10-01-2015
A bootable disk contains an OS-specific boot code. It is not a regular file.
Also there is partitioning information on the disk, and this is not a regular file either.
The frame where files are stored in is called a filesystem. Microsoft DOS only understands FAT filesystem, Windows understands FAT and NTFS filesystem. But SCO-Unix certainly uses a different file system. Linux understands many filesystem types, maybe the one from SCO-Unix.
You all-files backup will miss the boot code, the partitioning information, the filesystem.
--
The BIOS on an X86 PC requires the disk to have an MBR, master boot record. This can contain the boot code, or contains code to find another boot code block (that in turn can find another boot code).
My knowledge ends here. Look at Wikipedia. Hope that other guys here know more...
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LEARN ABOUT FREEBSD
gptzfsboot
GPTZFSBOOT(8) BSD System Manager's Manual GPTZFSBOOT(8)
NAME
gptzfsboot -- GPT bootcode for ZFS on BIOS-based computers
DESCRIPTION
gptzfsboot is used on BIOS-based computers to boot from a filesystem in a ZFS pool. gptzfsboot is installed in a freebsd-boot partition of a
GPT-partitioned disk with gpart(8).
IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
The GPT standard allows a variable number of partitions, but gptzfsboot only boots from tables with 128 partitions or less.
BOOTING
gptzfsboot tries to find all ZFS pools that are composed of BIOS-visible hard disks or partitions on them. gptzfsboot looks for ZFS device
labels on all visible disks and in discovered supported partitions for all supported partition scheme types. The search starts with the disk
from which gptzfsboot itself was loaded. Other disks are probed in BIOS defined order. After a disk is probed and gptzfsboot determines
that the whole disk is not a ZFS pool member, the individual partitions are probed in their partition table order. Currently GPT and MBR
partition schemes are supported. With the GPT scheme, only partitions of type freebsd-zfs are probed. The first pool seen during probing is
used as a default boot pool.
The filesystem specified by the bootfs property of the pool is used as a default boot filesystem. If the bootfs property is not set, then
the root filesystem of the pool is used as the default. zfsloader(8) is loaded from the boot filesystem. If /boot.config or /boot/config is
present in the boot filesystem, boot options are read from it in the same way as boot(8).
The ZFS GUIDs of the first successfully probed device and the first detected pool are made available to zfsloader(8) in the
vfs.zfs.boot.primary_vdev and vfs.zfs.boot.primary_pool variables.
USAGE
Normally gptzfsboot will boot in fully automatic mode. However, like boot(8), it is possible to interrupt the automatic boot process and
interact with gptzfsboot through a prompt. gptzfsboot accepts all the options that boot(8) supports.
The filesystem specification and the path to zfsloader(8) are different from boot(8). The format is
[zfs:pool/filesystem:][/path/to/loader]
Both the filesystem and the path can be specified. If only a path is specified, then the default filesystem is used. If only a pool and
filesystem are specified, then /boot/zfsloader is used as a path.
Additionally, the status command can be used to query information about discovered pools. The output format is similar to that of zpool
status (see zpool(8)).
The configured or automatically determined ZFS boot filesystem is stored in the zfsloader(8) loaddev variable, and also set as the initial
value of the currdev variable.
FILES
/boot/gptzfsboot boot code binary
/boot.config parameters for the boot block (optional)
/boot/config alternative parameters for the boot block (optional)
EXAMPLES
gptzfsboot is typically installed in combination with a ``protective MBR'' (see gpart(8)). To install gptzfsboot on the ada0 drive:
gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptzfsboot -i 1 ada0
gptzfsboot can also be installed without the PMBR:
gpart bootcode -p /boot/gptzfsboot -i 1 ada0
SEE ALSO
boot.config(5), boot(8), gpart(8), loader(8), zfsloader(8), zpool(8)
HISTORY
gptzfsboot appeared in FreeBSD 7.3.
AUTHORS
This manual page was written by Andriy Gapon <avg@FreeBSD.org>.
BUGS
gptzfsboot looks for ZFS meta-data only in MBR partitions (known on FreeBSD as slices). It does not look into BSD disklabel(8) partitions
that are traditionally called partitions. If a disklabel partition happens to be placed so that ZFS meta-data can be found at the fixed off-
sets relative to a slice, then gptzfsboot will recognize the partition as a part of a ZFS pool, but this is not guaranteed to happen.
BSD
September 15, 2014 BSD