I had intended to install grub into mbr on /dev/sda1. I used --target=i386-pc as provided in the grub-install step and did so with misgivings since the machine I use is an x86-64 machine. The only x86-64 target on the arch beginner's guide was for ufi not bios. A bug like this in grub were I to write software for my employer would have me fired that same day. A software package can't keep track of its files it creates and it uses is a package with no self-defense capabilities. Sorry about that, but some of us started programming when the only thing creating webs were real spiders and web page developer was a job title that had yet to be created.
The MBR is the first 512 bytes of a device[1]. There is no MBR of a single partition. [1]https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/MBR -- xmpp: bjo@schafweide.org bjo.nord-west.org | nord-west.org | freifunk-ol.de