gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials » mbr http://www.ghacks.net A technology news blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:29:21 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 How To Backup And Restore The MBR In Windowshttp://www.ghacks.net/2010/09/01/how-to-backup-and-restore-the-mbr-in-windows/ http://www.ghacks.net/2010/09/01/how-to-backup-and-restore-the-mbr-in-windows/#comments Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:38:52 +0000 Martin Brinkmann http://www.ghacks.net/?p=33809 A question recently came up in the comments on how to backup the master boot record (see How To Detect A 64-bit Alureon Rootkit Infection for that). This article is going to review a few free applications for Windows that can backup and restore the MBR, with no deeper technical knowledge required.

The master boot record is located in the first sector of a hard drive, and while it has different functions it is commonly known for finding bootable partitions in the partition tables and loading the boot sector which often is a boot loader.

A damaged or modified MBR means that the operating systems cannot be loaded, which is what the Alureon Rootkit causes on some operating systems.

A backup of the master boot record is often the best and most convenient way to repair the information so that the system can boot normally.

MBRFix

MBRFix is a command line tool for Windows, that can be used for lots of advanced commands that manipulate or process the MBR. Among the options is the ability to backup and restore the master boot record. The program comes as a 32-bit and 64-bit edition. Here are the commands needed to backup and restore the MBR:

MbrFix /drive 0 listpartitions
MbrFix /drive 0 savembr Backup_MBR_0.bin
MbrFix /drive 0 restorembr Backup_MBR_0.bin

The first command lists all partitions of drive 0, the second backs up the master boot record of the first drive of the system in the file Backup_MBR_0.bin, the last restores the previously created MBR backup to the drive.

MBRTool

mbr backup

mbr backup

Another command line tool for Windows which comes with a basic menu which makes the program usage a bit easier. MBRTool can be used to backup all MBRs automatically, or work with specific master boot records. The user interface makes it easier to work with, even though it does not make a big difference compared to MBRFix.

HDHacker

master boot sector

master boot sector

The only program with a graphical user interface. HDHacker can backup and restore any sector of a partition, but has a specific option to backup and restore the MBR sector. It is probably the easiest to use of all the three programs of this guide.

That leaves a question: How often should you backup the MBR? A backup is only necessary if something in the setup of the PC changes, for instance if another operating system is installed or removed, or if the hard drive partitions are changed.

]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2010/09/01/how-to-backup-and-restore-the-mbr-in-windows/feed/ 6 Backup And Restore The Master Boot Recordhttp://www.ghacks.net/2008/10/27/backup-and-restore-the-master-boot-record/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/10/27/backup-and-restore-the-master-boot-record/#comments Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:20:00 +0000 Martin Brinkmann http://www.ghacks.net/?p=7898 The Master Boot Record contains important boot information which are essential to boot a computer system. A corrupted master boot record usually makes a system unbootable until the issue is fixed. Users who installed multiple operating systems might have also experienced difficulties when the operating systems installed their own boot manager which erased another one.

It is therefor always a good precaution to backup the Master Boot Record to be able to restore it. This could be handy before installing another operating system or in case the Master Boot Record gets corrupted another way.

HD Hacker is a portable software compatible with Windows NT, 2000, XP and Vista that can be used to backup and restore the Master Boot Record or any other sector the user specifies. It offers the option to select the drive by drive letter or physical drive.

master boot record

The software supports two read and write operations. A sector can be read from disk or file and can be saved to disk or file as well. To backup the Master Boot Record one would Read the boot sector from disk and save it to file afterwards. This ensures that the Master Book Record can be recovered anytime in case something should alter or corrupt it.

]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/10/27/backup-and-restore-the-master-boot-record/feed/ 16 Recover Files from Lost Partitionshttp://www.ghacks.net/2008/07/06/recover-files-from-lost-partitions/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/07/06/recover-files-from-lost-partitions/#comments Sun, 06 Jul 2008 20:26:16 +0000 Martin Brinkmann http://www.ghacks.net/?p=5230 If you ever lost a partition on a hard drive you know how hard it can be to recover the data that was stored on that partition. Possible reasons can be system crashes or malicious software among other things. If you are ever in a situation like this you might want to try the software Partition Find and Mount that scans a hard disk for working and lost partitions.

The process is easy and straightforward. Just select one of the hard drives in the application. A click on the Scan button will start the scan for all partitions on that hard drive. Once the scan is completed it displays the working partitions with their corresponding drive letters and found partitions without a drive letter in two separate parts of the interface.

The found partitions are unmounted and can be mounted by clicking on the mount button. A drive letter is assigned to that partition and the data can be accessed normally for the time the partition is mounted.

partition data recovery

Alternatively an image of the partition or entire hard disk can be saved and mounted later. A Windows restart will unmount the partition again.

]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/07/06/recover-files-from-lost-partitions/feed/ 7 How to remove the Linux bootloaderhttp://www.ghacks.net/2007/08/06/how-to-remove-the-linux-bootloader/ http://www.ghacks.net/2007/08/06/how-to-remove-the-linux-bootloader/#comments Mon, 06 Aug 2007 17:42:15 +0000 Martin Brinkmann http://www.ghacks.net/2007/08/06/how-to-remove-the-linux-bootloader/ A friend of mine installed Linux next to Windows XP a few weeks ago and did not like it that much and decided to get rid of it. The problem that he faced was that the Linux bootloader was still showing up when he started his system. He was not able to figure out what to do about it and asked me if I knew a way to remove the Linux bootloader from his system so that Windows XP would start immediately.

I actually knew several methods on how to fix the MBR (Master Boot Record) to get rid of the Linux bootloader. There was however only one way that would safely fix the MBR and remove the Linux bootloader from it. I’m saying safely because it can happen that methods such as Fdisk /mbr would require a reactivation of the Windows operating system.

MBR Fix is a small command line freeware for Windows that makes it possible to fix the Master Boot Record from the command line of your operating system. Just download the tool, open the command line and type

MbrFix /drive 0 fixmbr /yes

to fix the MBR and remove the Linux bootloader.

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