MS-SYS(1)MS-SYS(1)NAMEms-sys - write Microsoft boot block
SYNOPSISms-sys [options] [device]
DESCRIPTIONms-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 device. Does not
change Windows Disk Signature (bytes 01b8-01bd). This MBR will
not boot beyond cylinder 1024 as it does not support 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 cylinder 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 diagnosis will be
done on the given device.
EXAMPLES
Please note that Windows ME is not useful for making standalone
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 installation mounted at
/dosc and also have mtools and fdformat installed.
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 autoexec.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 another 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 par‐
tition 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 mostly written by
Henrik Carlqvist, the file CONTRIBUTORS in the source archive contains
a complete list of contributors.
SEE ALSOmformat(1)fdformat(8)mkdosfs(8)mkisofs(8)
February 16, 2004 MS-SYS(1)