard disc layout, it’s always possible to write a new standard MBR using the Windows XP Recovery Console and the FixMBR command. Or you can use a Windows 7 install disc and select the “Repair your computer” -> Command Prompt option with the Bootrec /fixmbr command which also works on Vista and Windows 8 from the Windows 7 disc.
As the Master Boot Record is such a vital part of your system, it makes sense to have a backup of it just in case the worst happens. And being only 512 bytes in size means it takes up no room at all and can be stored anywhere. This could save hours of frustration trying to recover your files from damaged partitions. So here are 8 free tools that can help you to easily backup and restore your system’s Master Boot Record (MBR) for some extra piece of mind.
1. Aomei
Aomei is a software that makes it simple to back up data, restore software, transfer data, and manage hard drive partitions for home or business use. The Amoei backup software has many variations, including Aomei Backupper, Aomei Centralized Backupper, Aomei Onekey Recovery, iPhone backup tool, and Enterprise Backup Solution.
Aomei Backupper is a Windows backup software that helps secure the operating system, data, and applications using clone, backup, or recovery features. This software can restore your system to its normal state after it crashes.
Aomei Centralized Backupper manages and sets up backup tasks from one central management console. It works better on Windows 11 and Windows Server 2022. This software can help backup Windows, operating system, disk, file, partition, etc.
Aomei OneKey Recovery is a software that protects your laptop and system. This software can create your factory restore partition if you’re using Dell, Hp, Lenovo, or Toshiba computers, etc. With this factory reset partition provided by Onekey, you can back up your operating system, and if your computer fails to boot, you can restore it by pressing ‘F11’ or ‘A.’
Aomei Partition Assistant is a disk partitioning software that allows you to create partitions, clone, erase, split, and merge hard disks. This tool supports multiple languages, so no matter your origin, you can use this tool. With the Aomei partition assistant, you can carry out MBR repair. The following steps can do this;
- Download the Aomei partition assistant
- Select the disk which is unable to boot and right-click to choose ‘Rebuild MBR’
- Set up the MBR type you’d like to rebuild in the ‘Rebuild MBR’ window. The tool will provide a list of MBR for your operating system, but you’ll have to choose the one that suits your OS better
- Click on Apply to proceed
The application is compatible with Windows 11, 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Windows Server 2022, 2019, 2016, 2012, 2011, 2008, 2003, Vista, XP, iPhone.
Partition Wizard is another popular software that maximizes disk performance by creating, resizing, formatting partitions, and converting dynamic disk to basic without data loss. This tool has two software for data recovery: partition recovery wizard and data recovery feature.
The partition recovery wizard helps to find and recover lost partitions. In contrast, the data recovery feature helps to identify and restore deleted or lost files from broken, formatted, inaccessible NTFS, desktops, specific folders, and recycle bins.
This software can be used to rebuild MBR even if Windows can’t boot. This is because of its bootable discs that help boot PCs without Windows. To successfully rebuild MBR using this tool, we have outlined the steps you can follow;
- If your Windows isn’t on, you can use the bootable builder to create a bootable DVD/CD/Flash drive, or you can create an ISO image of a bootable disc
- Once you’re done, you can proceed to rebuild your MBR
- Open your partition wizard software, select the disk that has been damaged, and select Rebuild MBR from the panel
- Click Apply to effect changes
You can also use a command prompt to fix MBR Windows 10, 8.1, 8. Let’s dive right into how this can be achieved;
- Create the installation DVD/CD
- Proceed to boot your computer from the installation media
- Open the command prompt window, click on next, repair computer, and click on troubleshoot > advance > command prompt to continue
- Put the following commands;
- bootrec/fixmbr
- bootrec /fixboot
- bootrec /scan
- bootrec /rebuildbcd
- Once you’re done with every step, you can remove installation media and change the BIOS order. Then check if your system can boot normally by rebooting the system.
This data recovery software is used to recover lost files and formatted corrupted data or partitions. It is available on Windows, Windows Server, Windows XP, and Vista. EaseUS has a partition master that helps you manage, create, clone, and convert hard disk drivers and partitions. Its partition master is available for service providers, home, business, and computer users.
EaseUS MBR repair can help fix MBR issues on hard drives, flash drives, etc, and to successfully achieve this, you’ll have to download EaseUS partition software and create bootable media.
After creating the bootable media, connect the bootable CD/DVD to your PC, and press F2 or Del when you restart your PC to access the BIOS screen. Proceed to boot your PC from ‘removable devices’ or ‘CD-ROM’ and EaseUS partition will do its job. Once you can access the tool, click ‘Toolkit’ and choose ‘Rebuild MBR,’ then select the disk and type of MBR and Rebuild.
Asides from this method, you can also repair the MBR through a command prompt.
4. MBRWizard
MBRwizard is quite a powerful utility and can be helpful in dealing with all sorts of MBR related problems. It was originally designed to repair the damage left on occasion by disk imaging applications such as Symantec Ghost and Acronis True Image, but has matured into a program to repair all sorts of MBR related issues. It also supports GUID Partition Tables, removable media and VMware disks. Backing up and restoring an MBR is easy with the Save and Restore commands with optional use of Vol/Disk.
