Date: Fri, 11 Jun 1999 02:11:37 +0100 From: Mark Ovens <markov@globalnet.co.uk> To: Constantine Shkolnyy <stan@osgroup.com> Cc: "freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG" <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: MBR (Was RE: I just don't know...) Message-ID: <19990611021137.H255@marder-1> In-Reply-To: <01BEB37C.6BA3B500.stan@osgroup.com>; from Constantine Shkolnyy on Thu, Jun 10, 1999 at 08:04:16PM -0500 References: <01BEB37C.6BA3B500.stan@osgroup.com>
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On Thu, Jun 10, 1999 at 08:04:16PM -0500, Constantine Shkolnyy wrote:
> On Thursday, June 10, 1999 7:32 PM, Mark Ovens
> [SMTP:markov@globalnet.co.uk] wrote:
> > On Thu, Jun 10, 1999 at 04:48:54PM -0500, Constantine Shkolnyy wrote:
> > > On Thursday, June 10, 1999 4:41 PM, rick hamell
> [SMTP:hamellr@dsinw.com]
> > >
> > > wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > > C:\> fdisk /mbr
> > > > >
> > > > > But where is the original boot sector stored? Wouldn't it be more
> > > > > reliable to copy it back? fdisk will copy a standard boot sector
> > > > > and sometimes it may be different from the original one. It is not
> > > > > safe to suggest such a use of fdisk in general case, without prior
> > > > > knowing of his configuration.
> > > >
> > > > That's what /mbr does, it restores an orginal copy of the boot
> > > > sector. Besides unless he has other boot managers in addition, there
> > > > is
> > > > no reason to not use it.
> > >
> > > Exactly. I just wanted to draw your attention that you people should
> > > always add the above warning to your advices to use fdisk /mbr or
> > > the machine may be rendered unusable. Get an unusable machine instead
> > > of machine with F? prompt - this is not what he wants :-)
> > >
> >
> > "original" mbr, er, wouldn't that mean that FreeBSD saved a copy of
> > the mbr and that Winblows knew where to find it and restore it? In
> > the Wonderful World of Winblows it's a case of:
> >
> > original mbr == standard mbr == ONLY mbr.
>
> When I said "original", I meant that one that existed before FreeBSD
> boot manager.
So did I
> It's my opinion that any software product should provide
> some means of "undoing" the changes it did to the computer system,
> whenever it's possible. Of course, it is not possible to restore the
> disk data that you agreed to overwrite with FreeBSD file system.
> It would be fine to let the user simply delete the FreeBSD partition.
> In the case of a boot manager, it would be nice if it could ask the user
> whether he wants to backup the existing MBR to some place, before
> re-writing it, so that the manager could be cleanly deleted in future.
>
But why do you need to save a DOS/WIN3.x/WIN9x mbr? All it does in
effect is say "look for IO.SYS in the root dir of the first primary
partition, and if you find it, then run it"
> At installation time, if the user has some ill-brained MBR, he
> could find soon that his DOS/Windows doesn't boot. What should
> he do then?
>
Consider himself very lucky :-)
>
>
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--
FreeBSD - The Power To Serve http://www.freebsd.org
My Webpage http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~markov
_______________________________________________________________
Mark Ovens, CNC Apps Engineer, Radan Computational Ltd. Bath UK
CAD/CAM solutions for Sheetmetal Working Industry
mailto:marko@uk.radan.com http://www.radan.com
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