Hitachi hts424030m9at00

[Barry Watzman]

Open "Disk Management" (under "Computer Management", in "Administrative
Tools" (which must be "unhidden"). Right click the partition you want
to access, select "assign drive letter", pick a letter and it will be
assigned (assuming that the partition type is one recognized by the
version of the OS being run).

Re: "I'm scared to think that anyone has installed XP on a disk small
enough to use FAT16!"

That would be 2GB or less. That's tight for XP, and probably impossible
for an updated version.

 

[BillW50]

In Barry Watzman typed on Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:45:41 -0400:

When a new hard drive is shipped from the factory, it is totally
(TOTALLY) Blank; every single sector on the drive is filled with 512
bytes of whatever "fill value" that manufacturer uses.

Many drives comes pre-formatted with FAT. I am not sure why? Maybe to
stop the high number of returns that there is nothing wrong with them
except they were not partitioned and formatted by inexperienced Windows
users.

A drive will not be recognized by Windows until it has a valid MBR
(Master Boot Record, recorded on the first sector of the drive). A
totally blank drive doesn't have an MBR, of course, so it is not
recognized. [Note that you can have a valid MBR and still have NO
partitions defined.]

That is true for only the boot drive. Having a MBR on a non-boot drive
is totally meaningless. It won't help or hurt anything as far as I know
though. The BIOS determines which drive is the boot drive and it is
selectable under many modern day BIOS.

When you connect such a drive, Windows offers to "initialize" the
drive ... that is, it is offering to create a valid (still empty, but
valid) MBR. If you decline, the drive won't be seen at all except by
"Disk Management" under "Computer Management" under "Administrative
Tools" (note, by default, "Administrative Tools" and everything under
it is hidden and is invisible, but it can be unhidden by right
clicking on the "Start" button, the selecting "properties", then
"Customize". Some computer makers unhide it by default, others leave
it hidden.).
Even if the drive has a valid MBR, it may still have no partitions, at
all, of any kind. It may also have partition types that are not
recognized by the running version of Windows (Mac partitions, Linux
partitions, even NTFS partitions while running under Windows 98).
Those, also, will not be given a drive letter.

EFI partitions are often formatted as FAT (contains data) and often
doesn't get a drive letter by Windows. So this is one example of an
exception anyway.

 

[Ben Myers]

When a new hard drive is shipped from the factory, it is totally
(TOTALLY) Blank; every single sector on the drive is filled with 512
bytes of whatever "fill value" that manufacturer uses.

A drive will not be recognized by Windows until it has a valid MBR
(Master Boot Record, recorded on the first sector of the drive). A
totally blank drive doesn't have an MBR, of course, so it is not
recognized. [Note that you can have a valid MBR and still have NO
partitions defined.]

When you connect such a drive, Windows offers to "initialize" the drive
... that is, it is offering to create a valid (still empty, but valid)
MBR. If you decline, the drive won't be seen at all except by "Disk
Management" under "Computer Management" under "Administrative Tools"
(note, by default, "Administrative Tools" and everything under it is
hidden and is invisible, but it can be unhidden by right clicking on the
"Start" button, the selecting "properties", then "Customize". Some
computer makers unhide it by default, others leave it hidden.).

Even if the drive has a valid MBR, it may still have no partitions, at
all, of any kind. It may also have partition types that are not
recognized by the running version of Windows (Mac partitions, Linux
partitions, even NTFS partitions while running under Windows 98). Those,
also, will not be given a drive letter.

I will ask you for the details. I am asking you for the details.
Maybe it is my brain going numb, but I do not understand at all what
you are describing here. It lacks the detail needed to be
understood. It also flies in the face of a considerable number of
years troubleshooting, repairing and upgrading Windows based
computers... Ben Myers

Barry,

That's exactly the way that I understand all this, contrary to the
incoherent ramblings of another person responding to this thread. I
made the mistake of thinking that said person actually had some pearls
of wisdom and new insights. Apparently not... Ben Myers

 

[David W. Hodgins]

When you connect such a drive, Windows offers to "initialize" the drive

My experience is that it just writes an empty mbr without asking, if it
doesn't find a valid signature (0xAA55 at offset 0x01FE) in the first
sector.

I found this out when experimenting with logical volume management, and
created a physical volume on a flash drive, using the entire device,
instead of a partition on the device, meaning there was no mbr.

