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The Starman's FREE TOOLS Page
The Starman's Realm Index PageThese pages will probably always be in a state of flux (change) as we keep gathering new data for Boot Records, filling in Assembly code comments and adding important topics related to booting up your box (computer)!
Personalized Data Recovery help via E-Mail for a reasonable fee.
As either a review or an introduction (for those who need definitions and explanations of the terms used), we suggest that everyone read or at least glance over: Disk Drive Terminology [covers both Hard and Floppy Disk drives]. These terminology pages include useful details (even experienced techs should read them!) such as: “How do you calculate the exact capacity of a floppy disk or hard drive?”, “Why do some utilities show less drive capacity than what's printed on the HDD?”, “What do MiB and GiB mean?” and “Do you know that partitioning a drive on a computer with a BIOS made earlier than 1999 will most likely waste drive space on an archaic structure known as a Test or Diagnostic Cylinder?”
How many Sectors are on a Hard Drive? -- Contains useful tables for picturing the contents of your hard drive.
An Introduction to Data Recovery.
How To Permanently Erase ALL the DATA On A Hard Disk -- without physically destroying your drive!
How to change your BOOT.INI Menus under Win2000/XP
HDD and OS Disk Limits: 32GB, 64GB, 137GB etc.!!!
6
to 64-bit Hex Numbers (and Partition Limits)
Partition Magic writes "28 96 C4 17" to an HDD's 1st Track
55AAh
is the Wrong Way to describe Boot Signatures on a PC
Explains why many have misunderstood how to refer to the byte sequence 55h followed
by AAh on a PC, as a hexadecimal Word: It's due to the little-endian architecture
of PCs and incorrect usage in the documentation.
References. Links. Free
Tools, Utilities and Boot Managers:
MBR,
Partition Table and Boot Record Tools and Links .
All
about FDISK.EXE -- Covers
all versions of Microsoft® FDISK.
Linux (and
many other OSs)
have "fdisk" programs that are safer for your data than
Microsoft's FDISK;
read the next selection about how MS-FDISK can destroy some of your data!
[
NOTE: Under Windows™ 2000/XP, FDISK has been replaced by a variety
of methods for partitioning (setting up the MBR on) your drives:
1) The install CD when setting up a new system,
2) The Disk Management "MMC Snap-In" program,
3) The Recovery Console's command: diskpart
(found on install CDs),
4) The diskpart
command under the Command Prompt of Windows™ XP; even more
difficult to use than the Recovery Console version of diskpart!
So, Disk Management is the best choice for most users! ]
You could, of course, still use an old Win98 Boot Diskette's FDISK
program to create a FAT32 partition.
The
Windows 2000/XP MBR -- The
MBR created by a running Windows 2000 or XP OS (specifically Disk Management)
when used to install a completely blank hard drive on your system; includes
details about the Win 2k/XP Disk Signature bytes!
The
Windows MBR for FAT32 -- The
MBR created by FDISK from Windows 95B (or OSR2), Windows 98/98SE and even Windows
ME.
The Standard MBR --- This is the Master Boot Record that's placed on the first sector of any hard disk partitioned by FDISK.EXE (or FDISK.COM) from all versions of MS-DOS back to MS-DOS 3.30 (including DOS 6.22 and MS-Windows 95 "A" also known as MS-DOS 7.0).
This is also the same
as the Standard IPL (or MBR) code used by the Ranish Partition Manager,
TestDisk (before version 5.7) and some boot managers when there's a problem
that requires the MBR code to be written again.
Notes
on DOS 3.30 and an early (1988) OEM version
-- The Master Boot Record created by the NEC®
(Revision 3) version of MS-DOS 3.30's FDISK was slightly different than that
of all the other MS-DOS 3.30 MBRs (in order to allow
it to have 8 Partition entries in its Partition
Table). Some important points about DOS MBRs in general
are also included here.
The
Ranish MBR/Compact Boot Manager --
Single sector MBR replacement
included with the Ranish Partition Manager.
Preliminary Listing only.
The IBM® Personal Computer™ DOS 2.00 MBR and How Similar it is to the Standard MBR (of DOS 3.30) --- The Master Boot Record created by IBM®'s DOS 2.00; showing each byte of code that's different from the Standard MBR.
All
about SYS.COM - Shows
details of all versions of Microsoft® SYS.COM which can be used to create
both Hard Disk and Floppy Disk OS Boot Records.
[ NOTE: Under
the Windows™ 2000/XP OSs, Hard Disk Boot Records are created by:
1) The install process,
2) The OSs' Disk Management "MMC
Snap-In" program
(which partitions and formats), or
3) The CMD Prompt command: format.
]
Again, out of the these three, the Disk Management window is the easiest
way for most users to accomplish this for a new drive they attach to an existing
system.
MSWIN4.1 (Windows 98) Floppy Disk Boot Record -- For
Booting the underlying MS-DOS 7.1 of the Windows 98 Operating
Systems from a Floppy Diskette.
Preliminary Listing.
MS-DOS
5.0 Floppy Disk Boot Record
-- For Booting
the MS-DOS 5.0 to 6.22 Operating Systems from a floppy diskette.
Preliminary Listing.
The
IBM® Personal Computer™ DOS 1.00 Boot Record
The IBM®'s Personal Computer™ DOS
1.00.
These pages include many other fascinating facts about the original PC's
software.
The
IBM® Personal Computer™ DOS 1.10 Boot Record
The IBM®'s Personal Computer™ DOS
1.10.
These pages include facts about IBM's first International DOS version.
The
NTFS Boot Record: Boot Sector - The
Windows 2000 (NT5.0) and XP (NT5.1) Boot Record; including the NTFS BPB (BIOS
Parameter Block). Link to "The Disk Editor View page" to view
the Record as it would be seen in a disk editor.
The NTFS Boot Record: Bootstrap Code - The Windows 2000 (NT5.0) and XP (NT5.1) "Bootstrap" Sectors. . . which we refer to as the NTLDR Section of the NTFS Boot Record Preliminary Listing !
The
FAT32 Boot Record under Windows™ 2000 or XP
- The VBR created by
Windows™ 2000/XP/2003 for a FAT32 partition, or what your old
Windows 9x/Me VBRs (see MSWIN4.1 VBR) in the first partition of the first
drive will be changed into when installing Win 2000/XP on that system.
MSWIN4.1
Boot Record - For
the Windows 95B, 98 and 98SE and ME OS (or FAT32)
Boot Records; including the BPB (BIOS Parameter
Block).
LILO (Linux Loader) Boot Manager's MBR -- This used to be the only Boot Manager for the Linux OS, and it is still the best choice for many Linux projects such as a Linux Boot Disk Rescue System.
GRUB
- The GRand Unified Boot Manager!
-- This one is now the default Boot Manager for some distros such as Red
Hat. You may even consider using this Boot Manager for Microsoft
OSs (after installing a small Linux /boot partition for
the GRUB executable and support files); this is how The Starman
runs his own multi-boot system.
The
Windows™ 2000/XP/2003 BOOT.INI Menu system
This is related to various
system files, such as NTLDR, which may even appear in a Windows 98/ME
partition if you install Win XP/2000/2003 onto the same computer!
Updated: June 7, 2007.
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