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Restore Windows Bootloader 2006-03-22 19:44

...after it you lost it
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The following has been tested between a donor of bootloader (Compaq desktop with XP Home and windows on 1st partition) and recipient (Dell laptop with XP Professional and windows on 2nd partition)
1. You need to find a computer that has a default Windows boot loader in its MBR. Capture the first 440 bytes of the MBR of that computer. IMPORTANT: 440 bytes not the full 512, because the difference contains information about your partitions, their sizes etc. I learned this the hard way. Or, better said, I taught Mark and myself the hard way. Sorry Mark!
dd if=/dev/hda bs=440 count=1 of=$YOURUSBKEY/windowsMBR
2. Backup your current MBR and BACK IT UP SOMEWHERE OTHER THAN YOUR HARDDRIVE by running the following command and then copying it somewhere else as well:
dd if=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1 of=$YOURUSBKEY/oldMBRbackup
3. Now replace the first 440 bytes of your MBR with the other computers MBR
dd if=$YOURUSBKEY/windowsMBR bs=440 count=1 of=/dev/hda
4. Reboot and pray

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