Re: Multi-Boot Strategies?

On Thu, 19 Jan 2006 14:53:25 +0100, Grant <bugsplatter@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

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


Such a dd copy also contains the partition table as it was at the time.
If the partition table gets hosed, it is not trivial to rediscover the
partition boundaries in order to recreate the partitions.

If the primary partitions have changed since the copy was made, restoring
the backup could easily be a disaster. In terms of added security, nothing
beats *understanding* how the partition table and the boot sectors work.

On the other hand, if the partition table is not damaged, installing the
desired dos/lilo/grub/whatever boot sector is generally easy.

-Enrique
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: OT File recovery Software
    ... > I guess some of you never used the fix MBR command? ... > The Master Boot Record will be created when you create the first ... > partition on the hard disk. ... > first sector on the disk. ...
    (alt.med.fibromyalgia)
  • Re: SuSE: How to restore a windows boot loader to MBR
    ... I am presuming that SUSE installer had ... >>>just moved the windows boot loader to the Windows partition. ... the MBR ... >> partition and format the HDD in question (especially in light of the ...
    (comp.os.linux.misc)
  • Re: FIXMBR redux
    ... > betas wherein I deleted my system partition and restored the image ... > the restore process, I'd like to know how that is possible. ... Don't remember if it was because the MBR ... the replacement MBR bootstrap code from BootMagic ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics)
  • Re: FIXMBR redux
    ... on it's own small partition and, as I recall, rewrites the MBR on the OS ... >> the restore process, I'd like to know how that is possible. ... the replacement MBR bootstrap code from BootMagic ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics)
  • Re: Solved [Re: delete first partition XP and reformat as ufs -> kernel not found]
    ... See the section 8 man page for boot. ... Does anybody has a clue why the FreeBSD ... > MBR PT: ... renumbered its MBR partition. ...
    (freebsd-questions)