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get rid of master boot record

How to format a USB flash drive?Prevent `dd` from destroying SSD or HDDDoes an upgrade to a partition format get applied to an already existing partition?How to change ext4 Hard drive partion to NTFS for installing Windows xp?Installing ubuntu on new hard driveWindows hard drive won't bootDetermine boot diskNew SSD in optical Bay, Cant get boot order to select it firstHow can I restore Master Boot Record in Ubuntu 15.04?Can I Recover Files, After accidentally Formatting External Hard Drive?Boot partition where is WIndows installed before UbuntuCan't boot windows 10 after Ubuntu installation

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3

I have old hard drive that had Ubuntu on it. Now I have a new machine which came with Windows 10, but it is what I would call a bootleg copy and can't be registered, so I have decided to return to Ubuntu 18.04. That is coming along well. I have 2 new hard drives and have formatted my old hard drive and want to use it for storage but it still is master boot record and I can't get rid of that. It is still trying to boot from that and I have to turn it off when booting up. I haven't run into any info on just this problem. Formatting does no good. I am still stuck.

boot partitioning hard-drive

share|improve this question

edited Jul 13 at 11:31

terdon♦

72.1k1313 gold badges148148 silver badges232232 bronze badges

asked Jul 12 at 22:27

porschenistaporschenista

1911 bronze badge

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  If you have data you may want to keep: Converting to or from GPT - must have good backups. rodsbooks.com/gdisk/mbr2gpt.html
  
  – oldfred
  Jul 13 at 3:42
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  The BIOS controls the boot order, so you can fix it from there.
  
  – RonJohn
  Jul 13 at 15:40
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Possible duplicate of How to format a USB flash drive?
  
  – WinEunuuchs2Unix
  Jul 13 at 18:26
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

3

I have old hard drive that had Ubuntu on it. Now I have a new machine which came with Windows 10, but it is what I would call a bootleg copy and can't be registered, so I have decided to return to Ubuntu 18.04. That is coming along well. I have 2 new hard drives and have formatted my old hard drive and want to use it for storage but it still is master boot record and I can't get rid of that. It is still trying to boot from that and I have to turn it off when booting up. I haven't run into any info on just this problem. Formatting does no good. I am still stuck.

boot partitioning hard-drive

share|improve this question

edited Jul 13 at 11:31

terdon♦

72.1k1313 gold badges148148 silver badges232232 bronze badges

asked Jul 12 at 22:27

porschenistaporschenista

1911 bronze badge

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  If you have data you may want to keep: Converting to or from GPT - must have good backups. rodsbooks.com/gdisk/mbr2gpt.html
  
  – oldfred
  Jul 13 at 3:42
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  The BIOS controls the boot order, so you can fix it from there.
  
  – RonJohn
  Jul 13 at 15:40
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Possible duplicate of How to format a USB flash drive?
  
  – WinEunuuchs2Unix
  Jul 13 at 18:26
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

I have old hard drive that had Ubuntu on it. Now I have a new machine which came with Windows 10, but it is what I would call a bootleg copy and can't be registered, so I have decided to return to Ubuntu 18.04. That is coming along well. I have 2 new hard drives and have formatted my old hard drive and want to use it for storage but it still is master boot record and I can't get rid of that. It is still trying to boot from that and I have to turn it off when booting up. I haven't run into any info on just this problem. Formatting does no good. I am still stuck.

boot partitioning hard-drive

share|improve this question

edited Jul 13 at 11:31

terdon♦

72.1k1313 gold badges148148 silver badges232232 bronze badges

asked Jul 12 at 22:27

porschenistaporschenista

1911 bronze badge

share|improve this question

edited Jul 13 at 11:31

terdon♦

72.1k1313 gold badges148148 silver badges232232 bronze badges

asked Jul 12 at 22:27

porschenistaporschenista

1911 bronze badge

share|improve this question

edited Jul 13 at 11:31

terdon♦

72.1k1313 gold badges148148 silver badges232232 bronze badges

asked Jul 12 at 22:27

porschenistaporschenista

1911 bronze badge

edited Jul 13 at 11:31

terdon♦

72.1k1313 gold badges148148 silver badges232232 bronze badges

edited Jul 13 at 11:31

terdon♦

72.1k1313 gold badges148148 silver badges232232 bronze badges

asked Jul 12 at 22:27

porschenistaporschenista

1911 bronze badge

asked Jul 12 at 22:27

porschenistaporschenista

1911 bronze badge

3 Answers
3

active

oldest

votes

7

Warning! The following will erase your entire drive!

• Donwnload and burn gparted live
  


• 
  

  Go to gparted:

  
  
  

  

  
  



• In the upper right corner go to the correct disk



• Double-check you have the correct disk


• Go to the menu Device and choose Create Partition table
  


• Choose gpt
  


• Cick OK on the warning

Done!

You now have a GPT drive instead of an MBR drive

share|improve this answer

edited Jul 13 at 17:46

answered Jul 13 at 7:45

FabbyFabby

28.8k1818 gold badges6969 silver badges172172 bronze badges

• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I will add that you can get gparted on a live distro all by itself: gparted.org/livecd.php
  
  – TheHansinator
  Jul 13 at 17:21
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @TheHansinator Done! ;-)
  
  – Fabby
  Jul 13 at 17:46
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  FYI I up voted before voting to close :P
  
  – WinEunuuchs2Unix
  Jul 13 at 18:28
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

6

Warning! This will completely wipe your entire disk!

The following command will effectively fill your drive with zeroes and the beginning of the drive will be erased. Then you can reformat as you prefer afterwards. Be very careful not to erase another drive! I would go as far as booting from a Live USB and physically disconnecting all other HDD/SDD drives.

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=of=/dev/sdyourhdd bs=1MB count=1

where:

• 
  bs=1MB means blocks size is 1 megabyte


• 
  count=1 instructs dd to copy only one block

and the end effect will be to overwrite the fist 1MB of the disk this destroying the MBR sector

If you skip the bs and count parameters the command will run until it overwrites the whole disk or until you terminate it

share|improve this answer

edited Jul 13 at 16:16

answered Jul 12 at 22:51

Dr PhilDr Phil

25122 silver badges44 bronze badges

• 
  
  
  

  
  2
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Easier just telling it to do 512 bytes or 1 million bytes rather than aborting dd. See man dd or google the many examples on the internet.
  
  – WinEunuuchs2Unix
  Jul 12 at 22:55
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  it is cleaner and probably better practice. for me pressing ctrl+c is easier than calling man dd. If you write the whole drive you also verify you don't have non-relocatable bad sectors.
  
  – Dr Phil
  Jul 12 at 22:58
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  anyway I added the other option, as it might be useful. And reading dd documentation is highly recommended as it uses completely different conventions from the rest of Linux commands, and it is a dangerous utility
  
  – Dr Phil
  Jul 12 at 23:08
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  dd (Disk Duplicator) is bad mouthed and called by many as Disk Destroyer. I wrote a wrapper script for it so that of=/dev/... can never be my hard drives or SSDs by accident: askubuntu.com/questions/867746/… Plus a little help screen for erasing MBR is there. Plus it shows you the real names for /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, etc. so you truly appreciate which witch is which.
  
  – WinEunuuchs2Unix
  Jul 12 at 23:11
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  yeah finding which disk is which can be a PITA. I would call your wrapper script something else like safedd, so there is less confusion and it can be actually included in distros
  
  – Dr Phil
  Jul 12 at 23:25
  

  
  
  
  

 | 
show 1 more comment

3

You can also remove the boot code from the disk. This will leave your data intact:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WHATEVERDISK bs=446 count=1

In the MBR, only the first 446 bytes yield the boot code, the partition table follows.

You can also switch to GPT with any tool you like. I recommend gdisk.

Please note that you can have an MBR with boot code while using GPT. These methods are orthogonal.

share|improve this answer

answered Jul 13 at 13:47

HermannHermann

20622 silver badges55 bronze badges

add a comment | 

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7

Warning! The following will erase your entire drive!

• Donwnload and burn gparted live
  


• 
  

  Go to gparted:

  
  
  

  

  
  



• In the upper right corner go to the correct disk



• Double-check you have the correct disk


• Go to the menu Device and choose Create Partition table
  


• Choose gpt
  


• Cick OK on the warning

Done!

You now have a GPT drive instead of an MBR drive

share|improve this answer

edited Jul 13 at 17:46

answered Jul 13 at 7:45

FabbyFabby

28.8k1818 gold badges6969 silver badges172172 bronze badges

• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I will add that you can get gparted on a live distro all by itself: gparted.org/livecd.php
  
  – TheHansinator
  Jul 13 at 17:21
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @TheHansinator Done! ;-)
  
  – Fabby
  Jul 13 at 17:46
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  FYI I up voted before voting to close :P
  
  – WinEunuuchs2Unix
  Jul 13 at 18:28
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

7

Warning! The following will erase your entire drive!

• Donwnload and burn gparted live
  


• 
  

  Go to gparted:

  
  
  

  

  
  



• In the upper right corner go to the correct disk



• Double-check you have the correct disk


• Go to the menu Device and choose Create Partition table
  


• Choose gpt
  


• Cick OK on the warning

Done!

You now have a GPT drive instead of an MBR drive

share|improve this answer

edited Jul 13 at 17:46

answered Jul 13 at 7:45

FabbyFabby

28.8k1818 gold badges6969 silver badges172172 bronze badges

• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I will add that you can get gparted on a live distro all by itself: gparted.org/livecd.php
  
  – TheHansinator
  Jul 13 at 17:21
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @TheHansinator Done! ;-)
  
  – Fabby
  Jul 13 at 17:46
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  FYI I up voted before voting to close :P
  
  – WinEunuuchs2Unix
  Jul 13 at 18:28
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

Warning! The following will erase your entire drive!

• Donwnload and burn gparted live
  


• 
  

  Go to gparted:

  
  
  

  

  
  



• In the upper right corner go to the correct disk



• Double-check you have the correct disk


• Go to the menu Device and choose Create Partition table
  


• Choose gpt
  


• Cick OK on the warning

Done!

You now have a GPT drive instead of an MBR drive

share|improve this answer

edited Jul 13 at 17:46

answered Jul 13 at 7:45

FabbyFabby

28.8k1818 gold badges6969 silver badges172172 bronze badges

share|improve this answer

edited Jul 13 at 17:46

answered Jul 13 at 7:45

FabbyFabby

28.8k1818 gold badges6969 silver badges172172 bronze badges

answered Jul 13 at 7:45

FabbyFabby

28.8k1818 gold badges6969 silver badges172172 bronze badges

answered Jul 13 at 7:45

FabbyFabby

28.8k1818 gold badges6969 silver badges172172 bronze badges

6

Warning! This will completely wipe your entire disk!

The following command will effectively fill your drive with zeroes and the beginning of the drive will be erased. Then you can reformat as you prefer afterwards. Be very careful not to erase another drive! I would go as far as booting from a Live USB and physically disconnecting all other HDD/SDD drives.

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=of=/dev/sdyourhdd bs=1MB count=1

where:

• 
  bs=1MB means blocks size is 1 megabyte


• 
  count=1 instructs dd to copy only one block

and the end effect will be to overwrite the fist 1MB of the disk this destroying the MBR sector

If you skip the bs and count parameters the command will run until it overwrites the whole disk or until you terminate it

share|improve this answer

edited Jul 13 at 16:16

answered Jul 12 at 22:51

Dr PhilDr Phil

25122 silver badges44 bronze badges

• 
  
  
  

  
  2
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Easier just telling it to do 512 bytes or 1 million bytes rather than aborting dd. See man dd or google the many examples on the internet.
  
  – WinEunuuchs2Unix
  Jul 12 at 22:55
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  it is cleaner and probably better practice. for me pressing ctrl+c is easier than calling man dd. If you write the whole drive you also verify you don't have non-relocatable bad sectors.
  
  – Dr Phil
  Jul 12 at 22:58
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  anyway I added the other option, as it might be useful. And reading dd documentation is highly recommended as it uses completely different conventions from the rest of Linux commands, and it is a dangerous utility
  
  – Dr Phil
  Jul 12 at 23:08
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  dd (Disk Duplicator) is bad mouthed and called by many as Disk Destroyer. I wrote a wrapper script for it so that of=/dev/... can never be my hard drives or SSDs by accident: askubuntu.com/questions/867746/… Plus a little help screen for erasing MBR is there. Plus it shows you the real names for /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, etc. so you truly appreciate which witch is which.
  
  – WinEunuuchs2Unix
  Jul 12 at 23:11
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  yeah finding which disk is which can be a PITA. I would call your wrapper script something else like safedd, so there is less confusion and it can be actually included in distros
  
  – Dr Phil
  Jul 12 at 23:25
  

  
  
  
  

 | 
show 1 more comment

6

Warning! This will completely wipe your entire disk!

The following command will effectively fill your drive with zeroes and the beginning of the drive will be erased. Then you can reformat as you prefer afterwards. Be very careful not to erase another drive! I would go as far as booting from a Live USB and physically disconnecting all other HDD/SDD drives.

