Desktop Management Guide

30 www.hp.com Desktop Management Guide
Desktop Management Guide
Master Boot Record Security
The Master Boot Record (MBR) contains information needed to
successfully boot from a disk and to access the data stored on the
disk. Master Boot Record Security may prevent unintentional or
malicious changes to the MBR, such as those caused by some
computer viruses or by the incorrect use of certain disk utilities.
It also allows you to recover the “last known good” MBR, should
changes to the MBR be detected when the system is restarted.
To enable MBR Security, complete the following steps:
1. Turn on or restart the computer. If you are in Windows, click
Start > Shut Down > Restart the Computer.
2. When the F10 Setup message appears in the lower-right corner of
the screen, press the
F10 key. Press Enter to bypass the title
screen, if necessary.
✎
If you do not press the F10 key while the message is displayed, you
must restart the computer to access the utility.
3. Select Security > Master Boot Record Security > Enabled.
4. Select Security > Save Master Boot Record.
5. Before exiting, click File > Save Changes and Exit.
When MBR Security is enabled, the BIOS prevents any changes
being made to the MBR of the current bootable disk while in
MS-DOS or Windows Safe Mode.
✎
Most operating systems control access to the MBR of the current
bootable disk; the BIOS cannot prevent changes that may occur while
the operating system is running.
Each time the computer is turned on or restarted, the BIOS compares
the MBR of the current bootable disk to the previously saved MBR. If
changes are detected and if the current bootable disk is the same disk
from which the MBR was previously saved, the following message is
displayed:
1999—Master Boot Record has changed.
Press any key to enter Setup to configure MBR Security.