master boot record
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special type of boot sector at the very beginning of partitioned computer mass storage devices
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- Commons category
- Master Boot Record
- described at URL
- www.sweetscape.com/010editor/repository/files/Drive.bt
- Stack Exchange tag
- stackoverflow.com/tags/mbr
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A master boot record (MBR) is a type of boot sector in the first block of partitioned computer mass storage devices like fixed disks or removable drives intended for use with IBM PC-compatible systems and beyond. The concept of MBRs was publicly introduced in 1983 with PC DOS 2.0.
The MBR holds the information on how the disc's sectors (A.K.A. "blocks") are divided into partitions, each partition notionally containing a file system. The MBR also contains executable code to function as a loader for the installed operating system—usually by passing control over to the loader's second stage, or in conjunction with each partition's volume boot record (VBR). This MBR code is usually referred to as a boot loader.