Does Win7 upgrade rewrite entire MBR?

[GEWB]

Next upgrade question: does the upgrade installer completely rewrite the master boot record?

I ask because the Adobe RoboHelp program writes authorization to the MBR (even though Microsoft says no program should do that) - if it gets blown out the app will not run and I'll have to jump through many hoops to get Adobe to re-activate it.

Regards,
GEWB

 

[ccatlett1984]

I would do a clone of the drive before installing then, just to be sure.

 

[GEWB]

I would do a clone of the drive before installing then, just to be sure.

Thanks, I'll invest in another HD and do a clone (cheap insurance).

Regards,
GEWB

 

[zigzag3143]

Next upgrade question: does the upgrade installer completely rewrite the master boot record?

I ask because the Adobe RoboHelp program writes authorization to the MBR (even though Microsoft says no program should do that) - if it gets blown out the app will not run and I'll have to jump through many hoops to get Adobe to re-activate it.

Regards,
GEWB

Pretty sure win 7 does especially if you are dual booting. It has to create a boot menu.

ken

 

[sup3rsprt]

I agree with Ken. (although it won't overwrite the partition table so technically the MBR is not entirely overwritten. Likely just the code portion would be)

Just an idea, but maybe it will be easier (and cheaper) to back up the MBR rather than clone the entire hard drive. I know I've got some software around here that does this... I can't think of the name right of hand though, so I'll look for it and get back to you.

 

[jimbo45]

I would do a clone of the drive before installing then, just to be sure.

Thanks, I'll invest in another HD and do a clone (cheap insurance).

Regards,
GEWB

Hi there
you don't even need to do that -- backup the MBR with Acronis True Image or other imaging software. While you are at it backup the OS partitions as well. These can be backed up on to DVD / external USB drives so you don't need to buy another HDD just for this purpose.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[sup3rsprt]

some free tools to back up the MBR:

mbrsave, mbrtool, mbrwizard, mbrfix (included with EasyBCD 2.0), mbrsaver, or even a hex editor such as HxD can do it (although it won't be as easy to restore a hex backup unless you can boot off of another disk first)

 

[GEWB]

Thanks for all of the ideas!

Having worked with Windows since version 2 (on a 286-AT with 1MB of RAM), I have been burned and learned my leason...spare hard drives are cheap insurance when making a major change to the OS.

Regards,
GEWB