I forgot to unplug the device before booting in windows. XP pro overwrote
the first sector, with no warning or notification.

Regards, Dave Hodgins

 

[David W. Hodgins]

That is true for only the boot drive. Having a MBR on a non-boot drive
is totally meaningless. It won't help or hurt anything as far as I know

The mbr contains the partition table.

Regards, Dave Hodgins

 

[BillW50]

In David W. Hodgins typed on :

The mbr contains the partition table.

Actually the first 446 bytes of a hard drive is the MBR itself, the next
64 bytes contains the partition table. The two are not the same or
interchangeable.

 

[David W. Hodgins]

Actually the first 446 bytes of a hard drive is the MBR itself, the next
64 bytes contains the partition table. The two are not the same or
interchangeable.

The first 440 bytes contain the boot program (if any), followed by the
disk signature, a couple of nuls, the primary partition table, and the
mbr sig. They are all parts of the mbr.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_boot_record or
http://technet.microsoft.com/ja-jp/library/cc739451(WS.10).aspx

Regards, Dave Hodgins

 

[BillW50]

In David W. Hodgins typed on Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:11:25 -0400:

The first 440 bytes contain the boot program (if any), followed by the
disk signature, a couple of nuls, the primary partition table, and the
mbr sig. They are all parts of the mbr.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_boot_record or
http://technet.microsoft.com/ja-jp/library/cc739451(WS.10).aspx

Regards, Dave Hodgins

Well some combine the first 512 bytes of the drive and call it as the
MBR. But only the first 446 bytes is actually part of the MBR, followed
by 64 bytes for the partition table. But you can have no MBR code and
still have a partition table. Data drives does this for example. You can
install Windows on a data drive too, but some boot files must be on the
boot partition drive. Windows XP for example, needs boot.ini, ntldr, and
Ntdetect.com files there. The rest of Windows could be anywhere else as
stated in the boot.ini file.

You can prove what I am saying is true by taking a data drive (without
any MBR or any attempts to make it bootable) and place it in position
that the BIOS will try to boot it (data USB HDD or data flash drives
works great for this test). And it will give you a message saying no OS
is found (end of story).

Add a MBR with FDisk /MBR (DOS), Fixmbr (Windows 2000/XP), or bootrec
/FixMbr (Vista/Windows7) and the message will be totally different. As
under Windows XP for example, will give you generally an error that
ntldr (which generally means ntldr and/or Ntdetect.com) is actually
missing or hal.dll is missing, which generally means it can't find the
rest of Windows (aka the Windows folder on so and so drive and
partition) as stated in the boot.ini file.

 

[Barry Watzman]

Re: "Many drives comes pre-formatted with FAT"

I beg to differ. I don't believe that ANY hard drives come from a hard
drive manufacturer with anything at all (not even an empty partition
table). Note: I am talking about rotating platter mechanical hard
drives, BARE DRIVES, coming directly from a drive mfgr. as bare drives.
I am not talking about flash drives, or "enclosed" external USB drives.

Re: "That is true for only the boot drive. Having a MBR on a non-boot
drive is totally meaningless."

You are simply wrong. The MBR is where the partition table resides. It
is an absolute, no exceptions whatsoever requirement on EVERY drive,
whether you boot from it or not. This is not debatable; you can't use a
drive in a Windows system unless it has an MBR.

EFI partitions are a very special case, they are not intended for user
data storage and while they do create some "exceptions" to some of the
general rules, I think that those are "technical exceptions" and don't
change the essence of the discussion as it applies to the partitions
that we [users] use for storing our operating systems and data on a
routine, day-to-day basis.

[I am presuming (and I think that everyone else is also) that we are
talking about the classical MBR based system that has been in use since
1982. Vista incorporates a totally different system for disk management
that was just introduced with Vista and that is, at this time, not
widely used, but I don't think that any of us were talking about that.]

In Barry Watzman typed on Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:45:41 -0400:

When a new hard drive is shipped from the factory, it is totally
(TOTALLY) Blank; every single sector on the drive is filled with 512
bytes of whatever "fill value" that manufacturer uses.

Many drives comes pre-formatted with FAT. I am not sure why? Maybe to
stop the high number of returns that there is nothing wrong with them
except they were not partitioned and formatted by inexperienced Windows
users.

