henriette

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Yes, it appears to be the same version you can get from TeraByte Unlimited Freeware page.  Scroll down to about the middle of the page and you will find *MBRWork* version 1.08.

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Quoting from the above TeraByte page:

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So, probably the various tasks and how to use them are in that *readme.txt* file.  Just extract the files from the ZIP and then you can load it using NotePad or WordPad.  Most likely that *readme.txt* file is also on the UBCD disk in the directory where the MBRWork *.exe* file is located.

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Floppy disk or any other HDD that you will have access to if you need to restore it to the source HDD from which it came.

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When you have decided to replace the MBR (for whatever reason) with that backup MBR file--and before you restore the Ghost OS partition file.  If you do any HDD changes to the basic structure--like any changing of the partition sizes, number of partitions, etc.--you need to make an updated backup of the MBR--have to keep it up to date.  If you don't make any changes, ever, then that original backup will remain valid.

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Probably, unless some other event somehow corrupts your MBR.

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When you suddenly have unexplained behavior that appears to be *bad*, and you have not installed a program that you know is supposed to be doing that behavior.  Even then, it will probably be hard to know for sure--you will have to rule out other possibilities, probably ask for help, or Google the behavior to see if others recognize it as a problem.  Possibly running multiple scans using your Antivirus program, or using the on-line scans provided by various Antivirus providers--sometimes you have to run an antivirus scan after you close down Windows and run it from a booted optical disc.

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Not to worry!  Backing up the MBR is part of what imaging backups of the OS include--either inside of the imaging program--or separately like MBRWork.

henriette wrote on Jun 14^th, 2012 at 10:38am:

Any disk editor program that you can use once booted to DOS will work.  Just below the MBRWork v1.08 download mentioned above on TeraBytes Free Utilities is another MBR program called *MBR Utility*.   Quoting its description:

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And, there are other tools and utilities that can do this for you.  I suspect that the MBRWork program also has this function--but, I have not checked yet.

Brian and NightOwl have covered a lot of the specifics, but I'll elaborate on a few points.


henriette wrote on Jun 15^th, 2012 at 7:35am:

In general, yeah--but it's not always obvious when you might have a de facto "multiboot" system.

For instance, during the XP-era many OEM computers (Dell, HP, and maybe others) came with a proprietary dual-boot configuration to implement their "factory restore" options.  They appeared to be single-boot systems because the user didn't see a boot menu, but in fact there was a hidden, alternate-boot function accessed via magic key combinations at boot time.

Some third-party vendors may implement similar techniques.  Acronis, for example, touts their "Secure Zone" feature, but if you install it you are essentially installing an Acronis-specific dual-boot, accessible via magic keys.

If you install a linux-only machine, the grub bootloader is larger than a single sector, so uses some of those additional sectors in Track 0, as well.

My point is there is no harm in backing up all of Track 0 instead of just LBA 0 alone.  At worst, a Track 0 backup is capturing LBA 0 plus a bunch of empty sectors--but there's nothing wrong with that.  However, if one of those erstwhile "empty" sectors actually isn't empty and contains crucial data in it, a Track 0 backup can save your rear.

Rather than trying to figure out when or if you need to backup more than LBA 0, just do a Track 0 backup as a matter of habit and you'll never have to worry about it.



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Like a partition image, you only need to use it if you think something's wrong, or if you're moving everything to a new HDD.  You're only going to restore a partition image if you think something's wrong with your existing partition.  You're only going to restore Track 0 if you think something messed up your bootstrap code or your partition table.

If you're only needing Ghost to restore your OS, you don't need to restore everything on your hard disk.  You don't need to also restore Track 0 unless you suspect there's something wrong with it.

As NightOwl cautioned, be careful if you've subsequently repartitioned your hard disk.  Repartitioning changes your partition table, so you don't want to restore Track 0 and paste your old, obsolete partition table back in there.  If you repartition, make a new Track 0 backup.

If you ever need to rebuild your entire HDD from scratch--say, on a new, replacement HDD, for example--you need to restore your MBR, partition table, and all partitions.  There are three common strategies for backing up all of those pieces:

(1) A Track 0 backup, plus a Ghost image of C, plus duplicate copies of the contents in the other four partitions.  (The non-OS partitions don't actually need to be Ghost images, so simple copies of the contents will do.)

(2) A Track 0 backup, plus individual Ghost images of each partition.  This is essentially option 1 but choosing to use Ghost to backup the data partitions.

(3) A Ghost whole-disk image.  This is essentially option 2 with everything all together in one backup.  Note this may be the easiest to create, but because of its size it's harder to store.

If you're rebuilding everything on a new HDD, you don't have to partition it beforehand.  Ghost does need partitions to restore into, but partitioning is taken care of by restoring Track 0.  **

So start by restoring Track 0, which restores your MBR bootstrap code, DiskID, and your partition table.  By restoring the partition table, you have, in one fell swoop, defined your partition boundaries, and your disk is now "partitioned", in a manner of speaking--they're empty, raw partitions at this point, but it's partitioned.  Now you have something into which Ghost can pour the contents of the partition image.  After Ghost does that, you'll have a complete, usable partition.

