fdisk /mbr

[nyhk]

Hello. Which technical reason can be given that an old fdisk is able to write a mbr than can boot even the newest Windows Vista? I mean, the boot system is not like it was in the old days...

 

[Impulse666]

The OS has changed dramatically, but the MBR has not undergone much change at all. Hence it is still as vulnerable to sabotage as the first Windows (ok not exactly, but close).

 

[nyhk]

So how does it choose between the boot loaders? You have io.sys, ntldr and bootmgr

 

[leeroyMarv]

I don't think they do the same thing. IO.sys is basically like configurations settings which a re loaded on startup, whereas ntldr and bootmgr are related to the OS selection menu. I believe ntldr and bootmgr both perform the same task, but ntldr is for (I think) Windows 2000 and upto (but not including) Windows Vista, Vista uses bootmgr instead.

 

[nyhk]

I remember io.sys as being binary, and the first file loaded in DOS and Win9x