Install a new mbr to your USB flash device

Some USB flash drives are notorious for having problems with corrupted master boot records. If your system refuses to boot from the flash memory stick, the mbr may be at fault. To fix this, you can use the mbr package to install a new master boot record. Credit goes to BHSPitMonkey for pointing out this fix. The troubled drive encountered was a Kingston Data Traveler 2GB unit.

This tutorial was written from a Ubuntu Linux operating environment. Other Linux environments may work as well.

Fixing the Master Boot Record:

First we need to enable the Universal repository containing the mbr package

1. Open a terminal and type sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
2. Find and uncomment the following lines by removing the ## in front of them:
   1. ## deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ edgy universe
   2. ## deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ edgy universe
3. Hit ctrl+x then type y to accept and save the changes (press enter)
4. Type sudo apt-get update

Next we will install the mbr package and use it to create the new mbr on the USB flash drive

1. Type sudo apt-get install mbr
2. Type fdisk -l to find out which device is your flash drive
3. Type install-mbr /dev/sdx (replacing x with your flash device)

Hopefully this will help you get a not so cooperative flash drive to boot.

Posted under: USB flash pen drive tools