[Blake's7]

Hi! I'm triple booting with xp, mandriva, and server 2003. I want to remove the xp and mandriva, and install vista and ubuntu, or reinstall xp if I don't like vista. I thought I could use partition magic to remove the mandriva partitions, but it doesn't recognize ext3 files or partition. I know I have to install windows first. I tried booting from the xp disk, figuring I could remove the partitions from there, but it starts up, then checks the disk and locks up. I tried another xp disk with the same result. I figure that has something to do with the GRUB, and I would have to fix the mbr in windows. Am I right, and if I am, how do I solve this problem? I can't use the recovery console, as the install locks up---the screen goes black, after the first screen---Setup is checking your configuration.. Thanks. Any and all responses will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Done_Fishin]

Re: Removing GRUB

If you are going to format the disk and start over to install everything you want, go to www.bootdisk.com, download a file to create DOS boot diskette. Dos6.22 or WinMe will be fine. If you have a Millenium Bootable CD you can use that too just to boot into DOS.

when you are at the A:> prompt type fdisk /mbr which will erase and rewrite the main boot record

A:>fdisk /mbr

then
THIS WILL ERASE ALL PARTITIONS ON THE DRIVE

A:>fdisk
Y to large disk
from the menu
3 to delete a partition
4 to delete a non dos partition
select the number corresponding to the last partition and reply with y to delete
esc to go back to main menu
repeat procedure above until all partitions deleted

esc to exit

Do not create any partitions at this time, use the appropriate means from your install software

If you want to erase just a few of the partitions use Gparted Live CD or similar. Gparted will allow you to move partitions but I don't know how that will affect their bootability

 

[Blake's7]

Re: Removing GRUB

Thanks for the response. Somebody told me to use Supergrub to fix the mbr, and it worked like a charm. Now, as soon as I reboot, I'll be installing the windows system, and maybe tomorrow, ubuntu. Thanks again.

 

[hal8000]

Re: Removing GRUB

Thanks for the response. Somebody told me to use Supergrub to fix the mbr, and it worked like a charm. Now, as soon as I reboot, I'll be installing the windows system, and maybe tomorrow, ubuntu. Thanks again.

Never used supergrub, but you dont need nothing more than a linux disk to redo/clear the mbr.

If you use a Debian based live CD, Ubuntu, knoppix etc then boot from the live CD, get internet access than type:

apt-get install install-mbr

Once install-mbr has downloaded to use as root:

type
install-mbr /dev/sda

to replace the mbr with standard windows bootloader code. Replace sda with hda etc


On PC Linux OS there is a tool called redo-mbr.
Not used it but believe it is similar.

As for partitions, gparted is included on Ubuntu live CD's 8.04 and above, use it to erase partitions and to resize NTFS partitions.

 

[Done_Fishin]

What happens if you have made a non-standard linux install .. ?? surely it will place your pointers to the wrong device

 

[hal8000]

What happens if you have made a non-standard linux install .. ?? surely it will place your pointers to the wrong device

Redo-mbr looks and reads for all partitions containing grub entries then rebuilds the list.

If you are wiping the mbr (first 464 bytes) then the partition table last 64 bytes is still intact.

 

[Done_Fishin]

That's very interesting .. thanks. I might be able to recover an old Ubuntu install now that I lost at work when I lost my win200 boot and had to do a repair install