Mike McCarty wrote:
Aaron Konstam wrote:
On Sun, 2006-12-10 at 07:01 +0530, Vivek J. Patankar wrote:
On 12/10/06, Hadders <fedora@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I'm going to install Vista (dual-boot) and was wondering if it was
easy
to just back it up rather than running grub?
# dd if=/dev/hda of=/path/filename bs=512 count=1
No, No, NO. The MBR is only the first 446 bytes of block 0. The rest is
the partition table. I assume you don't want to rewrite the partition
table.
The MBR is the Master Boot Record, which is 512 bytes long.
The MBR comprises three parts
1. Code
2. Partition Table
3. Boot Record Marker (AA 55)
No part of the MBR may be read or written without reading
or writing all of it. Discs are, after all, BLOCK DEVICES
which cannot transfer any amount less than a block (sector).
I don't like to presume about what other people do. (BTW, you
might investigate the difference in meaning between "assume",
and "presume".) If he states he wants to save and restore his
MBR, then I answer accordingly. If I have a question about what
his goals are, then I ask.
If you are going to give such strong corrections and advice, you
ought at least to be correct.
Saving the MBR should be done in its entirety. Whether one wants
to preserve the PT portion of the MBR when rewriting it on disc
later is a decision to be made at that time. Not saving the original
PT portion of the MBR is folly.
Mike
Thanks for that info. I'm after the lot. I intend to back it up and
then restore it after I install Vista, which of course, will nail the
MBR during install.
Hadders
