A Master Boot Record (MBR), or partition sector, is the 512-byte boot sector that is the first sector ("Sector 0") of a partitioned data storage device such as a hard disk.
Due to the broad popularity of IBM PC-compatible computers, this type of MBR is widely used, to the extent of being supported by, and incorporated into, other computer types, including newer cross-platform standards for bootstrapping and partitioning.
Address | Description | Size | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Hex | Dec | |||
0000 | 0 | Code Area | max. | |
01B8 | 440 | Optional Disk signature | 4 | |
01BC | 444 | Usually Nulls; 0x0000 | 2 | |
01BE | 446 | Table of primary partitions | 64 | |
01FE | 510 | 55h | MBR signature; | 2 |
01FF | 511 | AAh | ||
MBR, total size: 446 + 64 + 2 = | 512 |
Offset | Description |
---|---|
0x00 | Status (0x80 = bootable, 0x00 = non-bootable, other = malformed) |
0x01 | (3 bytes) Cylinder-head-sector address of the first sector in the partition |
0x04 | ( 1 byte) Partition type[5] |
0x05 | (3 bytes) Cylinder-head-sector address of the last sector in the partition |
0x08 | (4 bytes) Logical block address of the first sector in the partition |
0x0C | (4 bytes) Length of the partition, in sectors |