The odd thing is MBR Wizard’s online documentation doesn’t list the proper commands for saving or restoring the MBR in newer versions of the tool. It was:
MBRWiz /Save=C:\MyMBR.Dat
but now it’s:
MBRWiz /Save=MBR /Filename=C:\MyMBR.Dat
The same command change is present with MBR restoration. As a result of this change, some of the old MBR Wizard GUI frontend tools (MBRWhisky/Ultimate MBRGUI) won’t work if you update the MBRWiz.exe they come with. The MBRwizard command line version is freeware, and there’s also a shareware version with its own frontend, which might explain the command change, to make the old freeware frontends useless!??
5. BOOTICE
BOOTICE is more of a general boot sector/MBR editing tool because it has a lot more useful options for advanced users and is quite a powerful tool. There are extra features such as a Grub4DOS menu editor, disk and sector wiping tool, visual BCD editor for NT 6.x systems, edit the MBR/boot sector of IMG, IMG, VHD, VHDX and VMDK images, a partition manager and a disk sector editor. The options to backup and restore the Master Boot Record or the Partition Boot Record (PBR) are via the Process buttons on the Physical Disk tab and you can also install a boot loader from a variety of different choices such as Plop, Grub4DOS, NT 5.x/6.x and BOOTMGR or NTLDR. The 1st sector or as many as you wish can simply be backed up to a file ready to restore later on. As well as the portable GUI, BOOTICE has extensive options available from its command line.
6. MBRtool
MBRtool is a utility that runs in DOS and is designed to backup, restore and verify your hard disk’s Master Boot Record. In addition it can also edit or wipe the partition table and blank or remove the boot code. MBRTool will support the first 4 hard drives present in the system. The program comes with its own bootable media builder where you can write an image to floppy, burn it to a CD or extract the MBRTool executable to be used on the command line or in scripts. Backing up and restoring is menu driven and easy to operate if you enter no arguments or double click the EXE while the more manual commands can be used like any other command line tool.
7. HDHacker
HDHacker is a much more user friendly tool with the Windows GUI making it very easy to backup and restore the MBR with a few clicks. It’s able to backup and restore the Maser Boot Record to the physical drive, the boot sector from a logical drive or a specified number of sectors up to a maximum of 16. They can be saved to a file or loaded back in and written to just about any type of drive. Although it will probably look like a mixed up mess in the viewing pane to most people, others may be able to trace problems or even possible boot sector viruses from the information.
Download HDHacker
8. MBRFix
MBRFix is another command line based Master Boot Record fix, backup and restore utility, but has some other partition and volume tasks available that are similar to those found in the Windows DiskPart tool. They include information about volumes and drives, listing partitions, cleaning the drive of partitions and setting the active partition. The MBR itself can be backed up with the savembr {filename} argument and restorembr {filename} to do the opposite with an added option to save any sector range to a file. This utility should NOT be used for GUID Partition Table (GPT) disks.
If you like the idea of using MBR Fix from the comfort of a GUI, a small frontend tool called Ultimate MBRGUI will enable you to run both MBR Fix and MBR Wizard essentially using point and click to execute all of the command line functions. The GUI will run with the latest version of MBR Fix but not MBR Wizard as mentioned.
9. MBRUtil
MBRUtil is actually from PowerQuest many years ago before they got swallowed up by Symantec in 2003. This utility is quite basic and has an option to save the Master Boot Record to a file, and then another to restore it back again. It can also save and restore the first head of the drive which is the first 62 sectors, MBR is only the first sector. Usage is MBRUtil.exe /S={filename} or /R={filename}. The zip file also contains another small tool called WipeTrk which will wipe sectors 2 to 63 leaving the MBR itself intact.
10. MBR Backup
If you want a nice and easy to use Master Boot Record backup and restore tool, then MBR Backup could be what you’re looking for. Simply start the portable executable and it will display the MBR of disk in Hex, the drive can be changed from the drop down. Then all you have to do is click on Save or Print MBR to back it up, and choose the Restore option to put the Boot Record back again. Apart from being able to show the partition table of each physical drive, MBR Backup has no other options and is surely a simple tool for simple MBR backup and restore tasks.
11. MBR Scan
MBR Scan isn’t able to restore your Master Boot Record, but it does let you view it and make a backup of the MBR which can be restored by other tools such as MBR Wizard etc. What makes this tool useful is the information about the drives and partitions is all nicely laid out in an easy to understand format, which makes it also a useful security tool for checking on any suspicious activity in the Master Boot Record itself. There’s also a hex sector viewer where you can save specific sectors. Press Scan to populate the window with the available drives and the Dump button will save the MBR to the same folder as MBR Scan.
Special Note: It’s well worth mentioning that one of our favorite bootable Live Windows and repair CD’s is loaded with a number of Master Boot Record tools in both its DOS and Live Windows sections. Hiren’s Boot CD has over 20 tools including BootICE, HDHacker, MBRWizard, MbrFix and the MBR Tool from this list. It’s well worth a look if you want to have a set of tools ready to go in the event your computer corrupts its MBR unexpectedly.
