Bummer... I busted the MBR. :(

[kitepilot at kitepilot.com]

I would BLINDLY trust:
dd if=other-MBR.iso of=/dev/sda bs=446 count=1 

I would NOT trust FIXBOOT and/or just about anything Micro$haft to 
manipulate my partitions...   ;-)
THANKS!!!
ET 

 

Stephen writes: 

> yes, however if you have a windows XP disk you just boot it, hit the
> option to go to the repair console type FIXBOOT and then fdisk /mbr
> and it rebuilds the MBR as well. 
> 
> On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 8:16 AM, kitepilot at kitepilot.com
> <kitepilot at kitepilot.com> wrote:
>>>> get the 446-byte boot record from somewhere and dd it to /dev/sda
>> I LIKE THIS IDEA!!!   :)
>> Are you telling me that I can just grab those 446 bytes from *ANY* WinXP
>> box, copy them to my MBR and the laptop will boot?  8)
>> That's a pretty "un-risky" proposition...   :)
>> Thanks!
>> ET 
>>
>> 
>>
>>
>> Matt Graham writes: 
>>
>>> From: "kitepilot at kitepilot.com" <kitepilot at kitepilot.com>
>>>> I went and installed Kubuntu 9.10 (which uses GRUB 2) on the flash
>>>> drive and forgot to tell the thing to leave /dev/sda alone... 
>>>>
>>>> Now the machine only boots from the flash drive.
>>>> My plan is to backup the 512 bytes of the MBR and (MOST IMPORTANT!)
>>>> the partition table and use "something" (insert cloud of ignorance
>>>> here) to rebuild the windoze boot record.
>>>
>>> Run FIXMBR or FDISK /MBR from a 'Doze boot CD.  Failing that, get the
>>> 446-byte boot record from somewhere and dd it to /dev/sda .  There's
>>> actually no need to do anything with the partition table here. 
>>>
>>>> Can I trust whichever tool I use (and hope you will tell me) to
>>>> leave the partition contents alone or [had] I better dd the whole
>>>> 250GB of /dev/sda somewhere else in case *IT* happens?
>>>
>>> There will be no need to back up things if you use the tools in the
>>> previous paragraph. 
>>>
>>> --
>>> Matt G / Dances With Crows
>>> The Crow202 Blog:  http://crow202.org/wordpress/
>>> There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see 
>>>
>>> 
>>>
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>  
> 
> 
> -- 
> A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from
> rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button. 
> 
> Stephen
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