Master Boot Record
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The sector below is a typical master boot record, ie sector 0 of a disk



000000  33 C0 8E D0 BC 00 7C FB - 50 07 50 1F FC BE 1B 7C    3м |PP|

000010   BF 1B 06 50 57 B9 E5 01 - F3 A4 CB BE BE 07 B1 04    PW˾

000020   38 2C 7C 09 75 15 83 C6 - 10 E2 F5 CD 18 8B 14 8B    8,| u

000030   EE 83 C6 10 49 74 16 38 - 2C 74 F6 BE 10 07 4E AC    It8,tN

000040   3C 00 74 FA BB 07 00 B4 - 0E CD 10 EB F2 89 46 25    < t F%

000050   96 8A 46 04 B4 06 3C 0E - 74 11 B4 0B 3C 0C 74 05    –F<t < t

000060   3A C4 75 2B 40 C6 46 25 - 06 75 24 BB AA 55 50 B4    :u+@F%u$UP

000070   41 CD 13 58 72 16 81 FB - 55 AA 75 10 F6 C1 01 74    AXrUut

000080   0B 8A E0 88 56 24 C7 06 - A1 06 EB 1E 88 66 04 BF     V$f

000090   0A 00 B8 01 02 8B DC 33 - C9 83 FF 05 7F 03 8B 4E      3ɃN

0000A0   25 03 4E 02 CD 13 72 29 - BE 46 07 81 3E FE 7D 55    %Nr)F>}U

0000B0   AA 74 5A 83 EF 05 7F DA - 85 F6 75 83 BE 27 07 EB    tZڅu'

0000C0   8A 98 91 52 99 03 46 08 - 13 56 0A E8 12 00 5A EB    ‘RFV  Z

0000D0   D5 4F 74 E4 33 C0 CD 13 - EB B8 00 00 00 00 00 00    Ot3     

0000E0   56 33 F6 56 56 52 50 06 - 53 51 BE 10 00 56 8B F4    V3VVRPSQ V

0000F0   50 52 B8 00 42 8A 56 24 - CD 13 5A 58 8D 64 10 72    PR BV$ZXdr

000100   0A 40 75 01 42 80 C7 02 - E2 F7 F8 5E C3 EB 74 49     @uB^tI

000110   6E 76 61 6C 69 64 20 70 - 61 72 74 69 74 69 6F 6E    nvalid partition

000120   20 74 61 62 6C 65 00 45 - 72 72 6F 72 20 6C 6F 61     table Error loa

000130   64 69 6E 67 20 6F 70 65 - 72 61 74 69 6E 67 20 73    ding operating s

000140   79 73 74 65 6D 00 4D 69 - 73 73 69 6E 67 20 6F 70    ystem Missing op

000150   65 72 61 74 69 6E 67 20 - 73 79 73 74 65 6D 00 00    erating system 

000160   00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00                   

000170   00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00                   

000180   00 00 00 8B FC 1E 57 8B - F5 CB 00 00 00 00 00 00       W     

000190   00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00                   

0001A0   00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00                   

0001B0   00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - CA EE BA 36 00 00 00 01            6   

0001C0   01 00 07 FE 7F D7 3F 00 - 00 00 99 FF 14 13 00 00     ?    

0001D0   00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00                   

0001E0   00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00                   

0001F0   00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 AA                  U



The boot sector has three main sections, described as follows


The first section is optional, and includes all bytes upto 0x1BE.  This is code that is used for a disk to boot from and is blank for non bootable disks, such a camera memory chips.  The boot data can be different for each machine, but typically it does start with the same sequence, such as 0x33 0xc0.  It is also typical, such as above to have some text as possible warning messages


The final two bytes of the sector must be 0x55 0xAA  This is the same as several other oprating system control sectors


The most important area of the boot sector is the partition map starting at location 0x1BE.  There are infact 4 possible tables, each of 16 bytes in length.  See Partition Table Structure for full details.



The points to look for to recognise the block is that the fact they always end with 0x55 0xAA and there are 1 - 4 partition records starting at 0x1BE