06-03-2013
Hard Drives and MBR
Hello everyone. I have a question which I may know the answer to, I'm just looking for a confirmation. When it comes to the MBR of a hard drive, i've read in multiple sources that it's always located in the first sector of the hard drive. Is the MBR there from the factory? When I buy a new blank drive from a store, will it have that first sector reserved and MBR in place?
When I use a program like fdisk in linux, it doesn't allow to modify or write to the first 63 sectors. Is this because of the MBR? Do I have that right, or is the MBR applied when you install a bootable partition?
Any insight in this would be helpful. Thanks!
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LEARN ABOUT FREEBSD
zfsboot
ZFSBOOT(8) BSD System Manager's Manual ZFSBOOT(8)
NAME
zfsboot -- bootcode for ZFS on BIOS-based computers
DESCRIPTION
zfsboot is used on BIOS-based computers to boot from a filesystem in a ZFS pool. zfsboot is installed in two parts on a disk or a partition
used by a ZFS pool. The first part, a single-sector starter boot block, is installed at the beginning of the disk or partition. The second
part, a main boot block, is installed at a special offset within the disk or partition. Both areas are reserved by the ZFS on-disk specifi-
cation for boot use. If zfsboot is installed in a partition, then that partition should be made bootable using appropriate configuration and
boot blocks described in boot(8).
BOOTING
The zfsboot boot process is very similar to that of gptzfsboot(8). One significant difference is that zfsboot does not currently support the
GPT partitioning scheme. Thus only whole disks and MBR partitions, traditionally referred to as slices, are probed for ZFS disk labels. See
the BUGS section in gptzfsboot(8) for some limitations of the MBR scheme support.
USAGE
zfsboot supports all the same prompt and configuration file arguments as gptzfsboot(8).
FILES
/boot/zfsboot boot code binary
/boot.config parameters for the boot block (optional)
/boot/config alternative parameters for the boot block (optional)
EXAMPLES
zfsboot is typically installed using dd(1). To install zfsboot on the ada0 drive:
dd if=/boot/zfsboot of=/dev/ada0 count=1
dd if=/boot/zfsboot of=/dev/ada0 iseek=1 oseek=1024
If the drive is currently in use, the GEOM safety will prevent writes and must be disabled before running the above commands:
sysctl kern.geom.debugflags=0x10
zfsboot can also be installed in an MBR slice:
gpart create -s mbr ada0
gpart add -t freebsd ada0
gpart create -s BSD ada0s1
gpart bootcode -b /boot/boot0 ada0
gpart set -a active -i 1 ada0
dd if=/boot/zfsboot of=/dev/ada0s1 count=1
dd if=/boot/zfsboot of=/dev/ada0s1 iseek=1 oseek=1024
Note that commands to create and populate a pool are not shown in the example above.
SEE ALSO
dd(1), boot.config(5), boot(8), gptzfsboot(8), loader(8), zfsloader(8), zpool(8)
HISTORY
zfsboot appeared in FreeBSD 7.3.
AUTHORS
This manual page was written by Andriy Gapon <avg@FreeBSD.org>.
BUGS
Installing zfsboot with dd(1) is a hack. ZFS needs a command to properly install zfsboot onto a ZFS-controlled disk or partition.
BSD
September 15, 2014 BSD