[TriLUG] HDD Bootability, WAS OT: Looking slightly used Notebook HDD

[Steve Litt]

Brian,

I think he's talking about the first sector on the disk being bad. Hardware 
bad. Other sectors on the disk can be mapped out of the file system, but that 
first sector is ALWAYS the boot sector.

SteveT

Steve Litt
Recession Relief Package
http://www.recession-relief.US


On Friday 06 February 2009 09:07:25 am Brian Henning wrote:
> Just to expand my own knowledge here..  So you're talking about some
> kind of hardware failure that can't be corrected by writing a new boot
> sector?  Seems like if there's any logical manoeuver that could trash
> said sector, there would also be one able to repair it.  I guess I've
> never had the fortune of a drive with a "physically" faulty boot sector
> that wasn't just totally hosed overall.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: trilug-bounces at trilug.org [mailto:trilug-bounces at trilug.org] On
> Behalf Of Roy Vestal
> Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 8:28 AM
> To: Triangle Linux Users Group General Discussion
> Subject: Re: [TriLUG] OT: Looking slightly used Notebook HDD
>
> Guess I should have clarified. I do *not* want an OS ( I am rolling my
> own linux distro atm). I am looking a drive that the boot sector is
> not hosed. If the boot sector is hose, you can use the drive, it just
> won't be bootable. This is usually the first 446 bits of the disk.
>
> Basically, if you have a disk that's not bootable in this manner, you
> know it. :D
>
> On Jan 28, 2009, at 11:41 AM, Neil L. Little wrote:
> > Sure, trash or remove the master boot record. There are other
> > methods as
> > well. I can affirm this because I have made all the mistake possible
> > in
> > rendering a HDD "un-bootable".
> >
> > In this case I think he is saying that the HDD be operational.
> >
> > 73,
> > Neil, WA4AZL
> > JARS Forever!!
> > www.jars.net
> >
> > Brian Henning wrote:
> >> Is there such a thing as a non-bootable HD?[1]  Or are you asking
> >> for a
> >> HD that already has an OS installed?
> >>
> >> ~B
> >>
> >> [1] Honest question.  I've never heard of one, but there's lots of
> >> stuff
> >> I've never heard of (at least, I suspect there is!).
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: trilug-bounces at trilug.org [mailto:trilug-bounces at trilug.org] On
> >> Behalf Of Roy Vestal
> >> Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2009 10:24 PM
> >> To: trilug at trilug.org
> >> Subject: [TriLUG] OT: Looking slightly used Notebook HDD
> >>
> >> Hey all,
> >> Looking to see if anyone has a "slighty used" ATA/EIDE notebook hard
> >> disk (must be bootable). For comparison, I can get a new 80GB from
> >> Intrex for around $65.00 and even cheeeeper at newegg.com.
> >>
> >> If you have one you can part with it for cheap or barter ( can
> >> someone
> >> say baked goods? ), let me know OFFLINE please. :)
> >
> > --
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