A drive will not be recognized by Windows until it has a valid MBR
(Master Boot Record, recorded on the first sector of the drive). A
totally blank drive doesn't have an MBR, of course, so it is not
recognized. [Note that you can have a valid MBR and still have NO
partitions defined.]

That is true for only the boot drive. Having a MBR on a non-boot drive
is totally meaningless. It won't help or hurt anything as far as I know
though. The BIOS determines which drive is the boot drive and it is
selectable under many modern day BIOS.

When you connect such a drive, Windows offers to "initialize" the
drive ... that is, it is offering to create a valid (still empty, but
valid) MBR. If you decline, the drive won't be seen at all except by
"Disk Management" under "Computer Management" under "Administrative
Tools" (note, by default, "Administrative Tools" and everything under
it is hidden and is invisible, but it can be unhidden by right
clicking on the "Start" button, the selecting "properties", then
"Customize". Some computer makers unhide it by default, others leave
it hidden.).
Even if the drive has a valid MBR, it may still have no partitions, at
all, of any kind. It may also have partition types that are not
recognized by the running version of Windows (Mac partitions, Linux
partitions, even NTFS partitions while running under Windows 98).
Those, also, will not be given a drive letter.

EFI partitions are often formatted as FAT (contains data) and often
doesn't get a drive letter by Windows. So this is one example of an
exception anyway.

 

[Barry Watzman]

Re: "My experience is that it just writes an empty mbr without asking"

That is not my experience, but conceivably there are instances in which
this might happen. In general, however, a "system" (whether talking
about an OS or BIOS or whatever) should NEVER "just write" to a drive
without asking. For reasons that, I think, are obvious. [The drive
might be from some "foreign" system and might be present only for
forensic investigation, and the one thing you do NOT want a system to do
is "just write" on it without permission.]

I note that you were dealing with a flash drive (USB presumably) and not
a "hard drive" (a mechanical, rotating platter hard drive). Flash
drives are not hard drives, and are not treated exactly the same way by
the system in all regards.

 

[Barry Watzman]

Correct (the MBR contains the partition table); Bill does not know what
he is talking about. There cannot be a partition, or a partition table,
without an MBR.

 

[Barry Watzman]

Bill, you are making an ass of yourself.

The MBR is the ENTIRE first sector of the hard drive and contains the
MBR. Your insistence on defending your previous incorrect statement
that an MBR was not necessary on a non-boot drive is just making you
look foolish. When you are wrong, admit it.

 

[David W. Hodgins]

Well some combine the first 512 bytes of the drive and call it as the

This is really getting down to just semantics. All programs and
documentation I've seen refer to the entire sector as the mbr,
including the partition table, and the mbr signature in the last
two bytes, following the partition table.

While the mbr can contain the boot code, it also contains the volume
signature, the primary partition table, and the mbr signature. The
entire 512 byte sector is called the master boot record.

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this one.

Regards, Dave Hodgins

 

[David W. Hodgins]

That is not my experience, but conceivably there are instances in which
this might happen. In general, however, a "system" (whether talking
about an OS or BIOS or whatever) should NEVER "just write" to a drive
without asking. For reasons that, I think, are obvious. [The drive

Agreed. I was quite annoyed when I viewed the device in hex and saw the
first sector as all zeroes, except the 0x55aa in the last two bytes.

I note that you were dealing with a flash drive (USB presumably) and not
a "hard drive" (a mechanical, rotating platter hard drive). Flash

Having had that experience with the usb flash drive, I haven't felt like
testing a hard drive. When I have some time, I'll test that.

Regards, Dave Hodgins

 

[BillW50]

In David W. Hodgins typed on Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:49:47 -0400:

This is really getting down to just semantics. All programs and
documentation I've seen refer to the entire sector as the mbr,
including the partition table, and the mbr signature in the last
two bytes, following the partition table.

While the mbr can contain the boot code, it also contains the volume
signature, the primary partition table, and the mbr signature. The
entire 512 byte sector is called the master boot record.

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this one.

Regards, Dave Hodgins

I agree with everything you stated except calling the first 512 bytes as
the MBR. I have no idea why some sites are calling the whole 512 bytes
as the MBR. As I call the whole first 512 bytes as the boot sector.