If your backup strategy was to use Ghost images for your data partitions, restoring such an image will automatically convert a raw partition into whatever format, NTFS or FAT32, the original source was.

If your strategy was to make simple copies of the contents of data partitions, then you must first format the raw partition to either NTFS or FAT32 before you can copy the contents back into the new partition.  (Note the flexibility here--the new partition doesn't have to be the same format as the original.)

** caveat re: partitioning... you have five partitions, so you must be using an Extended primary partition with two or more logical volumes within it.  Restoring your partition table will only restore your primary partition layout, not the extended/logical partitions.  The total space of your Extended partition will be laid out, but not how it is subdivided.  You'll need to define its logical partitions by some other means--a normal partitioning utility or even Windows will do.

This may be confusing, so let me illustrate with an example.  Let's say your 5 partitions are laid out thusly:

NTFS primary + NTFS primary + extended (logical + logical + logical)

Restoring Track 0 would "partition" your new disk into:

(raw primary) + (raw primary) + (raw extended)

Restoring Ghost images (or formatting and copying contents) will restore the two primaries back to NTFS primaries, but the subdivisions of your extended partition haven't been defined yet.

Since the exact sizes are rarely critical, just use Windows Disk Management or any partitioning utility to carve your three logical volumes in the Extended space, and then you can fill them back up.

henriette wrote on Jun 16^th, 2012 at 8:53am:

Yes, MbrWork is one of the small handful of Terabyte products that I'm familiar with, but don't count out Brian--he's our resident expert in all things Terabyte!



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I'm not clear on what you're asking.  Maybe I missed it earlier in the thread, but are you thinking your current MBR is infected and needs repair?  I thought you were just looking to backup your current MBR to protect against possible future problems.  Or are you simply asking in which order you should do things if/when disaster strikes in the future?  Or are you under the impression MBRs gradually get dirty over time and need occasional cleaning?

The answer to the latter is no--if your bootstrap code hasn't been infected, it is going to be identical to what it was on the day it was first put on your computer.  Your partition table should be just as it was when you last repartitioned.  These parts don't change through use.

Mbrwork is a DOS program, so you need to boot to real DOS to use it.  I have a DOS-bootable USB flash drive, so I put mbrwork.exe on that.  As Brian warned earlier, when you boot from a flash drive it becomes "Drive 0" and your main HDD becomes "Drive 1", so after you launch mbrwork.exe you use the "change active hard drive" option to make sure you're working on the correct disk.  (If you boot from a DOS-bootable CD, you don't need that step.)  To backup Track 0 for safekeeping, select "Backup First Track".  This puts a tiny .bin backup file on the flash drive.  Restoring Track 0 is similar--boot from flash drive, switch to "Drive 1", then "Restore First Track".  In the interim, you can copy the .bin file to some other medium if you want, then move it back to the flash drive if/when you need to restore.

If you're trying to repair your MBR and don't have a prior backup, use the above steps to backup Track 0.  This gives you something to return to in case your repair attempts go wrong.  Then use MbrWork to "Install standard MBR code".  This will replace any infected bootstrap code with a known-good MBR.  That code should work fine unless you've got some kind of multiboot system.  (And if it doesn't, you've got your pre-repair Track 0 to return to while you figure out a Plan B.)

Does this answer your question?

henriette

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Do you know the Simon and Garfunkel song *50 Ways to Leave Your Lover*?  Well, that's about how many different ways you can do something when using DOS or Windows  !

Brian wrote on Jun 15^th, 2012 at 5:29pm:

From this statement, I took this to mean MBRWork defaults to writing the MBR backup to the media and file directory from which MBRWork loads from.  This is not an uncommon DOS program behavior.  On the other hand, many DOS programs allow you to change the destination where an output file will be saved.  I'm going to have to take a look at MBRWork to see if any such option exists--but, the *readme.txt* file referenced previously above is certainly of no help!

But, if the above statement is *true*--then you will not be able to use MBRWork from the Ultimate Boot CD--or any bootable CD from which you load MBRWork--because DOS does not support writing to optical media (Ghost does--from within the DOS Ghost program--but DOS by itself does not).





So, here's one of the *50 ways*--most DOS programs are *stand alone*--you don't have to start them from a boot disk, and there don't have to be other helper files (except the ones that come with the DOS program itself--but, those type of programs are the big, complicated ones):

1.  While in Windows, create a new floppy disk that's dedicated to MBRWork by placing the MBRWork.exe program on it (most new floppy disks come pre-formatted--so you don't have to do any formatting, and the floppy does not need to be a boot disk either--just a plain storage floppy disk).

