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Old 12-13-2003, 11:18 PM   #1
Nappa
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Help uninstalling Lilo from hda MBR


I installed Lilo thinking it would see one of my NTFS partitions. It didn't, so when I used Partition Magic to boot into NTFS, Lilo came up and the only option I could do was to boot into DOS (Fat 32), so it made my hard drive freeze up. I used Partition Magic rescue disks to get back to my FAT32 partition and load Slackware. I don't know how to remove LiLo from the MBR now. Any help would.....help.
 
Old 12-13-2003, 11:25 PM   #2
Whitehat
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You should be able to boot up with a Windows 98 boot disk and do "fdisk /mbr".

That always works for me. YOu also have to make sure you make whatever partition you want to boot "active".

I hope this is what you are talking about....

Peace,
Whitehat
 
Old 12-13-2003, 11:29 PM   #3
Nappa
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Yes...I forgot about the fdisk mbr..thank you
 
Old 12-13-2003, 11:30 PM   #4
Bruce Hill
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Re: Help uninstalling Lilo from hda MBR

Quote:
Originally posted by Nappa
I installed Lilo thinking it would see one of my NTFS partitions. It didn't, so when I used Partition Magic to boot into NTFS, Lilo came up and the only option I could do was to boot into DOS (Fat 32), so it made my hard drive freeze up. I used Partition Magic rescue disks to get back to my FAT32 partition and load Slackware. I don't know how to remove LiLo from the MBR now. Any help would.....help.
Kinda hard to understand what you got going on there. If you have removed your Linux distro, and just want to run Windoze, simply use your boot disk to get to a DOS prompt and type ->
fdisk /mbr
which will rewrite your master boot record, and that should fix you right up, removing LILO from your MBR and giving you the go with your Windoze OS.

On the other hand, if you are trying to dual boot Windoze and Slackware (I think this is what you're saying) and LILO is messed up, please post the output of ->
$ fdisk -l (lower case L)
$ df -h
$ pico /etc/lilo.conf

and perhaps we can get you going.

Please put your Linux distribution into your user cp (control panel) and let us know what OSes you're trying to run on this comp.

 
Old 12-13-2003, 11:36 PM   #5
Nappa
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I feel stupid now, thank you for your help...all I had to do was to fdisk mbr and make sure that the fat32 was active. I'm trying to learn my way out of Windows so that I'm totally Linux dependent, but it's just going to take some time. I understand that the fdisk command in Linux works somewhat the same as the DOS fdisk righ??
 
Old 12-14-2003, 12:11 AM   #6
Rodrin
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The Linux version of fdisk is for the same purpose as the DOS one, and they are both command line programs, but the similarities don't go much further. For a more user friendly and less buggy version of fdisk under Linux try using cfdisk (a much better program in almost every way). One thing you will notice, however, is that there is no mbr switch for Linux fdisk (or cfdisk).
 
Old 05-04-2004, 11:42 AM   #7
oxleyk
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I just want to get confirmation on this topic. I installed Slackware on a scavenged 4gig drive in my WindowsXP computer. The system is dual-booting WinXP and Slackware. The Slackware drive seems VERY slow and might have problems associated with aging (it's about eight years old but was owned by a little old lady who only drove it on Sundays). I want to remove the Slackware drive and remove the dual-boot option. What I've been able to find in my search is that fdisk /mbr will remove the dual-boot from WinXP. Is this correct? It won't corrupt my drive? Has anyone encountered problems doing this?

Thanks,
Kent
 
Old 05-04-2004, 04:01 PM   #8
J.W.
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Correct. The command: fdisk /mbr will overwrite your MBR and return it to a Windows-friendly/Windows-only state. Note that it will do nothing to the data on the Slack drive -- its only effect is to "reset" the MBR. After you perform this command and reboot, it should immediately boot into XP. As always, you should consider backing up any important data first, just to play it safe.

That being said, I've run the fdisk /mbr command a number of times when I was initially setting up my PC, with no ill effects at all. -- J.W.
 
Old 09-30-2006, 12:02 AM   #9
FlyingPenguin
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A drastic way to remove LILo or any bootloader is to use a Linux-LIVE-CD or rescue disk and do:-

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=446 count=1; reboot

This removes the bootloader from the partition table by writing zeros to the first 446 bytes on your first hard disk. If you have a SCSI disk, then you need to use the device name for a SCSI disk..eg /dev/sda.

I would use this as a last resort though.
 
Old 09-30-2006, 12:20 AM   #10
syg00
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The M$oft supported (and documented) way to do this since Win2k is to boot the install CD, get into recovery console and run "fixmbr".

Lilo should chainload NTFS fine - but it has been years since I used lilo. I suspect a user error rather than an fault with lilo.

Zapping the loader code in the MBR is a no-no unless you really have to - a virus say. Generally just installing a new loader "over the top" is sufficient - and safest.
 
Old 09-30-2006, 06:44 AM   #11
evilDagmar
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Yeah, LILO has no problems at all booting up WindowsXP (even using NTFS instead of VFAT). Just pretend you're telling LILO to boot a DOS partition and you'll be fine.

I really don't understand what people's problems are with this. It was never an issue when I was dual-booting NT 4.0, either. :/
 
Old 09-30-2006, 07:32 AM   #12
vharishankar
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Did you guys see the date this thread was first posted?
 
Old 09-30-2006, 07:44 AM   #13
syg00
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Now that you mention it - NO, I hadn't.
Don't you hate it when something just (re-)appears.

Ah well ...
 
Old 09-30-2006, 09:25 AM   #14
onebuck
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Quote:
Originally Posted by harishankar
Did you guys see the date this thread was first posted?
Hi,

I noticed the date but the problem still persists for some users!
I'm always digging people out with issues of this type.
 
  


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