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The disk MBR is consisted of startup code that system BIOS uses to determine the partition table. MBR uses this information to know the active boot partition and its starting sector. Each sector containing the partiton table must end with a boot record signature 55AA as its last two bytes, otherwise, the BIOS or MBR will give an error message and will stop the Windows bootstrapping process. If the issue lies only with boot record signature, a disk editor can help. But if its due to partition table or MBR corruption, you must recover the data using Windows Data Recovery tools in case if no valid backup is available.

For example, after you install Windows, when you try to start the computer, you might get a boot failure error message suggesting that it cannot load because of a computer disk configuration problem. You might alternatively receive one of the below error message:

“Boot Record Signature AA55 Not Found, xxxx Found Setup is inspecting your computer's hardware configuration... NTDETECT failed”

Or

“Boot Signature AA55 Not Found Error”

You cannot boot into the computer after if these errors occur.

Cause

The error occurs because Windows could not find the 55AA boot signature, which is supposed to be located in MBR or boot sector at the end of sector. This particularly occurs because of any of the below reasons:

You computer system is infected from virus
The system hardware is malfunctioning

Such problem usually indicate that the partition table or MBR is corrupted.

Solution

You should use a disk editor program to check for healthy partition table and presence of boot record signature (55AA). If boot record signature is missing, you can use this disk editor to enter the correct values at the end of sector 0.

However, if the partition table or MBR is corrupted, the trick above will solve not your issue. To solve it, you need to execute fdisk /mbr command while making sure that the boot record signature is present at the appropriate location.

If the problem continues, repartition your hard drive and restore from the last online or offline backup. At times, when you cannot restore from backup, there are Windows Partition Recovery utilities available that can be used to recover the lost and damaged partitions. However, it is suggested to use these data recovery software products prior to repartition or reformat the drive for better and safe results.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is a professional and reliable data recovery tool with advanced options and features. It is a safe windows partition recovery tool that supports Windows 7 RC1, Vista, XP, 2003 and 2000 based systems. The tool provides you advanced features like Append Header, RAW File Recovery, Save Scan and more.