If you are messing with bootloaders, dual-booting, hoping from one to another operating system and do other various scary processes, the risk of damaging or messed bootsector in your Linux is very hight. The best way to protect your bootsector is to backup it. Here is tutorial how to backup your bootsector in Linux:

dd if=/dev/hda of=bootsector.img bs=512 count=1

Obviously you should change the device to reflect your boot drive (it may be sda for SCSI). Also, be very careful not to get things the wrong way around – you can easily damage your drive! To restore use:

dd if=bootsector.img of=/dev/hda

This is a tip for advanced Linux users only.

Tags | Howto, Linux, Programming, Tips and Tricks, Ubuntu