Master Boot Record, how do you protect it

The MBR is just one piece of software that can get damaged. You really need to backup your Windows partition (usually C-Drive).

I use Acronis True Image. It's best to backup to a second drive (not just a second partition on the same drive). You can use an internal WD Green drive and even do automated Incremental updates so that you can RESTORE within a short time of a failed hard drive or irrecovable software corruption.

It's much better to do backups like this and use free Antivirus software than to pay yearly Antivirus fees.

Thanks photonboy..brilliant

I am a bit new to all this, i have had computer's for a few years now, and did not think about backup and recovery until a couple of months ago......

I have Acronis on my vista computer, which the computer is fully backed up on all partitons, with about 3/4 incremetal backups a month or when i choose to run it.
So thats great i have the c:\ partition backed up anyway, i understand it now......

But this morning i downloaded "paragon backup and recovery" for the windows 7 machine, it was recommended by a friend
And so far its great, very simalar to acronis, but i think differential backups would suit me better....

If the computer fails to start or boot up, how would you know thats it the MBR that might be causing the problem
There's still alot of things i need to learn, so i take it you woulden't restore the whole c:\ drive just because the MBR is damaged or currupted in some way.........  

You can fix the mbr by using the install CD repair mode.

Theres no need for acronis, Windows 7 has a fully functional backup system integrated into it.

Follow the given instructions in order too protect MBR:
You can configure some CMOS setups to prevent writing to the boot sector of the hard drive. This may be of quite useful against boot sector viruses. However, if you need to reinstall or upgrade the operating system, you will have to change the setting back to make the MBR writable again.
Precautions :-
Backup your files.
Keep your antivirus updated, and keep the real time protection enabled.
Keep your disk write-protected.
Keep your applications write protected.
First try to recover else Quarantine your files or simply delete them for your system safety.
In my opinion Symantec / Norton Antivirus software’s are good to remove Boot sector viruses, AVG can be used as a light weight counterpart for this purpose.

Congratulations on thinking about this BEFORE you need to rely on it. All too often it happens the other way around...

DO NOT USE Windows 7 Backup/Restore, it is pure garbage. I've done critical backups with it that have failed to restore and have thus had to repeat 20-30hours of work.

I don't know what Acronis is like but if you want a Free Open Source Software that works very well, download a copy of a CloneZilla Iso CD image, burn and reboot it. It will start it's own Linux OS and you can make image backups of your Hard Drive or Specific partitions. Some people might find the linux terminology intemidating but just look up whatever you don't understand in google.

A few caveats:

If your disk has multiple partitions, you should backup each partition separately and use the partition restore. The disk backup and restore is only if you want to backup and restore a single partition disk or if you want to always back up all its partitions at the same time.

If you do a *partition* backup and do a *hardisk* restore, you will wreck your other partions. So, read the prompts carefully and don't do this at 4AM....

Finally, if you have the chance, you might want to test the backup restore procedure with a OS you don't care too much about or on a fresh install that you haven't configured too much. This is always a good idea, no matter what backup solution you choose - you want to make sure it works.