Re: Multi-Boot Strategies?

On Thu, 19 Jan 2006 13:44:42 +0000, Timothy Murphy <tim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>Grant wrote:
>
>> Main thing is one knows how to repair after stuffups. Like knowing
>> how to get whichever OS owns MBR to rewrite the thing when needed.
>
>In my view, it is very wise to keep a copy of the MBR using dd
>before running any operation that might change it.
>Then one can restore the MBR as was if necessary.

lilo makes a copy, I don't use grub. Last time I looked grub used
sectors 2..63 on the first cylinder, this means windows stuff like
PartitionMagic can wreck grub.
>
>I'm surprised this advice is not widely disseminated.
>I think grub should keep the old MBR, with the date,
>whenever it is changed.

Easy enough for the brighter user to:
dd if=/dev/XYZ bs=512 count=1 of=/path/to/MBR_copy
where XYZ might be hda for a common setup.

To be honest, I cannot remember the last time I wished I had an
MBR backup ;) So easy to make a new one.

Grant.
--
WinXP: Access Start->Turn Off Computer, then while holding
Ctrl-Alt-Shift, left click on Cancel. This kills Windows
Explorer.
.

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