Recovery the master boot record - Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST380011A 80 GB Hard Drive

Master Boot record has been altered. Get a bootable recovery disk.

The operating system is stored on the hard drive. This message basically means that the system can't find the master boot record on the hard drive.
This could be due to a number of reasons:
The hard drive has failed
BIOS can't find the hard drive
Master boot record corrupted
Try booting the system and hit the key which will show the system setup/BIOS screen (delete key or one of the F keys).
Check here to see if the hard drive is listed. If it is then the BIOS is probably not the problem.
The next step would be to put your windows recovery CD in to the CD drive and start the system. At the welcome to setup screen, press R to open the recovery console, select the operating system you are using and press enter. This should start the recovery console. At the command prompt type: fixmbr and press enter. The system will attempt to copy a new master boot record to the hard drive. Follow on screen instructions to complete the process and reboot system. If this does not work, it will probably mean a new hard drive.

Your master boot record of the hard disk is damaged. I suppose you have access to CDROM through bios. But it is not clear from your question. Set CDROM as first boot device. Get a bootable CD & make sure that it contains fdisk utility. Boot from it & you will get a:\ prompt. at a:\prompt type fdisk/mbr & press enter. Your master boot record of hard disk will replace. Now you will be able to go to c:\ prompt. Use your your xp cd to recover your windows.
-sonsunny

Since you didn't give much info I'll do my best. Did the error tell you that it couldn't find an operating system? Driver?
Reboot and enter "set up" change the boot order in the BIOS so that your cd/dvd is the first boot device. If you computer isn't destroyed you should get the recovery console then. Try getting into safe mode if possible and doing a system restore, or last known good configuration if you can't restore. If you can boot try those first if not then use the console and try to fix mbr.
MBR stands for Master Boot Record and it's the first sector of your hard drive that basically tells the BIOS where to look for the operating system on your computer.
If, for any reason, the MBR becomes damaged or corrupt, then the operating system will be unable to load. You will normally see error messages like:
Error loading operating system
Missing operating system
Invalid partition table
These messages are definitely not fun, especially if you are not familiar with computers. Most people would automatically assume their computers are dead! However, that's not true. Being in IT myself, these errors are actually preferably to other types of Windows errors. Why?
Well, it's actually fairly easy to fix the Master Boot Record in XP and Vista. All you have to do is load up the Recovery Console and run a simple command. All of your data, applications, settings, etc are still intact on the drive and once the MBR is fixed, the computer will load normally.
So how can you repair your damaged MBR? Here are the steps to follow:

1. First, restart your computer with the Windows XP setup disk in the CD drive.
2. When prompted, boot from the CD drive by pressing any key. If Windows loads automatically, you will first have to enter the BIOS setup and change the order of the boot devices to start with the CD drive.
3. Once the setup loads, you will see the option to press R to repair a Windows installation.
4. Once the Recovery Console loads up, you will have to type in a number that corresponds to your Windows installation. This is normally just 1. Press Enter and then type in the Administrator password.
5. Now at the prompt, type in fixmbr. Your damaged MBR will now be replaced with a new master boot record and your computer should now be able to boot properly. Note that you may also want to run the fixboot command to repair the boot sector with a new one.
Also, make sure you only use these commands on a system with one operating system installed. If you have more than one operating system installed, fixmbr and fixboot could mess up everything.
Fix MBR in Vista
In Vista (I'm assuming you have Vista) the procedure to fix the master boot record is a bit different. You have to start up Vista in the Recovery Environment and then run the bootrec command. Here's how.

1. First, load up the Windows Vista disc in your drive and press any key to boot from the disc.
2. Choose the language, time, currency, etc and click Next. Now click on Repair Your Computer.
3. Choose the operating system to repair and click Next. When the System Recovery Options dialog comes up, choose the Command Prompt.
4. Now type bootrec.exe and press Enter. This will rebuild the boot configuration data and hopefully fix your problem. You can also run the command with switches to fix just the master boot record (/fixmbr), the boot sector (/fixboot), or rebuild the entire BCD (/rebuildbcd).

Hope this helps.
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Thank you.

Hi,

You will need an XP install CD for this and also set the CD/DVD drive as the first boot device.

1. Watch for a Press any key to boot from CD... message similar to the one shown above.
   
   
2. Press a key to force the computer to boot from the Windows CD. If you do not press a key, your PC will continue to boot to the Windows XP installation that's currently installed on your hard drive. If this happens, simply reboot and try to boot to the Windows XP CD again.
3. When the Windows XP Professional/Home Setup screen appears, press R to enter Recovery Console.
4. The Recovery Console is now loading but needs to know which Windows installation to access. Most users only have a single Windows XP installation so the choice is usually clear.
   To the Which Windows installation would you like to log onto question, press 1 and then Enter.
   
5. The Recovery Console now needs to know the administrator password for this Windows XP installation. Unless you are using a PC in a sizable business network, the administrator password is most likely the same password you use to access Windows XP on a daily basis. To the Type the Administrator password request, enter the password and press Enter.
   Note: If you do not have a password or Windows XP normally starts without asking for one, simply press Enter.
   
6. Type fixmbr and then press Enter.
7. The fixmbr utility will write a master boot record to the hard drive that you're currently using to boot into Windows XP. This will repair any corruption or damage that the master boot record may have.
8. Take out the Windows XP CD, type exit and then press Enter to restart your PC.
   Assuming that a corrupt master boot record was your only issue, Windows XP should now start normally.
   

Regards.

first check that your hdd is detecting by your laptop.
i think you have removed mbr master boot record from your hard driver the soution is to create master boot record in your harddrive by using mbr commands.

the harddrive might be loose and not seated correctly in the laptop.

if this is the case, you will needto turn it off, flip it over unscrew the two screws that hold the laptop drive in, slide it out , pray to whichever god(s) you like, then reinsert the drive tight and securely, screw it back in, and power it back on.

or the Master boot record might be corrupted. you can then perhaps use a Windows (or whatever OS you use) disk, boot to the appropriate recovery console for that CD, and see if you can repair the Master Boot record or FAT Table.

this error is referring to a bad MBR (Master Boot Record)
which basically means that you will need to take steps to either recovery the master boot record or restore your computer using the the recovery disk.
Apparently acer has a partition specifically for recovery.
did you repartition your hard drive?

Try Booting and pressing ALT F10 and that may take you to a recovery console.

Sorry to tell you that the Master Boot record os currupted. Insert a Windows 95 or newer boot disk and fdisk the drive. that is the only way to fix it. and try not to compress your master boot record

Its NOT the hard drive itself. Its the master boot record on the hard drive that has failed. The master boot record is like an index or an address book of a hard drive. It hold records of whats on the hard disk and the physical location of files and directory's. What most likely happened was the computer was NOT shut down correctly and a power serge corrupted the master boot record or someone accidentally or purposely deleted files they should not have. If you are not able to follow jmorgan123 advice, the easiest way to fix this is to re-install windows using the recovery disk (operating system cd), HOWEVER you WILL loose all your files on your hard drive as you will need to reformat your drive during the re-install. If you are unsure how to install windows put the system recovery disc in the drive and follow the on screen prompts. If you still can get your computer working after you try a re-install of windows, maby your best bet is to return the computer under the warranty.