MBR + Partition Table = MBR?

I don't think so. You really have to push fuzzy logic to make that work.

MBR + Partition Table = Boot Sector?

That make a lot more sense to me. <grin>

 

[Happy Oyster]

The first 440 bytes contain the boot program (if any), followed by the
disk signature, a couple of nuls, the primary partition table, and the
mbr sig. They are all parts of the mbr.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_boot_record or

Good link. This is what it says about the "signature":

<quote>
MBRs and disk identity

Information contained in the Partition Table of an external hard drive as it
appears in the utility program, QtParted, running under Linux.
In addition to the bootstrap code and a partition table, master boot records may
contain a Windows NT disk signature. This is a 32-bit
value that is intended to uniquely identify the disk medium (as opposed to the
disk unit â ” the two not necessarily being the same for
removable hard disks).
The disk signature was introduced by Windows NT version 3.5, but is now used by
several operating systems, including the Linux
kernel version 2.6 and later. Linux uses the NT disk signature at boot time to
determine the location of the boot volume.[19]
Windows NT (and later Microsoft operating systems) uses the disk signature as an
index to all the partitions on any disk ever connected
to the computer under that OS; these signatures are kept in Registry keys,
primarily for storing the persistent mappings between disk
partitions and drive letters. It may also be used in boot.ini files (though most
do not), to describe the location of bootable Windows NT
(or later) partitions.[20] One key (among many) where NT disk signatures appear
in a Windows 2000/XP Registry is:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
If a disk's signature stored in the MBR was A8 E1 B9 D2 (in that order) and its
first partition corresponded with logical drive C:
under Windows, then the REG_BINARY data under the key value, \DosDevices\C:,
would be:
A8 E1 B9 D2 00 7E 00 00 00 00 00 00
The first four bytes are said disk signature. (Note: In other keys, these bytes
may appear in reverse order from that found in the MBR
sector.) These are followed by eight more bytes, forming a 64-bit Integer, in
little endian notation, which are used to locate the byte
offset of this partition. In this case, 00 7E corresponds to the hexadecimal
value 0x7E00 (32,256dec). Dividing this byte offset by
512 (the size of a hard disk's physical sector in bytes) results in 63, which is
the physical sector number (or LBA) containing the first
block of the partition ([21]).
If this disk had another partition with the values 00 F8 93 71 02 following the
disk signature (under, e.g., the key value
\DosDevices\D, it would begin at byte offset 0x27193f800 (10,495,457,280dec),
which is also the first byte of physical
sector 20,498,940.
</quote>


M$ abuses the signature for its Nazi methods.

http://technet.microsoft.com/ja-jp/library/cc739451(WS.10).aspx

That is the typical M$ hogwash.

 

[Happy Oyster]

In David W. Hodgins typed on Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:49:47 -0400:

I agree with everything you stated except calling the first 512 bytes as
the MBR. I have no idea why some sites are calling the whole 512 bytes
as the MBR. As I call the whole first 512 bytes as the boot sector.

MBR + Partition Table = MBR?

I don't think so. You really have to push fuzzy logic to make that work.

MBR + Partition Table = Boot Sector?

That make a lot more sense to me. <grin>

There is quite a lot insane in the construction AND the descriptions of the MBR
stuff.

Many - if not most - tools do not tell you what they REALLY are doing. A big
problem is that you do not know if they write onto the very first sector of the
HDD or to the first sector of the first partition.

PC-DOS 7, when formatting a HDD with /S parameter being set, overwrites the
first sector of the HDD, at least it seems this is what it did yesterday to one
of my computers. I had to use a bootable GRUB DVD to boot into the Linux
partition and rewrite the MBR with a valid partition table. PC-DOS 7 had smashed
that...

 

[Paul]

In David W. Hodgins typed on Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:49:47 -0400:

I agree with everything you stated except calling the first 512 bytes as
the MBR. I have no idea why some sites are calling the whole 512 bytes
as the MBR. As I call the whole first 512 bytes as the boot sector.

MBR + Partition Table = MBR?

I don't think so. You really have to push fuzzy logic to make that work.

MBR + Partition Table = Boot Sector?

That make a lot more sense to me. <grin>

The problem could be, that not all media does it the same way, and
that might lead to confusion.

