You are now entering the PC Anatomy portal

Explore the areas of information pertaining to all things computer based
with many assorted selections of inquiry to further delve into this realm.

main pic

MBR

index img

MBR, or Master Boot Record, is a boot sector on a storage device that contains a small program and a partition table to tell the computer's BIOS where to find and load the operating system. It is located in the first sector of a hard disk and is crucial for starting the computer because it identifies the active partition and passes control to its bootloader when the machine is turned on.

What MBR does

Contains boot code: The MBR includes a small program (the master boot routine) that executes when the computer starts.

Stores partition information: It contains a partition table that lists the locations and sizes of the different partitions on the drive.

Locates the operating system: The code in the MBR examines the partition table to determine which partition is active and then transfers control to the boot sector of that partition to load the operating system.