What will the following command accomplish? dd if=/dev/xxx of=mbr.backup bs=512 count=1

What will the following command accomplish? dd if=/dev/xxx of=mbr.backup bs=512 count=1

• A. Restore the first 512 bytes of the first partition of the hard drive
• B. Mount the master boot record on the first partition of the hard drive
• C. Back up the master boot record
• D. Restore the master boot record

Answer: (C)

This command uses dd to copy exactly one 512-byte block from the very start of a disk into a file. The first 512 bytes on a drive contain the master boot record (MBR), which holds the boot code and partition table. By setting the block size to 512 bytes and counting only 1, you’re capturing just that initial sector, then saving it to a file named mbr.backup. That is a backup of the MBR. It doesn’t mount anything, and it doesn’t restore data. It also doesn’t target the first partition’s data, since the MBR sits at the beginning of the entire disk, not inside a partition. If you wanted to restore, you’d write that backup back to the disk with a reversed dd command (of=mbr.backup input to the disk), but the given command is strictly a backup operation.

This command uses dd to copy exactly one 512-byte block from the very start of a disk into a file. The first 512 bytes on a drive contain the master boot record (MBR), which holds the boot code and partition table. By setting the block size to 512 bytes and counting only 1, you’re capturing just that initial sector, then saving it to a file named mbr.backup. That is a backup of the MBR.

It doesn’t mount anything, and it doesn’t restore data. It also doesn’t target the first partition’s data, since the MBR sits at the beginning of the entire disk, not inside a partition. If you wanted to restore, you’d write that backup back to the disk with a reversed dd command (of=mbr.backup input to the disk), but the given command is strictly a backup operation.