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I am using dd for Windows to back up. I can back up partions on windows like this:

dd if=\\.\g: of=x:\bottom_C_XP1.dd

but when it comes to backing up master boot record of harddisk2 I cannot find out what I am doing wrong. I did not found any guide to do it by Google.

Information about the disk which MBR I need to backup:

Windows backed up from partition (found by dd --list)

\\.\Volume{f5f37534-2baf-11e5-9aa7-806d6172696f}\
  link to \\?\Device\HarddiskVolume24
  fixed media
  Mounted on \\.\g:

NT Block Device Objects

\\?\Device\Harddisk2\Partition1
  link to \\?\Device\HarddiskVolume24
  Fixed hard disk media. Block size = 512
  size is 9664671744 bytes

(9GB size of the partition)

So now I know that the system is on Harddisk2. I tried this command: (edit: correction) dd if=\?\Device\Harddisk2 of=x:\hdd2_mbr_bottom_xp1.dd count=1 bs=512

I got this error (translated to English): 

Error native opening input file: 
0 Operation finished (bad / wrong / failed) ...
user1141649
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2 Answers2

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dd for windows does not display some block devices available in Windows 7, use :

dd if=\\.\PhysicalDrive0 of=x:\hdd2_mbr_bottom_xp1.dd bs=512 count=1

(if there is a single hard drive on a system)

zsxcevrgty
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According to the dd for Windows site, to get the entire disk you need to use Parition0, so with the information you've given, you could do the following:

dd if=\\?\Device\Harddisk2\Partition0 of=x:\hdd2_mbr_bottom_xp1.dd bs=512 count=1

bs=512 is the block size you want to specify and count=1 says to only read/write once .. so you'll get an image of the MBR of the disk you specify since the MBR sits at the first 512 bytes on NTFS.

Hope that can help.

txtechhelp
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  • sorry I have pasted incorrect line. I updated the question. Notice the bold code. Edit: According your pattern I tried to edit if argument: dd if=\Harddisk2 of=x:\hdd2_mbr_bottom_xp1.dd count=1 bs=512 or dd if=\Harddisk2 of=x:\hdd2_mbr_bottom_xp1.dd count=1 bs=512 same error – user1141649 Jul 18 '15 at 10:30
  • @JohnBoe, I've made an edit to my answer to specify how to do it with dd for Windows .. I misread originally, but the edit should work, just make sure the disk is correct in the if and of flags – txtechhelp Jul 18 '15 at 11:11
  • Anyway it still prints the error to me. I tried both slashes / and . Are you sure there should not be the if=\?\Device\Harddisk1... ? Because they use it in example: http://www.chrysocome.net/dd – user1141649 Jul 18 '15 at 11:17