Backup MBR to USB drive

[1ronlung]

Hi.

In the past I've managed to wreck my MBR and/or Grub on about 3 occasions.
I've just installed a dual boot system and it's time to get proactive

I've meandered across software I've got that will let you backup/restore MBR to floppy, but I have no drive. Can someone recommend something reliable to backup/restore to USB ?

Thanks in advance.

[x33a]

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BackupYourSystem

Back up the MBR
dd if=/dev/hda of=/home/hda.boot.mbr bs=512 count=1

Restore MBR (from a Live CD)
dd if=/mnt/hda1/home/hda.boot.mbr of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1

try

dd if=/dev/hda of=/media/disk/hda.boot.mbr bs=512 count=1

here /media/disk = location of the usb drive.

[1ronlung]

Thanks for the answer, dude. I'm suitably embarassed that my question was covered in a FAQ

Unfortunately, I'm still very much a linux newbie and as such, am still scared of the command line

Anyone know of a user friendly GUI type app to do this ? I have read the FAQ and they were unable to suggest one ...

Thanks again.

[x33a]

though the command line option is really easy, but you can try quickstart.

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/quickstart...nd-easily.html

i haven' tried it myself though.

[1ronlung]

Just been playing with it. Seems to do the job, ok.
Only downer is that you need to have the software installed to recover data.
The install script includes a wget, which is no use to me off a live CD as I've got a broadcom n/work card.
I think I've d/l'ed all files I need through.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction