---
name: "ms-sys"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "ms-sys"
version: "2.1.0-1"
release: "Debian 4.0 (Etch)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/ms-sys"
---

# ms-sys(1)

write Microsoft boot block

## NAME

ms-sys - write Microsoft boot block

## SYNOPSIS

**ms-sys** \[options\] \[device\]

## DESCRIPTION

**ms-sys** is for writing Microsoft compatible boot records.

## OPTIONS

A summary of options is included below.

- **-1, --fat12**

  Write a FAT12 floppy boot record to device.

- **-2, --fat32nt**

  Write a FAT32 partition NT boot record to device.

- **-3, --fat32**

  Write a FAT32 partition DOS (Win9x) boot record to device.

- **-6, --fat16**

  Write a FAT16 partition DOS (Win9x) boot record to device.

- **-l, --wipelabel**

  Reset partition disk label in boot record.

- **-p, --partition**

  Write partition info (hidden sectors and drive id) to boot record. This might be needed on some partitions depending on which program was used to create the file system.

- **-m, --mbr**

  Write a Windows 2000/XP/2003 master boot record to device. Does not change Windows Disk Signature (bytes 01b8-01bd). This MBR will boot certain partition types beyond cylinder  1024 using LBA addressing.

- **-9, --mbr95b**

  Write a Windows 95B/98/98SE/ME master boot record to device. Does not change Windows Disk Signature (bytes 01b8-01bd) or  boot drive and time (bytes 00da-00df). This MBR will boot FAT-LBA partition types 0c and 0e beyond cylinder  1024 using LBA addressing.

- **-d, --mbrdos**

  Write a DOS/Windows NT master boot record to device. Does not change Windows Disk Signature (bytes 01b8-01bd). This MBR will not boot beyond cylinder 1024 as it does not support  LBA addressing.

- **-s, --mbrsyslinux**

  Write a public domain syslinux master boot record to device. Does not change Windows Disk Signature (bytes 01b8-01bd). This MBR will boot any partition types beyond cylinder  1024 using LBA addressing.

- **-z, --mbrzero**

  Write an empty (zeroed, non-bootable) master boot record to device. Zeroes all bytes except the partition map and signature (bytes 01be-01ff).  Similar to the empty DOS partition table that fdisk creates.

- **-f, --force**

  Force writing of boot record.

- **-h, --help**

  Show summary of options.

- **-v, --version**

  Show program version.

- **-w, --write**

  Write automatically selected boot record to device.

If ms-sys is started without any options a simple diagnosis will be done on the given device.\

## EXAMPLES

Please note that Windows ME is not useful for making standalone bootable floppies. However, Win9x and DOS works fine with the first two examples.

**Creating a 1.68 MB bootable floppy**

- This example assumes that you have your windows installation mounted at /dosc and also have mtools and fdformat installed.

  fdformat /dev/fd0u1680\
 mformat a:\
 ms-sys -w /dev/fd0\
 mcopy /dosc/io.sys a:\
 mcopy /dosc/msdos.sys a:\
 mcopy /dosc/command.com a:

**Creating a bootable 2.8 MB floppy image to use with an el-torito bootable CD**

dd if=/dev/zero of=floppy288.img bs=1024 count=2880\
 /sbin/mkdosfs floppy288.img\
 ms-sys -1 -f floppy288.img\
 su\
 mount -o loop floppy288.img /mnt\
 cp msdos.sys /mnt/\
 cp io.sys /mnt/\
 cp command.com /mnt/\
 (it might also be a good idea to add a config.sys and autoexec.bat with CDROM support)\
 umount /mnt\
 exit\
 cp floppy288.img cd-files/boot.img\
 mkisofs -b boot.img -c boot.cat -o cdimage.iso cd-files\
 (burn the file cdimage.iso to a CD with cdrecord or another program)

**restoring a backup of Win9x or Win ME to a fresh hard disk**

Step 1, use GNU parted to create your FAT32 partition and file system:

parted (then create partition and file system)

Step 2, write the MBR:

ms-sys -w /dev/hda

Step 3, write the FAT32 partition boot record:

ms-sys -w /dev/hda1

Step 4, mount your new filesystem:

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt

Step 5, read your backup

cd /mnt; tar -xzvf /path/to/my\_windows\_backup\_file.tgz\

## ENVIRONMENT

The variables LANG and LC\_ALL have  the usual meaning, however there are not many translations available.\

## BUGS

There have been reports about unbootable FAT32 partitions created with "mformat -F c:". One workaround is to use gnu parted to create the partition instead. Since version 1.1.3 ms-sys has the switch -p which is supposed to fix this problem. The problem has also been reported on partitions formatted with mkdosfs and mkfs.vfat.

## AUTHOR

This manual page was originally written by Gürkan Sengün and since edited by Henrik Carlqvist. The program ms-sys is mostly written by Henrik Carlqvist, the file CONTRIBUTORS in the source archive contains a complete list of contributors.

## SEE ALSO

[mformat(1)](/mformat/1.md)  [fdformat(8)](/fdformat/8.md)  [mkdosfs(8)](/mkdosfs/8.md)  [mkisofs(8)](/mkisofs/8.md)