Acronis OS Selector: "Write boot sector" option?

[Gooner]

Hi,

What is the "write boot sector" option used for? Should it be on or off? The Users Guide doesn't give me much clues. For my default installtion it is on for the Windows XP-installtion (boots as default) but off for the Linux-installation.

Sometimes I get a "MBR 3 Error" during boot and the OS selector doesn't start but Windows boots perfectly. However I cant boot Linux since the OS selector doesn't start. Sometimes i just reboot the machine and everyting is OK (not MBR error) but sometimes I have to reactivate OS Selector from Windows.

Is this caused by the "write boot sector" beeing on for Windows?

Cheers
Thomas

[Acronis Support]

Hello Thomas,

Thank you for your interest in Acronis Disk Management Software (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/diskdirector/).

The "Write boot sector" option writes the boot sector for the corresponding OS. In your case it is recommended to uncheck this option for both operating systems.

We are always at your service should you have any further questions.

Thank you.
--
Semyonov Vasily

[kenarmst]

Yes, but what does "write boot sector" actually mean.
It's pretty clear it writes the boot sector, but with what and why?
When is "write boot sector" desirable and why?

kenarmst

[Gooner]

I've solved the problem with "MBR 3" error. It was my diskdefragmentation software (Diskkeeper) who screwed up the OSS installation.

But I still don't know what the "Write boot sector" is for...

[Acronis Support]

Hello All,

Here is some information about the boot sector concerned in the "Write Boot Sector" option of Acronis OS Selector.

A "file system boot sector" is the first physical sector on a logical volume. A logical volume might be a primary partition, a logical drive in an extended partition, or a composite of two or more partitions, as is the case with mirrors, stripe sets, and volume sets.

On floppy disks, the boot sector is the first sector on the disk. In the case of hard drives, the first sector is referred to as the "Master Boot Record" or "MBR." This MBR is different from a file system boot sector and contains a partition table, which describes the layout of logical partitions on that hard drive. The file system boot sector would be the first sector in one of those partitions.

Acronis OS Selector stores all boot sectors for all file systems in the \Bootwiz folder in particular files. With the "Write Boot Sector" option enabled Acronis OS Selector writes information from those files to the boot sector (this may be necessary in case it was corrupted somehow) each time the corresponding operating system boots.

Thank you.
--
Semyonov Vasily