Master Boot Record

[William B. Lurie]

I'm involved with Partition Magic and Boot Magic.
I have XP Home edition.
In order to UNinstall BootMagic, I have to get to
Master Boot Record. Can you lead me to where it's
likely to be found, and what it should look like, so that I
can rem or delete out the Boot Magic references?
Everything else uninstalls (but not easily), and the
entry in MBR is what's left to delete.....

Thank you.

William B. Lurie

[Joseph Conway \(MSFT\)]

MBR is always on the first sector of the first physical drive

--
Joseph W. Conway, MCSE
Windows 9x/NT/2000/2003 Server Group

Opinions expressed here are my personal opinions and are provided without
warranty.


"William B. Lurie" > wrote in message
...
> I'm involved with Partition Magic and Boot Magic.
> I have XP Home edition.
> In order to UNinstall BootMagic, I have to get to
> Master Boot Record. Can you lead me to where it's
> likely to be found, and what it should look like, so that I
> can rem or delete out the Boot Magic references?
> Everything else uninstalls (but not easily), and the
> entry in MBR is what's left to delete.....
>
> Thank you.
>
> William B. Lurie
>
>

[Kent W. England [MVP]]

You can't easily edit the master boot record. The master boot record is
part of the boot sector, which has unused sectors that PM and other
partition/boot managers use to store code to extend the Master Boot
Record. This may be the "entry" in the MBR that you are referring to.
However, you may not need to remove that code if PM set the Master Boot
Record back to the way it is "supposed" to look with all partitions
listed and of the appropriate type code.

Have you tried booting to see if all your partitions are visible? If so,
your MBR may be fine as it is.

--
Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows



"William B. Lurie" > wrote in message
...
> I'm involved with Partition Magic and Boot Magic.
> I have XP Home edition.
> In order to UNinstall BootMagic, I have to get to
> Master Boot Record. Can you lead me to where it's
> likely to be found, and what it should look like, so that I
> can rem or delete out the Boot Magic references?
> Everything else uninstalls (but not easily), and the
> entry in MBR is what's left to delete.....

[William B. Lurie]

Yes, Kent, all partitions on both drives ar visible, i.e., not 'hidden'.
Yet every time I boot up, it halts and tells me it can't find this
BTMAGIC.IMG file, and hit any key. So all is not well. Oh, of
course I can live with this 'just hit any key' annoyance, but why
do I really have to, is my question. Yes, my MBR is livable, but
whether it is 'fine' is open to varying opinions.
Bill L.

"Kent W. England [MVP]" wrote:

> You can't easily edit the master boot record. The master boot record is
> part of the boot sector, which has unused sectors that PM and other
> partition/boot managers use to store code to extend the Master Boot
> Record. This may be the "entry" in the MBR that you are referring to.
> However, you may not need to remove that code if PM set the Master Boot
> Record back to the way it is "supposed" to look with all partitions
> listed and of the appropriate type code.
>
> Have you tried booting to see if all your partitions are visible? If so,
> your MBR may be fine as it is.
>
> --
> Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows
>
> "William B. Lurie" > wrote in message
> ...
> > I'm involved with Partition Magic and Boot Magic.
> > I have XP Home edition.
> > In order to UNinstall BootMagic, I have to get to
> > Master Boot Record. Can you lead me to where it's
> > likely to be found, and what it should look like, so that I
> > can rem or delete out the Boot Magic references?
> > Everything else uninstalls (but not easily), and the
> > entry in MBR is what's left to delete.....

--

William B. Lurie

[johnf]

Boot Magic isn't compatible with XP, and from memory, on install creates a
small FAT partition (~ 80MB, I think).
Have you checked via Partition Magic to see if that exists? If so, you can
then absorb it into your C: partition.
This may fix your problem.
I had that problem once & BM created it just before the C: partition,
although I think I did have the option of selecting another location.

johnf

> Yes, Kent, all partitions on both drives ar visible, i.e., not
> 'hidden'. Yet every time I boot up, it halts and tells me it can't
> find this BTMAGIC.IMG file, and hit any key. So all is not well. Oh,
> of
> course I can live with this 'just hit any key' annoyance, but why
> do I really have to, is my question. Yes, my MBR is livable, but
> whether it is 'fine' is open to varying opinions.
> Bill L.
>
> "Kent W. England [MVP]" wrote:
>
>> You can't easily edit the master boot record. The master boot record
>> is part of the boot sector, which has unused sectors that PM and
>> other partition/boot managers use to store code to extend the Master
>> Boot Record. This may be the "entry" in the MBR that you are
>> referring to. However, you may not need to remove that code if PM
>> set the Master Boot Record back to the way it is "supposed" to look
>> with all partitions listed and of the appropriate type code.
>>
>> Have you tried booting to see if all your partitions are visible? If
>> so, your MBR may be fine as it is.
>>
>> --
>> Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows
>>
>> "William B. Lurie" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>> I'm involved with Partition Magic and Boot Magic.
>>> I have XP Home edition.
>>> In order to UNinstall BootMagic, I have to get to
>>> Master Boot Record. Can you lead me to where it's
>>> likely to be found, and what it should look like, so that I
>>> can rem or delete out the Boot Magic references?
>>> Everything else uninstalls (but not easily), and the
>>> entry in MBR is what's left to delete.....