2.  Your system has a floppy drive--that's what you use to boot to DOS and run Ghost 2003--so boot using your Ghost boot floppy--if Ghost starts *automatically* (i.e. your autoexec.bat loads Ghost.exe for you), simply quit Ghost and you will be at the A:\ prompt.

3.  Now eject your Ghost boot floppy, and place the MBRWork floppy in the A:\ drive.  Type *mbrworks.exe* and MBRWork will load from that floppy.

4.  Once MBRWork is loaded--you can proceed to make the backup.  Because you loaded MBRWork form the MBRWork floppy in drive A:\, your backup *.bin* file should be saved to your MBRWork dedicated floppy (check to make sure it's there).  Put it away for safe keeping, and you're done!




And here's another one to the *50 ways*  :

1.  If you're booting from the Ultimate Boot CD (or any other bootable optical disc that's booting to DOS), and load MBRWork from it--in order to boot to DOS from an optical disc, a *virtual floppy drive* is created, and it will be assigned the A:\ drive letter.  But, your physical floppy drive still exists (assuming you have one in the first place--and you do).  It will no longer be the A:\ drive because the bootable optical disc will have taken that drive letter.  But, DOS is more than happy to support two floppy drives!  So, your physical floppy drive is now B:\!

2.  So, if MBRWork is automatically loaded when booting from the Ultimate Boot CD, exit the program, and you should be at the *virtual floppy drive* A:\ prompt.  Type *B:* and press *Enter* to change the focus of the DOS prompt from A: to B:.  (Technically, it might not be the A:\ drive at the DOS prompt--if MBRWork is loaded from a sub-directory on the optical disc, then the DOS prompt will be focused on the optical drive's drive letter, and possibly sub-directory--still same procedure though, just type *B:* at whatever prompt you are at and press *Enter*.)

3.  Put your dedicated MBRWork floppy, as mentioned above, into the physical drive, type *mbrwork.exe* and load MBRWork from the physical floppy disk.  Tell MBRWork to save your first track, and the *.bin* file should be saved to the floppy disk at drive letter B:\!  You're done--put that floppy disk away for safe keeping.


Give either method a try and see what happens--you can't cause any harm to your system if you are creating backups--it's only when you do something that *writes* to your HDD (such as doing a restore of the MBR) that you might get in trouble--if you use the wrong *.bin* file that's outdated, or for a different HDD or computer!

If and when you might need to restore that MBR *.bin* file, simply boot to DOS, put the MBRWork dedicated floppy with that backed up MBR *.bin* file on it in the floppy drive, change the DOS focus to that drive (either A:\ or B:\ depending on the situation), load MBRWork, and choose the restore function.

henriette

Well, there you go!  We now have the 3rd of *50 ways to leave your lover*--err I mean backup to the floppy drive!

Anyone else have something to add!

NightOwl wrote on Jun 17^th, 2012 at 3:11pm:

Yes, that will work, though bear in mind it expects you to have that floppy disk in there.  If you don't, you could get other error msgs.

Here's another alternative.  I've long made my own customized bootable CDs, and a trick I use in config.sys and autoexec.bat is to initialize a ramdrive at boot time and then run as much as possible from the ramdrive.  It's faster than reading files from the CD and provides a ready place with write access for programs, but this technique is more complex to setup.

Programs can write to the ramdrive, so I don't have to worry about whether the system has a floppy drive or flash drive or writable FAT/FAT32 partition just to run some utilities or diagnostics.  OTOH, the ramdrive disappears when you shutdown, so if a program does create a record you want to save, you have to remember to copy it somewhere else before you lose it.

Hiya 

I'm ageing fast, no wiser though.

This subject is getting extremely complicated for me. 

I have tried

NightOwl's

'50 ways' - 2, that is (not having read the latest posts, yet.).

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True. I've tried it first, anyway, as you described it - with UBCD - to no avail.

Then I tried GHOST >> both set of 2 CD/DVD boot floppies and Ghost standard boot floppy.

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That's of great help!!!
Had created a boot floppy before - thought it had to be bootable to work ...!

> created floppy, just *MBRWORK.EXE* on it for saving *.bin(s) onto. Write protection is disabled!

> Booted with the 2-set Ghost floppies.

> After quitting Ghost I had a DOS prompt: "A:\GHOST>" (!)
Tried to change to a

clear

A:\prompt --- obviously I can't remember/find the correct command.
On the web it says e.g. "a:* would do. As far as I recall I've tried it with a ">" at the end, as well.

Whatever I tried > "bad command or file name" 

> Booted with Ghost standard floppy: same result.

> Also when typing "mbrwork.exe" (still after A:\GHOST), of course, it would not load.

... "the Duck got stuck"  

Can you tell me, please, what the h*** did I do wrong now ? ... just failed with the commands ?

Now, the last 3 posts are for

insiders

WOW ... myomy ...

... on the other hand: learning never ends

henriette    <one for each of you busy guys>