ms-sys(1)
NAME
ms-sys - write Microsoft boot block
SYNOPSIS
ms-sys [options] [device]
DESCRIPTION
ms-sys is for writing Microsoft compatible boot records.
OPTIONS
A summary of options is included below.
- -1, --fat12
- Write a FAT12 floppy boot record to device.
- -2, --fat32nt
- Write a FAT32 partition NT boot record to device.
- -3, --fat32
- Write a FAT32 partition DOS (Win9x) boot record to
- device.
- -6, --fat16
- Write a FAT16 partition DOS (Win9x) boot record to
- device.
- -l, --wipelabel
- Reset partition disk label in boot record.
- -p, --partition
- Write partition info (hidden sectors and drive id)
- to boot record. This might be needed on some partitions depending
- on which program was used to create the file system.
- -m, --mbr
- Write a Windows 2000/XP/2003 master boot record to
- device. Does not change Windows Disk Signature (bytes
- 01b8-01bd). This MBR will boot certain partition types beyond
- cylinder 1024 using LBA addressing.
- -9, --mbr95b
- Write a Windows 95B/98/98SE/ME master boot record
- to device. Does not change Windows Disk Signature (bytes
- 01b8-01bd) or boot drive and time (bytes 00da-00df). This MBR
- will boot FAT-LBA partition types 0c and 0e beyond cylinder 1024
- using LBA addressing.
- -d, --mbrdos
- Write a DOS/Windows NT master boot record to de
- vice. Does not change Windows Disk Signature (bytes 01b8-01bd).
- This MBR will not boot beyond cylinder 1024 as it does not sup
- port LBA addressing.
- -s, --mbrsyslinux
- Write a public domain syslinux master boot record
- to device. Does not change Windows Disk Signature (bytes
- 01b8-01bd). This MBR will boot any partition types beyond cylin
- der 1024 using LBA addressing.
- -z, --mbrzero
- Write an empty (zeroed, non-bootable) master boot
- record to device. Zeroes all bytes except the partition map and
- signature (bytes 01be-01ff). Similar to the empty DOS partition
- table that fdisk creates.
- -f, --force
- Force writing of boot record.
- -h, --help
- Show summary of options.
- -v, --version
- Show program version.
- -w, --write
- Write automatically selected boot record to device.
- If ms-sys is started without any options a simple diagno
- sis will be done on the given device.
EXAMPLES
- Please note that Windows ME is not useful for making stan
- dalone bootable floppies. However, Win9x and DOS works fine with
- the first two examples.
- Creating a 1.68 MB bootable floppy
- This example assumes that you have your windows installa
- tion mounted at /dosc and also have mtools and fdformat in
- stalled.
- fdformat /dev/fd0u1680
mformat a:
ms-sys -w /dev/fd0
mcopy /dosc/io.sys a:
mcopy /dosc/msdos.sys a:
mcopy /dosc/command.com a: - Creating a bootable 2.8 MB floppy image to use with an
- el-torito bootable CD
- dd if=/dev/zero of=floppy288.img bs=1024 count=2880
/sbin/mkdosfs floppy288.img
ms-sys -1 -f floppy288.img
su
mount -o loop floppy288.img /mnt
cp msdos.sys /mnt/
cp io.sys /mnt/
cp command.com /mnt/
(it might also be a good idea to add a config.sys and au - toexec.bat with CDROM support)
umount /mnt
exit
cp floppy288.img cd-files/boot.img
mkisofs -b boot.img -c boot.cat -o cdimage.iso cd-files
(burn the file cdimage.iso to a CD with cdrecord or anoth - er program)
- restoring a backup of Win9x or Win ME to a fresh hard disk
- Step 1, use GNU parted to create your FAT32 partition and
- file system:
- parted (then create partition and file system)
- Step 2, write the MBR:
- ms-sys -w /dev/hda
- Step 3, write the FAT32 partition boot record:
- ms-sys -w /dev/hda1
- Step 4, mount your new filesystem:
- mount /dev/hda1 /mnt
- Step 5, read your backup
- cd /mnt; tar -xzvf /path/to/my_windows_backup_file.tgz
ENVIRONMENT
- The variables LANG and LC_ALL have the usual meaning,
- however there are not many translations available.
BUGS
- There have been reports about unbootable FAT32 partitions
- created with "mformat -F c:". One workaround is to use gnu parted
- to create the partition instead. Since version 1.1.3 ms-sys has
- the switch -p which is supposed to fix this problem. The problem
- has also been reported on partitions formatted with mkdosfs and
- mkfs.vfat.
AUTHOR
- This manual page was originally written by Gürkan Sengün
- and since edited by Henrik Carlqvist. The program ms-sys is most
- ly written by Henrik Carlqvist, the file CONTRIBUTORS in the
- source archive contains a complete list of contributors.
SEE ALSO
- mformat(1) fdformat(8) mkdosfs(8) mkisofs(8)
- February 16, 2004