Backing up or restoring the MBR and Track0?

[Bill in Co]

This is an additional option offered by Acronis True Image when using its
image backup/restore operations. But I'm not sure when that would be
useful or needed. Backing up and restoring C:, the main partition, makes
sense to me, but I'm not sure when one would ever need this other option.
Can someone clarify that for me? Or maybe it's there in case someone,
somehow, messes up the MBR during experimentation (not sure how that would
happen), and needs to restore it?

Is that specific option implying that this other small area of the hard
drive storing the MBR and Track0 can possibly fail, in which case just
backing up and restoring C: would be insufficient?

(when you restore the C: image in ATI, you have a choice to select either C:
partition *or* MBR and Track0 (can't do both at the same time).

Is the MBR strored in Track 0? I'm thinking it is.

[BillW50]

In news:UdedndS-td7tCJTM...@earthlink.com,
Bill in Co typed:

Yes the MBR is stored at track 0, sector 0. Worse, it only uses part of
sector 0. The other part holds some partition maps and other stuff. So
don't try to be clever and borrow T0S0 from another drive and copy it
over with say a disk editor. Sure the MBR will be good, but the
partition(s) will likely be trashed.

Now there are lots of reasons why one might want to recreate the MBR.
Sometimes it could get corrupted for one reason or another. Another
reason is when you use Acronis or the like, one could forget to check
the box to save the MBR too. This is easier to do if you save (backup)
only a partition and not the whole drive.

--
Bill
Motion Computing LE1600 Tablet ('06 era) - OE-QuoteFix v1.19.2
Centrino 758 1.5GHz - 1.5GB - Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 SP2

[glee]

"Bill in Co" <surly_cu...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:UdedndS-td7tCJTM...@earthlink.com...

When to recover the MBR and Track 0
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/23874

MBR and Track 0
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=138578

--
Glen Ventura
MS MVP Oct. 2002 - Sept. 2009
CompTIA A+

[Twayne]

In news:UdedndS-td7tCJTM...@earthlink.com,
Bill in Co <surly_cu...@earthlink.net> typed:

Yes, the MBR is stored in "track 0".

I don't know about Acronis, but my Norton Ghost gives me the choice of
restoring the MBR or not at boot drive recovery time. The few times I've
done it, I allowed the MBR to be restored, just in case. Can't hurt, even if
it only refreshes the data.

Many things can corrupt the MBR and lower tracks on a drive. Plain old file
corruption, virus, malware of various kinds, hi-jackers, crapware and all
kinds of things.
It's not a very common occurrence but it can happen.

HTH,

Twayne`