trying to remove red hat from master boot sector

Denny711 · 07-17-2005, 07:32 PM

I bought a used hard drive and fdisked it to install windows, but after fdisking, it brings me to grub>, so it must have had linux on it and they didn't remove it from boot sector.

Not familiar with grub language.
Tried fdisk/mbr but it doesn't recognize that.

How in the world do I get it off so I can install windows?

Kahless · 07-17-2005, 07:52 PM

boot to a windows 98 boot disk, and run fdisk /mbr from there.

if that fails, go to the website of the hard drives manufacture, and download the utility to zero fill the drive. (might be called low level format, or write disk pack)

tuxrules · 07-17-2005, 07:57 PM

A minor correction:

Quote:

trying to remove redhat from master boot sector

It is not redhat but boot loader.

Tux,

Denny711 · 07-17-2005, 10:06 PM

I tried the win 98 floppy, first and got DOS, so I did fdisk on the C: drive. When I was finished and re-booted with the floppy, it sat and thought for a moment and went to grub>.

Then I put in fdisk/mbr and it said invalid, so I tried fdisk /mbr, same thing. ?Tried fdisk / mbr and same thing.

So, I have no idea what to do now.

Strange how it let me use the 98 floppy to do the original fdisk and partition, but after that, it went to linux!?

It's a Seagate hard drive, and I only see info on Windows on Seagate.

Denny711 · 07-17-2005, 10:09 PM

I forgot to mention.......
when it goes from "searching for boot floppy" it goes to a page that says RED HAT on the top and shows a choice of OS system to use. Linux is the only one.

twantrd · 07-17-2005, 10:40 PM

Have you tried using fixmbr? You could also load winxp cd and select 'repair' option and remove the boot loader.

-twantrd

Denny711 · 07-17-2005, 10:44 PM

I can't get it to allow me to load any cd's.

But I did go to Seagate and downloaded the low level format floppys. I'll try those tomorrow as I'm not where the puter is right now.

Thanks e1 for all the ideas.
I'll post the results.

btmiller · 07-17-2005, 11:44 PM

You may not have the CD drive first in the boot order in the BIOS. You should go into the BIOS (del or F2 on a lot of machines -- something should say something like "Press F2 to enter set up") and check the boot order. If GRUB is being loaded despite having a bootable CD in the CD drive then either:

a) The machine is not capable of booting from CD
b) The hard drive is set ahead of the CD drive in the boot order.

Denny711 · 07-18-2005, 09:42 PM

I downloaded the disk from Seagate to zero out the hard drive and when it gets almost finished, I get a warning from Trend saying there's a virus on the boot disk. I continued anyway and it still won't let me boot from the 98 reboot disk. Searches for floppy and says OK..
then sits there forever. I tried a couple different boot disks and it doesn't work.

So, now I'm wondering if the used hard drive had a virus and they couldn't remove it before selling it.