Hi, forwarding a feature request for FDISK from Fritz Mueller :-)
Could FDISK automatically trigger the /MBR action when you:
1. have the code area (offset 0 to 0x1BD) filled with identical
bytes (for example all 00)
2. update partitions
3. after the update, there is an active (boot) partition
Apparently users expect FDISK to make your complete harddisk
bootable when you put a boot partition on it and format and
SYS that partition. Modern disks tend to be shipped without
a pre-installed MBR, so "automatic /MBR" would help users by
making the expectation come true without forcing the user to
read the manual or read the /? output and run FDISK /MBR on
top of the usual partitioning, formatting and SYSing steps.
The idea with the 3 (and-connected) conditions is by me. The
thing is that I would not enjoy FDISK to automatically mess
with my FDISK code when I only want to change partitions and
some other boot code already exists.
The implementation would call Create_MBR() if needed. The
current implementation Create_MBR_If_Not_Present() ALMOST
does that, but it checks offset 0x1fe and 0x1ff for magic
bytes, ignoring whether or not a boot CODE is present in
fdiskio.c and this is what the Interactive_User_Interface
function of userint1.c uses. NOT sure whether this is the
place which would cover ALL relevant situations, but it
would be a start :-) Example for a quick and dirty patch:
> --- fdiskio.c.old 2003-01-18 12:37:54 +0100
> +++ fdiskio.c.new 2018-09-18 00:53:11 +0200
> @@ -247,7 +247,12 @@
> {
> Read_Physical_Sectors(0x80,0,0,1,1);
>
> - if( (sector_buffer[0x1fe]!=0x55) && (sector_buffer[0x1ff]!=0xaa) )
> + if( (sector_buffer[0x1fe]!=0x55) || (sector_buffer[0x1ff]!=0xaa) )
> + {
> + Create_MBR();
> + }
> + else if( (sector_buffer[0] == sector_buffer[1]) &&
> + (sector_buffer[1] == sector_buffer[2]) )
> {
> Create_MBR();
> }
If somebody has the right toolchain to compile, Fritz will
be happy to give a patched FDISK binary a try, I think :-)
Thanks! Regards, Eric
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