On 4/9/2015 5:22 PM, Chuck Campbell wrote: > Subject says it. > > I would like to find out if I have anything written on the MBR of a > disk in my system /dev/sda, or any other device. > If there is something there, is it readable, or recognizable to humans? the MBR contains both binary boot code, which is not human readable, and the master partiion table for the device. you can display the latter like... $ sudo parted /dev/sda print Model: ATA Crucial_CT512M55 (scsi) Disk /dev/sda: 512GB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B Partition Table: msdos Number Start End Size Type File system Flags 1 1049kB 525MB 524MB primary ext4 boot 2 525MB 512GB 512GB primary lvm note tho, that if "Partition Table" instead says gpt, then the disk is formatted GPT and doesn't use the MBR. $ sudo parted /dev/sdb print Model: ATA ST32000644NS (scsi) Disk /dev/sdb: 2000GB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: gpt Number Start End Size File system Name Flags 1 65.5kB 2000GB 2000GB pri raid -- john r pierce, recycling bits in santa cruz