[SOLVED] What is the difference between MBR and GRUB?

QueenZ · 03-26-2010, 08:04 AM

What is the difference between MBR and GRUB? Are they the same? Are they different? Do I need both of them?

damgar · 03-26-2010, 08:09 AM

Your MBR (master boot record) is a physical location on your hard drive. GRUB (grand unified bootloader) is a bootloader that is frequently installed ON the MBR. You need a MBR and a bootloader of some sort.

vinaytp · 03-26-2010, 08:17 AM

Hi QueenZ,

Here are few points,

MBR:

1. Will be of 512 bytes
2. Contains partition tables to mount partitions ( i.e., details related to Primary,Logical and Extended partitions )
3. Holds Stage1 of GRUB (boot loader)

GRUB(Grand Unified Bootloader)

1. Stage1 will be in MBR, because of size constraint of MBR (512 bytes)
2. Primary function of stage1 of Grub is to locate stage2 of GRUB, which eventually helps in booting of OS.
3. GRUB is extensively used these days, few years back LILO was also a prominent bootloader.

QueenZ · 03-26-2010, 08:32 AM

thanks guys, it is clear now