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MBR (Master Boot Record): What it is, how it works and why it matters

Direct answer

MBR (Master Boot Record) is the legacy partition table occupying sector 0 of the disk. Holds boot code (446 bytes), up to 4 primary partition entries (64 bytes) and signature 0x55AA.

Full definition

MBR is the standard inherited from the pre-UEFI era. Limits the disk to 2.2 TB due to 32-bit LBA fields, and 4 primary partitions (one extendable with logical ones). No automatic backup: if sector 0 becomes corrupted, all partitions become inaccessible at once. Replaced by GPT from UEFI onward but still present in legacy systems. In recovery, corrupted MBR is frequent after format or rootkit. Tools like TestDisk can rebuild entries by scanning the disk for known partition signatures (NTFS, ext4, FAT32) and generating a new valid MBR table.

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