Master Boot Record

E707759

The Master Boot Record is a special boot sector located at the beginning of a storage device that contains the partition table and initial code used to start a computer’s operating system.

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Statements (48)

Predicate Object
instanceOf boot sector
data structure
partitioning scheme component
alsoKnownAs MBR NERFINISHED
bootProcessStep executed by BIOS after POST
loads volume boot record of active partition
bootSignatureValue 0x55AA
canBeRepairedBy bootrec /fixmbr
fdisk /mbr
compatibleWith BIOS-based systems
contains boot signature
bootloader code
disk signature
partition table
contrastedWith GUID Partition Table NERFINISHED
fileSystemAgnostic true
hasSection boot signature area
bootstrap code area
partition table area
hasSize 512 bytes
introducedBy IBM NERFINISHED
introducedIn 1983
introducedWith IBM PC DOS 2.0 NERFINISHED
lessCompatibleWith UEFI-based systems
locatedAt first sector of a storage device
logical block address 0
maximumAddressableDiskSize 2 TB with 512-byte sectors
partitionEntryAddressing CHS
LBA
partitionTableEntryCount 4
partitionTableEntrySize 16 bytes
partitionTableOffset byte 446
standardizedIn IBM PC-compatible architecture NERFINISHED
supports extended partition
up to four primary partitions
usedBy BIOS firmware
BSD operating systems
Linux NERFINISHED
MS-DOS NERFINISHED
Windows NERFINISHED
usedFor bootstrapping operating system
defining disk partitions
locating active partition
usedOn hard disk drive
removable storage device
solid-state drive
vulnerableTo boot sector viruses
corruption

Referenced by (2)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Apple Partition Map distinctFrom Master Boot Record
NTLDR readsFrom Master Boot Record