For example, if you look at the first sector displayed in this article,
there is no partition table. The boot stuff takes the whole first sector.
I guess this is an MSDOS boot floppy.

http://www.infocellar.com/cd/boot-cd.htm

Yet, if I use a copy of "dd" and read out the first sector of my current
boot hard drive, I see something closer to what is shown in Wikipedia.

http://www.chrysocome.net/dd

At offset 0x1BE of my first sector, I see evidence of room for four
partition entries. I have two FAT32 partitions, and I can see two bytes
with 0x0C in them. I have one NTFS partition as the third partition,
and the corresponding byte in that 16 byte record is 0x07. Since I
have no fourth primary partition, there is a group of 0x00 bytes
at the end. Then, there is the 0x55 and 0xaa at the very end.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbr

So at least on my hard drive, there is room for four 16 byte entries,
after the boot code.

In terms of text strings in the first 512 bytes, I can see

Invalid partition table
Error loading operating system
Missing operating system

and unless I'm missing it, I don't see any reference to IO.sys or
MSDOS.sys.

What I can't tell you, is what wrote that sector. I've kinda
lost track.

If you want to play with "dd", the tool is available here.
To copy my first sector, the command looks like this. Be
careful with this tool, as you can do a lot of damage with
it, if you make a syntax error. "dd --list" can be used to
dump the names of your storage devices.

dd if=\\?\Device\Harddisk0\Partition0 of=c:\first.bin bs=512 count=1

"Partition0" is a shorthand for "the whole disk", effectively treating
Harddisk0 as a "raw" device. So it is not a partition at all. If I said
"Partition1", that would refer to the first partition on the disk.

The block size and count fields, control the length of transfer, so I
only get a copy of the first sector. The output file "of=" in this case,
is an ordinary file. Using a hex editor later, that is how I can look
at the 512 bytes I've captured.

To compare some of the info in the 64 byte section at the end, I used
the freely downloadable PTEDIT32.exe, but there are probably other ways
to do that as well. PTEDIT32 displays the four primary partition entries,
and is how I can confirm the file systems are 0x0c, 0x0c, 0x07.

ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/PTEDIT32.zip

Because my first partition starts at CHS 0,1,1, that means
there are some sectors empty before my C: partition. That is addressed
near the end of this article.

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/partbkgd.htm

Paul

 

[Tony Harding]

I have a 6 yr old Dell inspiration 2200 but my HD [hitachi
hts424030m9at00] died.
1) I got an adapter and plugged it into another desktop. It is
detected by the bios, but not by WinXP. Are there any good
recommended web sites which might discuss ways to try to recover info
off that HD? I don't want to pay too much, as I doubt that info is
worth a lot, but it is worth something.

Now you know why some of us do regular backups.

If the drive is toast, you have 2 possibilities.

1) A commercial data recovery service. $$$$$

2) If the problem is electronic rather than mechanical, and you can find
a similar working drive, you MAY be able to swap the electronics board
and recover it that way. Emphasis on "MAY".

2) If I were to buy another HD, is there any way to go about getting
a version of WinXP for that laptop? If I call up Dell, I doubt that
they will give me a WinXP cd, for they stopped including the CDs with
their PC years ago?

Probably. See if Dell will sell you a "recovery" cd. Or buy an XP
install CD (Dell, Ebay or elsewhere) and do a complete install. Then
see if you can d/l and install anything Dell specific.

Although a laptop that old is probably not worth the effort & expense.

I think the value of the data is what's paramount in this case, not the
value of the laptop. Only the OP knows that.

 

[BillW50]

In Barry Watzman typed on Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:12:34 -0400:

Bill, you are making an ass of yourself.

The MBR is the ENTIRE first sector of the hard drive and contains the
MBR. Your insistence on defending your previous incorrect statement
that an MBR was not necessary on a non-boot drive is just making you
look foolish. When you are wrong, admit it.

Not so! It is just the opposite actually. As you are confusing the boot
sector with the MBR. And there are often no MBR code on a non-bootable
drive, such as a data drive. And it is easy for me to tell if there is a
MBR or not just simply by trying to boot from it. I've done this
zillions of times and I am absolutely sure of it.

If you still don't believe me, here see for yourself with a disk editor.
Here is a non-bootable flash drive looking at the first sector. I pulled
it out from my Fuji digital camera.

