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View Full Version : Any way to install a new mbr to a USB flash drive?


cheetos316
06-23-2010, 05:00 PM
I have a USB flash drive that I suspect has a corrupt mbr and found this page (http://www.pendrivelinux.com/install-a-new-mbr-to-your-usb-flash-device/)which says:

Fixing the Master Boot Record:

We will be installing the mbr package and then use it to create the new mbr on the USB flash drive

1. Open a terminal and type sudo su
2. Type apt-get install mbr
3. Type fdisk -l to find out which device is your flash drive
4. Type install-mbr /dev/sdx (replacing x with your flash device)


Sadly I don't have linux installed on my computer and figured that XTerm on my N810 is the closest thing I have to a terminal in linux. However, it doesn't seem to work. sudo su doesn't work but I used sudo gainroot (I'm not even sure if those are similiar) but when I type in apt-get install mbr, it says, "Couldn't find package mbr." Is this a lost cause? Should I find an actual linux distro to use on my computer?

And while we're on the linux distro topic, what is a good one for a linux newbie? Do I have to worry about finding drivers for the mobo, video card, etc.? How do I know what type of linux it is? I've seen the terms Debian, Ubuntu, KDE, Redhat, etc. tossed around. Any differences/preferences?

Thanks!

linuxeventually
06-23-2010, 08:48 PM
You can use testdisk q=

I assume you have a usb host cable so that you can plug the usb stick into the N810.

You will need to be root. http://nitstuff.appspot.com/dists/chinook/user/binary-armel/easyroot_1.0-4_armel.deb
then you can simply type "root" into terminal. (while you are at it grab the rest of the packages from http://nitstuff.appspot.com )

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=34098

Working link: http://www.box.net/os2008#/os2008/1/38267074

But anyway you could certainly use a live-cd. For your purpose, I'd get the GParted Live CD (http://sourceforge.net/projects/gparted/files/gparted-live-stable/0.5.2-9/gparted-live-0.5.2-9.iso/download) because it has testdisk installed. Download, burn as ISO to a CD/DVD.

Other good live-cds are Puppy, DSL, Sabayon (warning: bloated), and I used to recommend Knoppix but no longer.

As far as installations go. Fedora, Ubuntu, Linux Mint (Ubuntu) are good starts distro-wise.

Here is a guide for testdisk (I guess it also runs on DOS?) http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step#Partition_table_recovery