[Sarge]

"William B. Lurie" > wrote in
:

> I'm involved with Partition Magic and Boot Magic.
> I have XP Home edition.
> In order to UNinstall BootMagic, I have to get to
> Master Boot Record. Can you lead me to where it's
> likely to be found, and what it should look like, so that I
> can rem or delete out the Boot Magic references?
> Everything else uninstalls (but not easily), and the
> entry in MBR is what's left to delete.....
>

Boot from your XP CD. At the recovery console use:

fixmbr

Or boot from a Win98 startup floppy. At the prompt:

fdisk /mbr

[William B. Lurie]

Thanks, Sarge.....clue me a bit more.......when the MBR
appears, (I've never seen one), do I search for entries
that look like they contain BootMagic or BTMAGIC
and delete them, or 'rem' them out?
Bill Lurie

Sarge wrote:

> "William B. Lurie" > wrote in
> :
>
> > I'm involved with Partition Magic and Boot Magic.
> > I have XP Home edition.
> > In order to UNinstall BootMagic, I have to get to
> > Master Boot Record. Can you lead me to where it's
> > likely to be found, and what it should look like, so that I
> > can rem or delete out the Boot Magic references?
> > Everything else uninstalls (but not easily), and the
> > entry in MBR is what's left to delete.....
> >
>
> Boot from your XP CD. At the recovery console use:
>
> fixmbr
>
> Or boot from a Win98 startup floppy. At the prompt:
>
> fdisk /mbr

[Alex Nichol]

William B. Lurie wrote:

>I'm involved with Partition Magic and Boot Magic.
>I have XP Home edition.
>In order to UNinstall BootMagic, I have to get to
>Master Boot Record. Can you lead me to where it's
>likely to be found, and what it should look like, so that I
>can rem or delete out the Boot Magic references?

The MBR is the very first sector of the disk, containing the code
necessary to start the whole Boot process. This was replaced by the
installation of Boot Magic, and you want to put a standard version back.

Easiest way is to use a Win98 startup floppy, boot it and give
FDISK /MBR

Or boot the XP CD, instead of Setup use the R option, and assume any
password is blank, so TAB over it. Then give
Fixmbr


--
Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows - File Systems)
Bournemouth, U.K.

[William B. Lurie]

Alex, the CD that came with this machine is a 'Restore CD'.
Inserting it in its drive, I don't get any option that looks like
Setup.

As for the other suggested method, did you really want me to use the
Win98 startup floppy?
Thanks
WBL

Alex Nichol wrote:

> William B. Lurie wrote:
>
> >I'm involved with Partition Magic and Boot Magic.
> >I have XP Home edition.
> >In order to UNinstall BootMagic, I have to get to
> >Master Boot Record. Can you lead me to where it's
> >likely to be found, and what it should look like, so that I
> >can rem or delete out the Boot Magic references?
>
> The MBR is the very first sector of the disk, containing the code
> necessary to start the whole Boot process. This was replaced by the
> installation of Boot Magic, and you want to put a standard version back.
>
> Easiest way is to use a Win98 startup floppy, boot it and give
> FDISK /MBR
>
> Or boot the XP CD, instead of Setup use the R option, and assume any
> password is blank, so TAB over it. Then give
> Fixmbr
>
> --
> Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows - File Systems)
> Bournemouth, U.K.

--

William B. Lurie

[Kent W. England [MVP]]

I should have mentioned that. Several boot managers create small hidden
8 MB partitions to contain their special GUI programs. You are probably
still booting to that hidden partition, but something on it is missing.

Set the XP partition as active and you may be able to bypass that Boot
Magic partition altogether.

--
Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows



"johnf" > wrote in message
...
> Boot Magic isn't compatible with XP, and from memory, on install
creates a
> small FAT partition (~ 80MB, I think).
> Have you checked via Partition Magic to see if that exists? If so, you
can
> then absorb it into your C: partition.
> This may fix your problem.
> I had that problem once & BM created it just before the C: partition,
> although I think I did have the option of selecting another location.
>
> johnf
>
> > Yes, Kent, all partitions on both drives ar visible, i.e., not
> > 'hidden'. Yet every time I boot up, it halts and tells me it can't
> > find this BTMAGIC.IMG file, and hit any key. So all is not well. Oh,
> > of
> > course I can live with this 'just hit any key' annoyance, but why
> > do I really have to, is my question. Yes, my MBR is livable, but
> > whether it is 'fine' is open to varying opinions.
> > Bill L.
> >
> > "Kent W. England [MVP]" wrote:
> >
> >> You can't easily edit the master boot record. The master boot
record
> >> is part of the boot sector, which has unused sectors that PM and
> >> other partition/boot managers use to store code to extend the
Master
> >> Boot Record. This may be the "entry" in the MBR that you are
> >> referring to. However, you may not need to remove that code if PM
> >> set the Master Boot Record back to the way it is "supposed" to look
> >> with all partitions listed and of the appropriate type code.
> >>
> >> Have you tried booting to see if all your partitions are visible?
If
> >> so, your MBR may be fine as it is.
> >>
> >> --
> >> Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows
> >>
> >> "William B. Lurie" > wrote in message
> >> ...
> >>> I'm involved with Partition Magic and Boot Magic.
> >>> I have XP Home edition.
> >>> In order to UNinstall BootMagic, I have to get to
> >>> Master Boot Record. Can you lead me to where it's
> >>> likely to be found, and what it should look like, so that I
> >>> can rem or delete out the Boot Magic references?
> >>> Everything else uninstalls (but not easily), and the
> >>> entry in MBR is what's left to delete.....
>
>

