removing grub from a new pc with no other os installed

berrioshernan · 12-01-2003, 12:00 PM

how do i remove GRUB from a pc that has never had another os than redhat linux 9.0. I want to clean up the pc in order to install Windows.

fancypiper · 12-01-2003, 02:05 PM

Microsoft support has the howtos on this

# How do I uninstall Linux completely and keep/use Windows only?
How to Remove Linux and Install Windows 2000
How to Remove Linux and Install Windows XP
You can remove lilo from the mbr with
/sbin/lilo -u
You can remove grub or lilo from the mbr by booting with a Windows 98 boot floppy (at the prompt, type fdisk /mbr), or by using the Windows XP Recovery Console or the Windows 2000 Recovery Console

flysideways · 12-01-2003, 06:06 PM

I like the fixmbr command in the Windows Recovery Console.

berrioshernan · 12-02-2003, 12:53 PM

Thank you for replying to my question. I already tried fdisk /mbr using a Windows 98 installation disk but still get the GRUB> prompt. I cant seem to recover what I never had on my pc. It is a brand new pc that I put together and the only OS ever installed on it was Redhat linux 9.0. Is the recovery console a usefull tool for a first time use, since Windows wasnt installed before on the pc?

fancypiper · 12-02-2003, 01:06 PM

You haven't mentioned the flavor of Windows you are attempting to install. Some versions of Windows install (above Windows 98, I believe) can recognise and remove Linux partitions and grub.

If you can boot into linux from a CD, I suggest zeroing out the drive. Any "Linux live" cd will do. For example, master drive on first ide:

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

If you can boot from floppy (and have access to a Windows machine to make the floppy), the Ranish Partition Manager might do the job for you.