Computer: 320gb Sata Western digital (only harddrive) USB Keyboard and mouse... TONS of important Data! Basically in attempt to fix a small error I booted from the XP Cd to see if it had a restore function on it....(after I did that I remembered how useless the installation boot disk is) After that my computer would not boot... it stalls on "verifying DMI pool" unless I boot from a CD... thinking that "fixmbr" would fix the problem I decided to try that... the problem continues... I think it is because of the size of the drive... since the windows boot disk only recognizes 131gb of my 320gb drive... Does anyone know of ANY software that's bootable and can fix the MBR of a large sata hard drive??

This might help. I got it here: http://www.computerhope.com/issues/... If the computer has no bootable files on the drive it is attempting to boot from it is possible that the computer may halt at " verifying dmi pool data...". To resolve this issue: Boot from a bootable floppy diskette. Ensure that this diskette was made on the same Microsoft Windows operating system that is installed on your computer. Once at the A:\> prompt type "sys c:" and press enter. This should report the message "File system transferred". Once transferred remove the diskette and reboot the computer. If the computer continues to not boot attempt to re-create the master boot record by booting from the bootable floppy diskette again. Once at the A:\> prompt type "fdisk /mbr" and press enter. This should return you to the prompt without giving you any message. Once at the prompt remove the diskette and reboot the computer.

I will try this... once I get a floppy drive.. or a bootable CD.... but my only concern is I think its writing a smaller MBR since windows only seems to recognize roughly half my my hard drive... 131gb out of 320gb. So if I write the Mbr like I have already done out of the XP Setup CD boot... (still sitting at verifying Dmi pool" will it take in effect that I have a much larger drive than presented? Im affraid the MBR written is for the 131gb... and has toasted the fact that I have 2 partitions.... and 320gb...

DO NOT run SYS C: , that command is for a pre NT system not for XP. If you run the command your system will not be bootable. You can try XP's command from recovery console- FIXBOOT. Do not have any idea if it will fix problem. Fdisk /mbr is also a pre NT command but it should not hurt, unless you have more then 1 primary partition, and for some problems may help (not likely for your problem ?) but a 98 startup floppy would need to be used. XP's command would be FIXMBR. Just what XP cd do you have, MS or restore ? Does it have any SP1 or SP2 ?

I'm scared fellas... The XP CD I have doesn't have a service pack on it... which may be why its so buggy... There are 2 partitions I believe one of them is an extended partion with a logical drive... im a little weary of doing anything that might cause harm at this point.... I didn't do the sys command... anyone know of any tools that know how to recover lost partitions?

"Basically in attempt to fix a small error I booted from the XP Cd to see if it had a restore function on it...." Guess that error seems even smaller in retrospect. I would guess that the reason your disk drive is not appearing in its totality is that you are using an XP CD without Service Pack 2. The original XP disk w/o a SP will only recognize the first 127GB of a hard drive. I would say that your best best is going to be remove your hard drive from the computer and install it temporarily in another PC in order to back up your data. AFTER your data is secure you might try booting from your XP CD again and doing a Repair of your current installation then applying the appropriate Service Packs. I think this highlights the problem with just "doing things" to your computer without actually having a reason to or at the very least without understanding the possible results should something blow up in your face. And of course this is yet another reminder to ALWAYS KEEP AT LEAST ONE OFF SITE BACKUP OF YOUR CRITICAL DATA. Who gave you people access to a computer?

Lol, normally im somewhat computer savy... infact its my job to fix computers... I did have a full backup on my only other drive an external 120gb USB... which in attempt to get an operating system on the remaining chunk of the drive used partition magic which errored out and toasted all my data on that drive aswell. I have the external ripped out of its case and hooked up to my pc and i've installed an OS on it... as back up... looking for options my drive is showing up as one large partition....Searching for Partition recovery applications...