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Re: Removing Linux from MBR

 
Khalid A. Al-Tayaran
Valued Contributor

Removing Linux from MBR


Hi all,

We have a computer running Win 2000. We installed Mandrake linux 7.1 GPL on the same machine. Of course at startup we choose which OS to run. But if we decide to move Linux to a different machine, how will we fix the MBR area on the multiboot system (removing Linux)?

I know how to remove the ext3 partition with partition magic......
15 REPLIES 15
Claudio Cilloni
Honored Contributor

Re: Removing Linux from MBR

in win98 you can run 'fdisk /mbr' from a dos shell... I hope that in win2000 is the same...

regards
Claudio
Francisco J. Soler
Honored Contributor

Re: Removing Linux from MBR

Hi,
In the ms-dos command prompt type:
fdisk /mbr

if you install the boot loader into mbr of course.

Frank.
Linux?. Yes, of course.
Khalid A. Al-Tayaran
Valued Contributor

Re: Removing Linux from MBR

Hi,

thanks guys..

In cmd You can get a DOS command line. But there is no fdisk in Windows 2000.
Claudio Cilloni
Honored Contributor

Re: Removing Linux from MBR

you can get an old MSDOS boot floppy containing fdisk.exe (or .com? I don't remember :-), boot your machine from it and run fdisk /mbr.

... excuse me but I haven't a better solution :-(

hi
Claudio
Jarle Bjorgeengen
Trusted Contributor

Re: Removing Linux from MBR

Hi ,

I think you can run
fixmbr and/or fixboot from the win2k install CD. (Boot a emergencye shell)

Rgds Jarle
Francisco J. Soler
Honored Contributor

Re: Removing Linux from MBR

You can delete MBR inside linux with the following command:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1

but you have another problem, you must delete the linux partitions too because, win2000 can not access to linux partitions.

You can do it after deleting MBR then boot with linux instalation cd and deleting linux partitions or better converting linux partitions into windows partitions at the begining of instalation, then reboot the computer (without installing linux).

Frank.
Linux?. Yes, of course.
Caesar_3
Esteemed Contributor

Re: Removing Linux from MBR

Hello!

This question is more like for W2K forum.
Copy from old windows fdisk and run fdisk /mbr
You also have disk manager in W2K check
if you have option to set MBR there.


Caesar
Stuart Browne
Honored Contributor

Re: Removing Linux from MBR

This is a windows question, and is suprisingly answered in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (scary!).

But simply put, what the others have said is correct.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;171611

It truely is entertaining to read through some of those MS KB articles regarding unix/linux ;P
One long-haired git at your service...
Manuel Wolfshant
Trusted Contributor

Re: Removing Linux from MBR

just run lilo -u from linux. -u stands for "uninstall" and will restore the MBR to the state previous to installing lilo.