[Kent W. England [MVP]]

Alex, are you sure that win98 fdisk does the right thing on NTFS
partitions?

--
Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows



"Alex Nichol" > wrote in message
...
> William B. Lurie wrote:
>
> >I'm involved with Partition Magic and Boot Magic.
> >I have XP Home edition.
> >In order to UNinstall BootMagic, I have to get to
> >Master Boot Record. Can you lead me to where it's
> >likely to be found, and what it should look like, so that I
> >can rem or delete out the Boot Magic references?
>
> The MBR is the very first sector of the disk, containing the code
> necessary to start the whole Boot process. This was replaced by the
> installation of Boot Magic, and you want to put a standard version
back.
>
> Easiest way is to use a Win98 startup floppy, boot it and give
> FDISK /MBR
>
> Or boot the XP CD, instead of Setup use the R option, and assume any
> password is blank, so TAB over it. Then give
> Fixmbr
>
>
> --
> Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows - File Systems)
> Bournemouth, U.K.

[Sarge]

"William B. Lurie" > wrote in news:3ED884B2.1E61E913
@bellsouth.net:

> Thanks, Sarge.....clue me a bit more.......when the MBR
> appears, (I've never seen one), do I search for entries
> that look like they contain BootMagic or BTMAGIC
> and delete them, or 'rem' them out?
>

You won't see the MBR -- you don't need to. I read your other post about
your XP OEM restore CD and you're right, you won't see setup or recovery
options there. You'd have to have a retail XP CD for that. So find a Win98
startup floppy (you can get one at http://www.bootdisk.com if you don't
have one), boot from it, and at the prompt type:

fdisk /mbr

and <enter>. That's all there is to it. Remove the floppy, reboot, cross
your fingers and let us know how it turns out. ;-)

[Alex Nichol]

William B. Lurie wrote:

>Alex, the CD that came with this machine is a 'Restore CD'.
>Inserting it in its drive, I don't get any option that looks like
>Setup.
>
>As for the other suggested method, did you really want me to use the
>Win98 startup floppy?

Yes - that will put on a Msoft standard MBR which is just the same for
any of their systems - and others


You can get an image of one at www.bootdisk.com if needed


--
Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows - File Systems)
Bournemouth, U.K.

[Alex Nichol]

Kent W. England [MVP] wrote:

>Alex, are you sure that win98 fdisk does the right thing on NTFS
>partitions?

This is outside any consideration of partitions. It is the primary boot
record that looks for an *active* partition (could be a Linux ext2 one
for that matter) and passes control to its first sector.

In the case of XP that sector (the partition boot sector) loads ntldr,
and it is only when that starts loading things that any consideration of
NTFS vs FAT 32 comes in


--
Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows - File Systems)
Bournemouth, U.K.

[William B. Lurie]

Sorry, Alex. When I insert the floppy labeled Microsoft Windows 98 Series
Boot Disk and do exactly as printed on that floppy, it boots to
a place where there are 10 gibberish symbols on the screen and
the system is in 'hung' mode. Only Ctrl-Alt-Del breaks it loose...
no Esc, no Enter, no Press any key......

What am I doing wrong?

Bill Lurie

Alex Nichol wrote:

> William B. Lurie wrote:
>
> >Alex, the CD that came with this machine is a 'Restore CD'.
> >Inserting it in its drive, I don't get any option that looks like
> >Setup.
> >
> >As for the other suggested method, did you really want me to use the
> >Win98 startup floppy?
>
> Yes - that will put on a Msoft standard MBR which is just the same for
> any of their systems - and others
>
> You can get an image of one at www.bootdisk.com if needed
>
> --

[Sarge]

"William B. Lurie" > wrote in
:

> When I insert the floppy labeled Microsoft Windows 98 Series
> Boot Disk and do exactly as printed on that floppy, it boots to
> a place where there are 10 gibberish symbols on the screen and
> the system is in 'hung' mode. Only Ctrl-Alt-Del breaks it loose...
> no Esc, no Enter, no Press any key......
>
> What am I doing wrong?

Don't know, but try this. Download this floppy image:

http://tedshelp.canadianwebs.com/boot98se.exe

Insert a fresh floppy, double-click the exe. When it's done writing reboot
the machine. You should find yourself at an A: prompt where you can run
fdisk.