I’ve got a pen drive in MBR format and wish to convert it back to NTFS. Please which of these softwares can do that for me? I don’t care about the files in the drive so I don’t mind formatting. All I Want is to make my pen drive Usable again. Thanks
i rally like those softwares and i respect this website,you actually posted best sofwares ,thank you greats
I am running on Windows 7, every time I have to repair my MBR for a successfull boot. Is there anything which can permanantly repair my MBR please?
Some weeks ago I downloaded Bootice without any problems, but some days ago my antivirus deleted it because I tried to unhide a partition, so the antivirus classified it as a suspicious malware operation and deleted it automatically. Unfortunately I didn’t make a backup copy of the program, so I tried to download it again from the link given there, but the server (bbs.ipauly.com) gave me a “500 Internal Server Error”. I tried so many times but that server is still not working. Could you please help me and give me another link?
Thank you.
The link has been updated with an alternative download page.
Ok, thanks very much, another time you suggested me a very good software. Keep this blog going.
Is it possible to copy all bootfile from a bootable usb with this? I need to make a pcmcia card bootable with fat16, dos and haven’t found any tool having support for pcmcia in dosmode….
I did create a restore point just yesterday and also made a full files backup, but MBR was corrupted and when starting windows I only get the “Dell Utility Boot Menu”.
Can I restore the MBR even if I don’t have a saved MBR specifically?
Thanks – Don
You can try something like BootIce to create a new MBR although you should make sure you have a full backup of the system first, just in case…
Can someone tell me how to fix my Dell USB Portable HDD? I try to fix it with HDD Regenerator but it is said “Master Boot Record of this hard drive is Damaged!”. It’s probably because of my HDD fell (but still hang on the USB cable) and hit the other thing when still working on my notebook. Is it possible to fix my HDD now..?
I didn’t understand a thing about this, and now I’m googling around hope I can fix my HDD if possible…
See my (pol098) response to the same question below; even the fiorst sentence is unfortunately still relevant: “Probably too late for the asker of the question, but often a standard MBR is used …”. A good tool for manipulating the MBR is BOOTICE.
Hi, so I know this is an old thread, but what if I don’t have a backup of my MBR and it is now corrupt and showing as a RAW drive in windows. I dont want to lose the 2TB of data, any ideas. Thanks in advance
Probably too late for the asker of the question, but often a standard MBR is used, and there are several tools to create one. There are also tools that can help in the case of a non-standard MBR; they require a fair amount of experimenting. Unlike other disc corruption, you can try several possible MBRs without too much risk of damaging the data on the drive (which you can’t get access to until you’ve sorted out the MBR). This reply should be moderately helpful despite not naming the tools (I haven’t done this for a very long time); if you know that something can be done, it’s not too hard to find out how.
ok, so if i save a copy of my mbr to c:\mbr.dat and then my mbr gets corrupted , i won’t be able to restore my copy of mbr from that location because all data on my drive will be inaccessible without a valid mbr? help, confused now…..i guess i’d better save it to a different drive
Yes, of course you don’t keep the copy of the MBR on the C: drive, we were just using that as an example location. It’s like backing up your files or hard drive, you store it in another location so you can restore after a severe problem.
There’s always the possibility that you did something which damaged your MBR but did not wipe your backup off the drive.
thhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaankssssssssssss………………………
i made damage to a friends usb and i owed 3000 rs .u saved meeee.
Hi Raymond. Which if any of these tools will allow me to move a missing mbr from an older computer to a new computer? For instance, when running a specific program, the program will not continue because it says \grldr.mbr is missing. Thanks for your response in advance.
There’s plenty of these tools mentioned on Hirens Boot CD, you can boot with that and restore a previously saved MBR to your drive.
Trying to use an MBR off another hard drive won’t work because an MBR stores drive and partition data as well, so you’ll screw up the whole partition.
Does the MBR change whenever files are modified on the drive? Just wondering if regular backups should be made.
Thanks.
No, the MBR only changes when you’re doing something like formatting the drive, creating/deleting partitions or installing Windows.
Thanks for the list, just what I needed.
Good job mate!
Excellent stuff! I have used mbrwizard for years, and am very pleased with this little app, but it’s always nice to keep up with the various technologies. Thanks for your willingness to test and share!
this is a fantastic find! MBR definitely needs back up and your list offers a perfect solution.
wonderful post!
this is great!! thanks
Amazing article as always, you rock Raymond.
Many thanks Raymond,
No matter how much we know – there are always things to learn. This sort of concise explanation is helpful and right on the button for the huge number of members who have little expertise or in-depth knowledge of the vaguaries of harware and software. Thank you from all of them.
Thanks for the article, just when I need it.
very useful tips.. when my MBR gone, i had to reformat my pc .. but now i didn’t need to reformat … just restore the MBR.
Thank you.
Great. Thanks..