How do boot sectors and multiple drives works?

Posted by GiH on Super User See other posts from Super User or by GiH
Published on 2010-02-10T19:23:22Z Indexed on 2010/04/16 11:13 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 408

Filed under:

mbr

|

boot

|

multi-boot

|

windows-7

|

ubuntu-9.04

I don't fully understand the concept of a boot sector, I was hoping someone could clear this up for me.

If you have two hard drives, with an OS installed on each, does each drive have its own boot sector? Does each drive need an MBR partition?

I've got Linux and Windows on two separate drives. I've had issues when installing Linux and grub, and now I've finally decided to use the Windows bootloader to start up. Would Windows have gotten rid of grub when i used /fixmbr or does it stay there on the boot sector of the other drive?

© Super User or respective owner

Related posts about mbr

Can't remove GPT data from MBR

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I am having difficulty getting the Ubuntu installer (and gparted) to recognize the partitions on my MBR type disk. Other operating systems and disk tools read the disk structure and the files on it fine. I have used fixparts to write a new MBR but the issue persists. I assume the issue stems from… >>> More
Why is Oracle using a skip scan for this query?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Here's the tkprof output for a query that's running extremely slowly (WARNING: it's long :-) ): SELECT mbr_comment_idn, mbr_crt_dt, mbr_data_source, mbr_dol_bl_rmo_ind, mbr_dxcg_ctl_member, mbr_employment_start_dt, mbr_employment_term_dt, mbr_entity_active, mbr_ethnicity_idn, mbr_general_health_status_code… >>> More
Fixing windows MBR without Vista Recovery CD

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I had Windows Vista + Ubuntu running on my system. I deleted the ubuntu partitions from Windows. However, when I start the system, GRUB throws up an Error 22 (missing partition) and does not let me boot into Windows. The CD ROM on my laptop is fried and therefore I tried installing Ubuntu again using… >>> More
Fixing windows MBR without Vista Recovery CD

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I had Windows Vista + Ubuntu running on my system. I deleted the ubuntu partitions from Windows. However, when I start the system, GRUB throws up an Error 22 (missing partition) and does not let me boot into Windows. The CD ROM on my laptop is fried and therefore I tried installing Ubuntu again using… >>> More
Windows 7 Keeps Changing the MBR on boot

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I am having an issue with Windows 7 changing the boot order everytime I start up. I have 4 partitions: boot linux windows. Grub is installed on the boot, and boots up both operating systems fine, however when I boot to Windows the bootable partition is changed to Windows and the MBR is rewritten… >>> More

Related posts about boot

Dual Boot issues with Windows 7 and Ubuntu

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I'm finding myself in a rather unique situation. I've read through just about every resource I can find about this and while things have helped me understand some background, I haven't yet been able to find a solution. So I'm asking here. I originally had just a Windows 7 64-bit OS installation on… >>> More
Windows 7 wont boot from any boot loader except for 'Windows Boot Manager' after partition resize

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I have a triple boot system on a single SSD. OSX, Windows 7, and Ubuntu. I use Chimera (basically another version of Chameleon) as my boot loader. Usually I can boot all 3 without any issue, but after using GParted to make my Ubuntu partition 2 Gigs larger, Windows 7 throws me an error when trying… >>> More
Unable to boot Windows 7 after installing Ubuntu

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I have Windows 7 on my machine and then installed Ubuntu 12.04 using a live CD. I can see both Windows 7 and Ubuntu in the grub menu, but when I select Windows 7 it shows a black screen for about 2 seconds and the returns to the Grub menu. But if I select Ubuntu it's working fine. This is the contents… >>> More
12.04 upgrade broke grub? (not wubi related)

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I just updated from 11.10 to 12.04, with no major problems (it took a while to get past a request to restart ssh, mysql and some other services, but I did no fiddling by myself, everything was done by the installer). However, after restarting, grub can't do anything. Picking the new linux installation… >>> More
Another "Windows 7 entry missing from Grub2" Question

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
Like many before me had the following problem that after installing Ubuntu (with windows 7 already installed), the grub boot loader wouldnt show windows 7 as a boot option, though i can boot fine if I use the "Choose Boot Device" options on the x220. The difference is that I try using UEFI only so… >>> More