New! MBR Backup by Mischel Internet Security

Introduced today by Mischel Internet Security, the makers of the well known Trojan Hunter software, is a very timely new program, MBR Backup. This freeware program will allow you to easily back up the Master Boot Record (MBR). In the event you need to restore the MBR you will have a valid copy available.

So, what does the MBR do? The MBR is this first sector the BIOS locates when starting the computer. It is also known as the partition table, or master boot block. The MBR uses the partition information to determine which partition is bootable and then attempts to boot from it. If the MBR is damaged or corrupted, the data on your hard drive is lost.

What we are finding today is MBR rootkits such as TDL3 (also known as TDSS or Alureon). With MBR Backup, recovery from such situations may be possible.

As described by Magnus Mischel, following is what MBR Backup does:

"MBR Backup helps you create a backup of your Master Boot Record. If you ever need to restore it you know you will have a valid copy available. MBR Backup gives you two ways of backing up your MBR - to a file or by printing(!) it. Believe it or not, printing it is actually the best method to back up your MBR, for several reasons:

• With a printout you always have a physical copy of the MBR to hand
• No chance of saving the MBR to a file on the hard drive that gets corrupted
• The MBR is only 512 bytes in size. Typing it in manually will be the least of your concerns if all your data is gone"

Product page: MBR Backup
Download: http://www.misec.net/products/MBRBackup.exe

Thanks for this Corrine. :)

Glad you like the program guys :)

Hi, Magnus! Welcome to Seven Forums.

I learned about MBR Backup when Roddy32 posted the info at LandzDown (Aaron, who I'm sure you remember, hosts the site.)

To those wondering how to use the MBR Backup if the Master Boot Record is damaged or corrupt, Magnus explained in a forum topic that the idea is not for the tool to be used to restore the MBR. That would make it too easy to accidentally wipe your hard drive. Instead, Magnus suggested using WinHex or similar application that can write to raw disk sectors to restore your MBR:

WinHex is a hex editor that allows you to edit physical sectors on your disk drives. So if your MBR is ever corrupted you could use it to replace the very first sector of your hard drive with the backup copy. If you have printed it out you could even type it in manually (it's only 512 bytes).

Magnus Mischel said:

Glad you like the program guys :)

Thanks for the work done Magnus :)