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=of=/dev/sdyourhdd bs=1MB count=1

where:

• 
  bs=1MB means blocks size is 1 megabyte


• 
  count=1 instructs dd to copy only one block

and the end effect will be to overwrite the fist 1MB of the disk this destroying the MBR sector

If you skip the bs and count parameters the command will run until it overwrites the whole disk or until you terminate it

share|improve this answer

edited Jul 13 at 16:16

answered Jul 12 at 22:51

Dr PhilDr Phil

25122 silver badges44 bronze badges

• 
  
  
  

  
  2
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Easier just telling it to do 512 bytes or 1 million bytes rather than aborting dd. See man dd or google the many examples on the internet.
  
  – WinEunuuchs2Unix
  Jul 12 at 22:55
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  it is cleaner and probably better practice. for me pressing ctrl+c is easier than calling man dd. If you write the whole drive you also verify you don't have non-relocatable bad sectors.
  
  – Dr Phil
  Jul 12 at 22:58
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  anyway I added the other option, as it might be useful. And reading dd documentation is highly recommended as it uses completely different conventions from the rest of Linux commands, and it is a dangerous utility
  
  – Dr Phil
  Jul 12 at 23:08
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  dd (Disk Duplicator) is bad mouthed and called by many as Disk Destroyer. I wrote a wrapper script for it so that of=/dev/... can never be my hard drives or SSDs by accident: askubuntu.com/questions/867746/… Plus a little help screen for erasing MBR is there. Plus it shows you the real names for /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, etc. so you truly appreciate which witch is which.
  
  – WinEunuuchs2Unix
  Jul 12 at 23:11
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  yeah finding which disk is which can be a PITA. I would call your wrapper script something else like safedd, so there is less confusion and it can be actually included in distros
  
  – Dr Phil
  Jul 12 at 23:25
  

  
  
  
  

 | 
show 1 more comment

Warning! This will completely wipe your entire disk!

The following command will effectively fill your drive with zeroes and the beginning of the drive will be erased. Then you can reformat as you prefer afterwards. Be very careful not to erase another drive! I would go as far as booting from a Live USB and physically disconnecting all other HDD/SDD drives.

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=of=/dev/sdyourhdd bs=1MB count=1

where:

• 
  bs=1MB means blocks size is 1 megabyte


• 
  count=1 instructs dd to copy only one block

and the end effect will be to overwrite the fist 1MB of the disk this destroying the MBR sector

If you skip the bs and count parameters the command will run until it overwrites the whole disk or until you terminate it

share|improve this answer

edited Jul 13 at 16:16

answered Jul 12 at 22:51

Dr PhilDr Phil

25122 silver badges44 bronze badges

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=of=/dev/sdyourhdd bs=1MB count=1

share|improve this answer

edited Jul 13 at 16:16

answered Jul 12 at 22:51

Dr PhilDr Phil

25122 silver badges44 bronze badges

answered Jul 12 at 22:51

Dr PhilDr Phil

25122 silver badges44 bronze badges

answered Jul 12 at 22:51

Dr PhilDr Phil

25122 silver badges44 bronze badges

3

You can also remove the boot code from the disk. This will leave your data intact:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WHATEVERDISK bs=446 count=1

In the MBR, only the first 446 bytes yield the boot code, the partition table follows.

You can also switch to GPT with any tool you like. I recommend gdisk.

Please note that you can have an MBR with boot code while using GPT. These methods are orthogonal.

share|improve this answer

answered Jul 13 at 13:47

HermannHermann

20622 silver badges55 bronze badges

add a comment | 

3

You can also remove the boot code from the disk. This will leave your data intact:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WHATEVERDISK bs=446 count=1

In the MBR, only the first 446 bytes yield the boot code, the partition table follows.

You can also switch to GPT with any tool you like. I recommend gdisk.

Please note that you can have an MBR with boot code while using GPT. These methods are orthogonal.

share|improve this answer

answered Jul 13 at 13:47

HermannHermann

20622 silver badges55 bronze badges

add a comment | 

You can also remove the boot code from the disk. This will leave your data intact:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WHATEVERDISK bs=446 count=1

In the MBR, only the first 446 bytes yield the boot code, the partition table follows.

You can also switch to GPT with any tool you like. I recommend gdisk.

Please note that you can have an MBR with boot code while using GPT. These methods are orthogonal.

share|improve this answer

answered Jul 13 at 13:47

HermannHermann

20622 silver badges55 bronze badges

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WHATEVERDISK bs=446 count=1

share|improve this answer

answered Jul 13 at 13:47

HermannHermann

20622 silver badges55 bronze badges

answered Jul 13 at 13:47

HermannHermann

20622 silver badges55 bronze badges

answered Jul 13 at 13:47

HermannHermann

20622 silver badges55 bronze badges