[ale] musical hard drives/recovery from a fried MBR

[Andrew Grimmke]

"Jordi S. Bunster" wrote:
> 
> On Fri, 2002-10-18 at 15:19, Andrew Grimmke wrote:
> 
> > boot to linux
> > 
> > copy the entire windows partition like so:
> > # dd if=/dev/hdd1 of=/dev/hda2
> > zero out the windows boot sector like so:
> > # dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda2 bs=512 count=1
> > 
> > boot to windows and
> > A:> sys a: c: 
> > to copy the windows system files to the boot sector
of
> > the Windows partition
> 
> I wonder. If you will be doing sys a: c:, wouldn't it
> be better to copy
> the contents of the partition instead of dding it?

Thanks, Jordi, I appreciate all your help.
I'm not sure I understand what you mean here.  Do you
mean not to zero out the boot sector?  I am afraid that
could be the heart of the problem, so I want a fresh
install of the system files.

If you mean I should copy from hdd1 to hda2 using a
tool other than dd, what do you suggest?  I guess cp
would work.  Is there an advantage.  

> 
> > Finally:  reinstall my favorite flavor of linux,
> > putting /boot and lilo on hda1.
> 
> Also, I've never tried to put windows somewhere
outside
> of hda1. I've
> never tried many things with windows, though.
> 
> > Any suggestions, flaws?
> 
> Same thing I told you at the fest: Backup my friend,
> backup.
> 
I guess the big advantage of buying a new hard drive
for this task is that if this doesn't work I can start
from scratch with the old 10 GB drive.

> :)
> 
>  -- Jordi

Thanks,
Andrew

Andrew Grimmke
Marietta, Georgia

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