Master boot record facts for kids
The master boot record is the first 512 kilobytes of a partitioned mass-storage device such as a hard drive. The master boot record gives the BIOS information on things like partitioning, file systems, location of the operating system, etc.
Because the master boot record is crucial for running the operating system, any changes to it may make the contents of a hard drive unreadable until they have been fixed. In the past, there have been instances of malware making changes to the master boot record. One noticeable example of this is CIH.
Images for kids
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Information contained in the partition table of an external hard drive as it appears in the utility program QtParted, running under Linux
See also
In Spanish: Registro de arranque principal para niños
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Master boot record Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.