OS: XP SP3

I have a utility that is telling me that the Boot Sector and its copy on the
disk are not the same.

Questions:
1. Is there any risk to operating with this difference; file corruption etc.
2. Can this be corrected without reinstalling XP?

you might try booting
up with a win xp cd
and accessing the
repair/recovery console.

then run the commands
at the disk prompt>:

chkdsk
fixmbr

-----------

some a.v.'s will install
something in the boot
sector to protect it.

but sometimes such
protection turns out
to be a nightmare.
--

db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces



"victorsm" <victorsm@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:DE4EDC07-406F-420C-A394-C469FC78E17A@microsoft.com...
> OS: XP SP3
>
> I have a utility that is telling me that the Boot Sector and its copy on the
> disk are not the same.
>
> Questions:
> 1. Is there any risk to operating with this difference; file corruption etc.
> 2. Can this be corrected without reinstalling XP?

victorsm wrote:

> OS: XP SP3
>
> I have a utility that is telling me that the Boot Sector and its copy on
> the disk are not the same.
>
> Questions:
> 1. Is there any risk to operating with this difference; file corruption
> etc. 2. Can this be corrected without reinstalling XP?

What utility?
Is the operating system behaving itself? If not, what are the symptoms?
Copy on the disk? What disk?

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

"victorsm" <victorsm@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:DE4EDC07-406F-420C-A394-C469FC78E17A@microsoft.com...
> OS: XP SP3
>
> I have a utility that is telling me that the Boot Sector and its copy on
> the
> disk are not the same.
>
> Questions:
> 1. Is there any risk to operating with this difference; file corruption
> etc.
> 2. Can this be corrected without reinstalling XP?

Will assume you mean the boot hard drive and the active partition for XP.

I'll quote from a website regarding FAT32:
BackupBootSector is the sector number for the backup copy of the boot
sector. This copy can be used if the main copy was corrupted. It is also
nice to compare the two copies on startup. If they do not match, a warning
should be issued. They may not be in tact because of corruption or a boot
virus. If this field contains zero or the number greater than or equal to
ReservedSectors or the same value as FSInfoSector, the backup sector should
not be used.
End of quote...

http://www.ntfs.com/boot-sector-damaged.htm
--
Dave