One component of the volume boot record that’s specific to the operating system or program itself, and is what’s used to load the OS or software, is called the volume boot code. The other is the disk parameter block, or media parameter block, which contains information about the volume like its label, size, clustered sector count, serial number, and more. A volume boot record is commonly abbreviated as VBR, but is also sometimes referred to as a partition boot sector, partition boot record, boot block, and volume boot sector.
Repairing a Volume Boot Record
If the volume boot code becomes corrupted or configured in some incorrect way, you can repair it by writing a new copy of the boot code to the system partition. The steps involved in writing a new volume boot code depend on what version of Windows you’re using:
How to Write a New Partition Boot Sector to a Windows 11/10/8/7/Vista System Partition How to Write a New Partition Boot Sector to a Windows XP System Partition
More Information on a Volume Boot Record
The volume boot record is created when a partition is formatted. It resides on the first sector of the partition. However, if the device isn’t partitioned, like if you’re dealing with a floppy disk, then the volume boot record is on the first sector of the whole device. All disks only have one master boot record, but can have multiple volume boot records because of the simple fact that a storage device can hold multiple partitions, which each have their own volume boot record. The computer code that’s stored in the volume boot record is either started up by the BIOS, master boot record, or a boot manager. If a boot manager is used to call the volume boot record, it’s called chain loading. NTLDR is the boot loader for some versions of Windows (XP and older). If you have more than one operating system installed to the hard drive, it takes specific code relevant to the different operating systems and puts them together into one volume boot record so that, before any OS starts up, you can choose which one to boot to. Newer versions of Windows have replaced NTLDR with BOOTMGR and winload.exe. Also in the volume boot record is information regarding the file system of the partition, like if it’s NTFS or FAT, as well as where the MFT and MFT Mirror is (if the partition is formatted in NTFS). A volume boot record is a common target for viruses since its code starts even before the operating system can load, and it does so automatically without any user intervention.
