Master Boot Record (MBR)

The Master Boot Record (MBR) is the information in the first sector of any hard disk or diskette that identifies how and where an operating system is located so that it can be boot (loaded) into the computer’s main storage or random access memory. The Master Boot Record is also sometimes called the “partition sector” or the “master partition table” because it includes a table  that locates each partition that the hard disk has been formatted into.  In addition to this table, the MBR also includes a program that reads  the boot sector record of the partition containing the operating system  to be booted into RAM. In turn, that record contains a program that  loads the rest of the operating system into RAM.