[svlug] Boot program

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Harry Souders (hsouders at calweb.com):

> If memory serves me right, to get rid of it you can type fdisk /mbr (after
> you boot up dos from a floppy). Btw, make sure all data has been saved
> before you mess around with fdisk.

Actually, "FDISK /MBR" is about the only totally "safe" thing you 
can do with DOS's FDISK.  "Safe" in the sense that it does nothing
but overwrite the 446-byte MBR initial-boot area, leaving the 
partition table and everything else alone.

There are peculiar circumstances where doing that can be destructive,
of course.  Certain MBR-type viruses work by encrypting the 
partition table, and placing a substitute MBR-based program for
Microsoft's unnamed one, whose sole difference is that it can 
decrypt the altered partition table.  Naturally, if you 
re-install the standard Microsoft MBR program using "FDISK /MBR",
it will then be unable to read the still-encrypted partition table.

There might be other (very rare) gotchas that I'm unaware of.  
Therefore, the most prudent course (as always) is to have a current 
backup tape before you start messing around.  (If you don't have
a tape backup, then you have _two_ initial problems.)

-- 
Cheers,                Linux:  It is now safe to turn on your computer.
Rick Moen
rick (at) hugin.imat.com

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