On Mon, 3 Apr 2000, Rod C. Johnson wrote:

Hi All,

I have a dual boot, Win98 SuSE 6.0, Dell. I don't use LILO, I start Linux from a boot floppy. I have a single Win partition and 3 Linux partitions.

My win98 disk utilities say that there is a problem with my MBR and they want to re-write the MBR. I'm inclined to use dos' fdisk /MBR and rewrite the MBR myself but....

on page 93 of my SuSE manual it says

"These commands only write the first 446 bytes (the boot code) into the MBR and leave the partitions untouched." The footnote notes however that.......

"This is provided that the MBR has valid code. If not, it is considered invalid and the partition table is moved to "null.""

Could someone please explain this to me? and

How can I make a copy of the partition table in case I toast it while trying to fix the MBR (fips???)?

Thanks,

Rod Hi Rod!

First, if it is only the Win98 disk utilities that complain about the MBR: forget about the error messages. Obviously, your Win98 partition boots and Win98 runs. Needless to say that compatibility never is a built-in feature with M$ products. Second, for the improbable case that you want to re-create an MBR, you can make a backup of it by saving the FIRST block (the first 256 byte) of your device "/dev/hda" (I have now taken the first IDE drive9 or "/dev/sda" (for a SCSI drive). NOTE THAT THERE IS NO partition number as in "/dev/hda1"!!!! Backup as follows: "dd if=/dev/hda of=/root/backup.mbr bs=512 count=1" will do this. This reads the first 512-byte block from the raw hard disk and writes it in the file "/root/backup.mbr". Just in case it is of interest to you: The MASTER BOOT RECORD (MBR) is the first 512-byte sector on the hard disk. It contains first the bootstrap code, the so-called PRIMARY BOOT LOADER (in this case LILO), which extends over the first 446 bytes, and HAS TO END WITH "AA55" as a magic number, and after that the partition table. Both are extremely important for your operating systems to boot. Now if the magic number in the MBR is not "AA55" (heaven knows how this could happen), obviously the DOS command "fdisk /mbr" will fill the partition table with nulls. Therefore, the magic number is a token for operating systems that the hard disk is not a virgin any more, so to speak!! Best regards Oli /********************************************\ * * * Oliver Tennert * * * * +49 -7071 -9457-598 * * * * e-mail: O.Tennert@science-computing.de * * science + computing GmbH * * Hagellocher Weg 71 * * D-72070 Tuebingen * * * \********************************************/ -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/