Software & Apps > Windows Fixmbr Command (Recovery Console) Use the fixmbr command in the Windows XP Recovery Console By Tim Fisher Tim Fisher Facebook Twitter Senior Vice President & Group General Manager, Tech & Sustainability Emporia State University Tim Fisher has more than 30 years' of professional technology experience. He's been writing about tech for more than two decades and serves as the SVP and General Manager of Lifewire. lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on March 14, 2022 Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email Windows The Ultimate Laptop Buying Guide The fixmbr command is a Recovery Console command that writes a new master boot record to the hard disk drive that you specify. This command is only available from within the Recovery Console in Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Fixmbr Command Syntax The command takes the following form: fixmbr device_name The device_name parameter designates the drive location that a master boot record will be written to. If no device is specified, the master boot record writes to the primary boot drive. Fixmbr Command Examples Two examples of the command illustrate its usage. fixmbr \Device\HardDisk0 In the above example, the master boot record writes to the drive located at \Device\HardDisk0. fixmbr In this example, the master boot record writes to the device supporting your operating system. If you have a single installation of Windows installed, which is normally the case, running the command in this way is usually the right way to go. How to Repair the Master Boot Record In Windows XP Related Commands The bootcfg, fixboot, and diskpart commands are often used with the fixmbr command. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Subscribe Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit