You could try bypassing the MBR entirely and booting the recovery partition directly. There are several utilities that will allow you to do this, provided the partition is bootable and intact. PLoP boot CD's are around, but I'd suggest that you make this CD or USB key since it has the PLoP boot manager (which detects bootable partitions and then presents them in a boot menu) as one boot alternative. But the rest of the tools offered are all very useful, too.
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Parted Magic disk partitoning tool (Bootable CD image)(partedmagic.com)
If you prefer a bootable USB key, download and run
http://www.linuxliveusb.com/. Choose the Parted Magic distro, and it will download it and automatically create a bootable USB key.
This CD (or key) contains many useful tools. You can partition, recover files, recover lost partitions, make disk images (by several different methods), transfer files between media, scan for viruses (It can serve as an Alternative Trusted Platform for search and elimination of rootkits and bootkits), examine and benchmark hardware, access the internet, and much more.
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Once you get your machine set up, make a disk image, or delete the recovery partition and then make a disk image. You can use the image for recovery and have the space for your system. I do this on all new machines.