[lug] boot sector backups

[D. Stimits]

Recently someone was asking about boot sector backups, and I knew the NT
boot loader howto had a means of doing this (as a side-effect), but
didn't have the URL handy. For those interested, here is the URL:
http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/mini/Linux+NT-Loader.html

Page of relevance:
http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/mini/Linux+NT-Loader-5.html

Sample line that backups a partition boot record for hda2 to file
bootsect.lnx:
dd if=/dev/hda2 of=/bootsect.lnx bs=512 count=1

For "of", you'd want to use a floppy. To restore, "if" would be the
floppy file, and "of" would be the sector of concern. /dev/hda would be
MBR, /dev/hda2 would be partition sector of partition 2.

Does this really work? I think so, but have not tested it...when NT or a
windows program wipes out the bootsect.lnx file on your NT partition for
users that have this installed, simply a copy of the file from floppy
back to NT c:\ fixes it. I have not tried restoring directly to a boot
record though.

D. Stimits, stimits at idcomm.com