Hi Google that information. I'm sure that writing 512 destroys the partition table too. It's something like 496 for managing the mbr. But google and check. On Tue, 2010-01-05 at 22:30 +0100, ?yvind Lode wrote: > If you decide to install, backup the MBR (which now stores the windows boot > loader) before installing. > If you do a mistake with grub you can just restore the MBR and Windows will > boot as normal again. > > Use dd to backup: > > # dd if=/dev/sda of=windows-mbr.img bs=512 count=1 > > If you need to restore: > # dd if=windows-mbr.img of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1 > > When restoring the MBR be sure that you type the command correctly and make > sure you don't accidently use a different file. > If you accidently dd with a file not containing a MBR, dd will just write > 512 blocks from that file to the MBR on the harddrive... > That will efficiently destroy the MBR. > > Also be sure to use the proper device for your HD. > /dev/sda may not be the correct one on your system. > Most likely /dev/hda if it's an old IDE disk. > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: speakup-bounces at braille.uwo.ca [mailto:speakup-bounces at braille.uwo.ca] > On Behalf Of Martin McCormick > Sent: 5. januar 2010 22:01 > To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux. > Subject: Re: Speakup and vinux > > It should load just fine as the operating system with speakup > appears to take up a couple of gigabytes. The middle-sized ISO image is > around 400 megabytes and gives you enough to get started. I remember the > painful feeling when I first started using Unix in 1989. It is easy to > forget things that now seem second nature but were once show stoppers. > > If you are familiar with Linux, vinux is standard Debian Linux with > speech on the console. If you are new to Unix, find a friend who knows more > than you do to at least help you get started. Remember that if you are not > root, you can't hurt much except for deleting your own files. There is no > undelete that works well as Unix systems are always doing something with > files and sectors that you don't need any more are marked as free and the OS > may just snap them right up a second later and turn them in to syslog or > something else. > > Unix and all its various flavors like Sunos, AIX and FreeBSD to name > a few, don't require defragmentation of the hard drive as they constantly > act like a very thorough file clerk in an office who can't stand to see > disorder so they are always looking for pieces of files and making sure they > all fit together in contiguous blocks so that the OS doesn't have to waste > time to gather them from here and there. In other words, when you rm a file, > it is often-times gone for good for all practical purposes. > > The nice thing about a live CD is that you do not have to write so > much as one byte to your hard drive in order to test it out. Burn the iso > image to a CDROM and boot from that. As long as you don't run the installer, > you aren't going to modify your present setup. You will hear it start to > talk some time after the boot process starts and you will get a shell just > as if you were logged in. > > Be really careful if you decide to install it as you don't want to > destroy your Windows partitions. You can set it up so that you have a short > time to decide whether you want to boot Windows or Linux. One thing to watch > out for is that the boot sector for Linux mustn't clobber the Windows boot > sector. It does sometimes happen. I haven't ever set up a multiple-boot > system so I can't help much there > > The best of luck as you learn about vinux. > > Martin McCormick > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup > > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup -- Gena four kinds of freedom, for the users of the software: * The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0). * The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this. * The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2). * The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this. Richard Matthew Stallman
