Killing windows with out loosing bootloader....

agentdunken · 08-24-2005, 07:56 PM

Hello. I want to kill windblows. I havnen't used it in 6 months and have no need for it. See I have 2 HD's. 1 120GB HD and 1 80GB HD. I installed Suse 9.3 on my 80GB HD and my 80GB is set to slave. Windblows is on my 120GB HD and is set to master. Well I think Suse installed the boot loader on the Master Boot Record. I was planing to kill windblows 3 days ago until a friend said I might loose my boot loader and would not be able to boot back into Suse. Well I have Suse configured the way I like it. I really don't feel like backing every thing up and having to configure it all over again. Some thing I wont be able to get back because I forget where I got them. Games I installed and updated the Nvidia driver to 7667 and don't feel like doing that again. Updated my whole system you get my point. So please help me. If I kill windows will I still have my boot loader and my friend was just kidding? Or if I do kill it I will loose my boot loader and be screwed? Also I don't have a floppie drive.

Please help. Pretty please

I don't want evil windblows no more

reddazz · 08-24-2005, 10:06 PM

Chances are that your MBR maybe overwritten by whatever process you use to remove windows from your primary drive. To be on the safe side you could install grub to a floppy by doing,

Code:

#grub-install /dev/fd0

If the mbr is overwritten, then you can use it to boot into your system and you can reinstall grub by doing

Code:

#grub-install /dev/hda

agentdunken · 08-24-2005, 11:17 PM

I don't have a floppy drive

craigevil · 08-24-2005, 11:32 PM

Grab a copy of Knoppix it can be used to repair/reinstall grub.

LinuxDevCenter.com: True Stories of Knoppix Rescues

Quote:

Since Knoppix included grub-install, I was able to install grub from within Knoppix by mounting my root directory read/write and running grub-install root-directory=/dev/hda3 /dev/hda. After another reboot, I was reunited with my grub boot menu and was able to boot back into my Linux system.

reddazz · 08-25-2005, 05:32 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by craigevil
Grab a copy of Knoppix it can be used to repair/reinstall grub.

LinuxDevCenter.com: True Stories of Knoppix Rescues

Interesting method. I once did something similar using Knoppix (or maybe Mepis), but I chrooted into the root partition that contained my grub installation and did "grub-install /dev/hda".

agentdunken · 08-25-2005, 09:59 AM

Im going to be safe and install my old floppy drive.

agentdunken · 08-25-2005, 11:40 AM

I did it. I killed windblows

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11 I feel so happy. I killed it and my boot loader wasn't affected. I tested it. Tried booting into windblows and couldn't said no such thing. Booted into Suse with no problems. Never used it for 6 months and now have a free 120GB HD for liunx!!! W00t!!!!!1

saikee · 09-02-2005, 07:04 PM

I wouldn't laugh so fast.

Why not resize windows and keep it there for the rainy day? Say shrink it about 15 Gb and use the rest for other purposes. A Linux on its own seldom needs more than 10Gb.

agentdunken · 09-02-2005, 08:14 PM

I don't need windows no more and I don't support M$. Also why ruin a rainy day by booting in winblows?

saikee · 09-03-2005, 04:35 AM

I do get a kick out of digging out all kind of old DOS, Win3x and Win9x and put them into the box because Linux can manage and boot them while M$ can't.

In fact you can ask Suse to make a humble bootable Grub floppy to boot any M$ system as welll as any Linux/Unix, inside your box or with any PC.

You may be missing out a very powerfull feature of Linux - the amazing ability of its boot loader "Grub".