Offset(h) 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F

00000000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00000010 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00000020 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00000030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00000040 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00000050 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00000060 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00000070 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00000080 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00000090 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
000000A0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
000000B0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
000000C0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
000000D0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
000000E0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
000000F0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00000100 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00000110 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00000120 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00000130 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00000140 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00000150 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00000160 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00000170 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00000180 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00000190 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
000001A0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
000001B0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 40 54 C1 21 00 00 80 01
000001C0 18 00 01 07 60 F3 37 00 00 00 C9 F3 01 00 00 00
000001D0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
000001E0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
000001F0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 AA

As you can see, all of the MBR code is all nulled out. The only thing it
contains is the disk signature (40,54,C1, 21) and the partition info.
And DOS, Windows, Linux, etc. is perfectly happy with this. It just
won't boot, but totally ok as a data drive.

Here below is an example of a boot sector which contains MBR code. This
example is a flash drive which boots up BartPE. But I also use it as a
data drive too. You can think of it as a mini Windows on drive C.

Offset(h) 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F

000000000 33 C0 8E D0 BC 00 7C FB 50 07 50 1F FC BE 1B 7C
000000010 BF 1B 06 50 57 B9 E5 01 F3 A4 CB BD BE 07 B1 04
000000020 38 6E 00 7C 09 75 13 83 C5 10 E2 F4 CD 18 8B F5
000000030 83 C6 10 49 74 19 38 2C 74 F6 A0 B5 07 B4 07 8B
000000040 F0 AC 3C 00 74 FC BB 07 00 B4 0E CD 10 EB F2 88
000000050 4E 10 E8 46 00 73 2A FE 46 10 80 7E 04 0B 74 0B
000000060 80 7E 04 0C 74 05 A0 B6 07 75 D2 80 46 02 06 83
000000070 46 08 06 83 56 0A 00 E8 21 00 73 05 A0 B6 07 EB
000000080 BC 81 3E FE 7D 55 AA 74 0B 80 7E 10 00 74 C8 A0
000000090 B7 07 EB A9 8B FC 1E 57 8B F5 CB BF 05 00 8A 56
0000000A0 00 B4 08 CD 13 72 23 8A C1 24 3F 98 8A DE 8A FC
0000000B0 43 F7 E3 8B D1 86 D6 B1 06 D2 EE 42 F7 E2 39 56
0000000C0 0A 77 23 72 05 39 46 08 73 1C EB 1A 90 BB 00 7C
0000000D0 8B 4E 02 8B 56 00 CD 13 73 51 4F 74 4E 32 E4 8A
0000000E0 56 00 CD 13 EB E4 8A 56 00 60 BB AA 55 B4 41 CD
0000000F0 13 72 36 81 FB 55 AA 75 30 F6 C1 01 74 2B 61 60
000000100 6A 00 6A 00 FF 76 0A FF 76 08 6A 00 68 00 7C 6A
000000110 01 6A 10 B4 42 8B F4 CD 13 61 61 73 0E 4F 74 0B
000000120 32 E4 8A 56 00 CD 13 EB D6 61 F9 C3 49 6E 76 61
000000130 6C 69 64 20 70 61 72 74 69 74 69 6F 6E 20 74 61
000000140 62 6C 65 00 45 72 72 6F 72 20 6C 6F 61 64 69 6E
000000150 67 20 6F 70 65 72 61 74 69 6E 67 20 73 79 73 74
000000160 65 6D 00 4D 69 73 73 69 6E 67 20 6F 70 65 72 61
000000170 74 69 6E 67 20 73 79 73 74 65 6D 00 00 00 00 00
000000180 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
000000190 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000001A0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000001B0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 05 BA 05 BA 00 00 80 01
0000001C0 01 00 0C FE FF FF 3F 00 00 00 BC 1D E5 01 00 00
0000001D0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000001E0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000001F0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 AA

As you can clearly see, this one contains MBR code while the first
example does not. And it is indeed bootable. This is clear evidence that
I do indeed know what I am talking about. As I see this all of the time.

HINT: If you clone a Windows partition under Windows, Windows will
remember that cloned partition's disk signature. Thus when you try to
boot from the clone, it gets confused with the drive letters and this
clone will fail to boot. The trick is changing the disk signature, so
Windows doesn't recognizes it and then all is well again. <grin>