Re: [Xen-users] How to Backup and Restore MBR within Logical Volumes?

[Mr. Teo En Ming (Zhang Enming)]

> dd if=/dev/virtualmachines/windows7-x64 of=mbr.w7-x64 bs=512 count=1

I think if you do this, you are only backing up the first 512 bytes of the
logical volume, not the MBR.

Someone correct me if I am wrong.

[Xen-users] How to Backup and Restore MBR within Logical Volumes?

[Dustin Henning]

As you are running Windows, I will assume that you are using HVM,
and therefore that /dev/virtualmachines/windows7-x64 is a hard disk image.
As such, the command you listed will back up the MBR, including the
partition table.  That isn't to say that Windows 7 doesn't have additional
boot information outside of the MBR, but that information would be included
in a file system backup.  Wikipedia has the structure of the MBR in a table
at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_boot_record.  On that note, I often
use bs=446 when I want the MBR without the partition table, but if you are
backing up the partition as opposed to the file structure, then you might as
well keep the partition table (or even just back up the image).
    Dustin

From: [e-mail] [mailto:[e-mail]]
On Behalf Of Mr. Teo En Ming (Zhang Enming)
Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009 04:45
To: Geert Janssens
Cc: Community assistance, encouragement, and advice for using Fedora.;
[e-mail]; Fedora Xen
Subject: [Fedora-xen] Re: [Xen-users] How to Backup and Restore MBR within
Logical Volumes?
> dd if=/dev/virtualmachines/windows7-x64 of=mbr.w7-x64 bs=512 count=1

I think if you do this, you are only backing up the first 512 bytes of the
logical volume, not the MBR.

Someone correct me if I am wrong.