MBR (Master Boot Record)
The MBR is the Master Boot Record. The MBR is a small program which runs whenever a computer boots up. The MBR is stored in the first sector of the boot disk. The boot disk may be a hard drive, a floppy drive, or even a CD or DVD drive. The Task of the MBR The normal job of the MBR program is to search the partition table for the active partition, copy the boot sector from the active partition into memory, and transfer control over to that program. If the MBR cannot accomplish this task successfully, it will print one of these error messages: Invalid partition table Error loading operating system Missing operating system The MBR and Boot Sector Viruses Some boot sector viruses overwrite the MBR. If you believe this has happened to one or more of your disk, run an anti-virus tool to clean your disks. FDISK /MBR Under DOS and early versions of Microsoft Windows, it was possible to use the `FDISK /MBR` command to repair the MBR. Unfortunately, FDISK was not terribly intelligent about the