I remember learning about "FDISK /mbr" from a DEC support tech support line. I rescued several hard disks with that command that other people had deemed "broken".
That command saved me at least a dozen of times while playing too much with my partition table and the dual boot configuration with Linux. (Partition) Magic :-)
I really miss the simplicity of MBR-based partitioning, still need to wrap my head around UEFI and GPT
UEFI is actually a lot simpler than MBR-type partitioning as far as the user is concerned. The UEFI firmware partition is based on a FAT-like fs, hence it natively supports dual- and multi-booting and can provide a "Shell" that's quite comparable to DOS itself. There are ongoing problems with UEFI due to shoddy OEM implementations, but the basic idea is quite sensible.
I really miss the simplicity of MBR-based partitioning, still need to wrap my head around UEFI and GPT