Hi All,
Thanks for the excellent help with my questions. I'd just like to
clarify things:
I'm not saying that FDISK _should_ create anything automatically, I was
just surprised that it didn't. The other thread implied that running
FDISK without a valid MBR would cause creation of one, but Eric has now
explained there's a difference between a valid MBR and an MBR that
contains a valid "program" - two different things...
In this context it explains why my tests did not reflect the issues
discussed in the other thread about FDISK and the MBR. The question that
therefore remains for me is this:
Q: Let's forget Ontrack, EzDrive, DDO and Linux for a minute. Let's say
we buy a brand new hard drive that's a clean as you can ever get, and we
want to install a DOS or Windows operating system to it - we haven't
decided yet. What is the correct procedure for getting a "working boot
program" into the "valid Master Boot Record", and who supplies this
program? Is it Microsoft, Intel??
I now realize why I have not experienced this very often. Most computers
arrive with XP pre-installed, and I have to FDISK them to get rid of it,
but those drives STILL HAVE an MBR right? I never really thought about
it before now. The drive I took out of it's bag today was one of the few
drives I get to play with that have never been used...
Eric Auer wrote:
Hi...
replace on disk error is dangerous, replace-on-missing AA55 is something
FDISK can ask the user in interactive mode, or batchfile can do FDISK /MBR.
I wanted to make ABSOLUTELY CLEAR that nothing must ever automatically
do FDISK /MBR with as only exception a CUSTOM install disk for unattended
install on known-empty / known-not-to-have-any-useful-MBR-program systems.
What does the MBR of an empty harddisk look like? any dump program for
saving it to floppy?
Buy a new harddisk and do:
MIRROR /PARTN
or do:
dd if=/dev/thatharddisk bs=512 count=1 of=mbr.bin
in Linux
how to act on fresh *empty* disks? it should result in an MBR created as
it's necessary for booting the computer.
Whether the current MBR PROGRAM is working is as hard to decide as whether
you have a boot virus in there. Far beyond the scope of FDISK.
Eric
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Gerry Hickman (London UK)
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