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Questions tagged [bootsector]

The bootsector is located on bootable disks such as hard drives, CDs and floppy disks. It is loaded by the BIOS and in turn loads the operating system. It is frequently a target for viruses.

1 vote
1 answer
2k views

Why and when does a quick format to FAT32 write different structures to sector 0 on a USB flash drive?

Introduction: For a research project I am trying to write a bootloader to a USB flash drive. After some experimenting, I succeeded to do this. I would like to know how I can reproduce this. What I ...
Michiel Pater's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
96 views

Number of sectors in my sda1

After running bootinfoscript, I read on the log: sda1: __________________________________________________________________________ File system: ntfs Boot sector type: Windows XP: NTFS Boot ...
vap's user avatar
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0 answers
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How to repair encrypted Windows partition in external harddrive?

I have a Windows 7 Professional on TrueCrypt encrypted hardrive (two partitons, encrypted as the whole drive). The latest Windows update failed and afterwards the Windows didn't boot (blue screen of ...
Joudicek Jouda's user avatar
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4 answers
21k views

Unable to format drive to NTFS

I'm not sure what I did with my 16GB USB stick but now I won't be able to format it to NTFS anymore. Tried to quick and full format it and I got this: C:\Users\Home>format g: /q /fs:ntfs Insert ...
Teiv's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
568 views

Does the fixmbr command repair the Master Boot Code only or it repairs the Master Partition Table, too?

I know there all kinds of programs out there that advertise fixing the MBR, especially Windows. The Master Boot Record consists of the Master Boot Code and the Master Partition Table, correct? But I ...
user301234's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
1k views

Damaged hard disk - FAT32 - lost boot sector and root directory

I've got an external 640Gb HDD which has been badly treated (accidentally packed into a sea shipment container then left in storage for 9 months, probably had some extreme temperatures too). I'm ...
MusicalNinja's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
174 views

What defines the signature of a bootsector?

I've attempted to simplify the question, by getting at the gist of the problem: What exactly makes the "first sector" of a device the "bootsector?" Is the bootsector a logical sector, a physical ...
wazzy's user avatar
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0 votes
1 answer
375 views

How can I access the data on this Seagate dying HDD?

It seems my main disk was dying and eventually, Windows displayed a message to immediately reboot into recovery, make a full backup and replace the HDD. I turned the computer off and plugged the HDD ...
rfgamaral's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
3k views

Creating a bootable CD with custom boot sector

I was interested in learning how to create an operating system from scratch, and I found this guide: http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~exr/lectures/opsys/10_11/lectures/os-dev.pdf. At page 4 it is explained ...
brouwer89's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
483 views

Using Win 7 bootsect tool

With bootsect.exe /nt** e: I assume, despite bootsect.exe help speaks of "master boot code", it is intended to apply the partition boostrap code to the partition identified by letter E:. Given this, ...
antonio's user avatar
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3 votes
2 answers
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How do I fix a Windows XP bootloader error when BOOTCFG, FIXBOOT, and FIXMBR do nothing?

I recently replaced a faulty hard drive with two hard drives that I then raided (1) together and installed Windows XP on about a week ago. Since then, I have always received this error: Windows could ...
NobleUplift's user avatar
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10 votes
6 answers
106k views

How to create windows 8 boot partition on drive that never had one?

So 3 months ago I built a PC, but had the opportunity to borrow an SSD from my place of employment. I originally installed windows 7 trial mode on that SSD, and then after a few weeks upgraded to ...
wizpig64's user avatar
  • 239
1 vote
1 answer
2k views

Need to rebuild Boot sector and Partition table of a once Multiboot Disk manually converted to VMDK

I had a problem with an HD that was not in a Healthy State I was able to make a backup in time with Acronis Image Home. The backup was partial, the original Disk had 4 partition (3 primary, bootable ...
Relok's user avatar
  • 131
2 votes
3 answers
8k views

How can I zero out the boot code of a MBR?

I have two drives in my Windows system: Drive 1, System and Boot. Drive 2, data storage. Some time previously, I had Windows installed on the second drive. Now that I have the current setup, I would ...
K.A.Monica's user avatar
  • 6,553
5 votes
3 answers
426 views

Does NTFS (or any file system) support files outside of the partition?

So on my C: drive, there was a file called BOOTSECT.BAK. Not knowing what it is, I opened it up in HxD and the first 14 bytes were B \0 O \0 O \0 T \0 M \0 G \0 R \0 corresponding to the UTF-16LE ...
Cole Tobin's user avatar

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