Hi, i recently installed pclinuos on my computer and i guess i put the lilo bootloader on my external usb harddisk by accident. I got rid of linux but my external harddrive still has the lilo bootloader... how do i get rid of it?
Please note that i have searched the web all morning and cant find anything for my specific problem.

oh and whenever i boot from it i get
L99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99

Did you try formatting it?

yes like 3 times

Formatting the MBR also?

nope, i have considered that but im not sure how to do it and i dont want to erase the mbr on my internal harddrive, just the external usb. could you tell me how?

The boot loader in an external drive doesn't hurt anybody.

Boot loader cannot be erased by the normal filing commond because it is not part of the filing system.

Boot loader can be overwritten by another one. Thus if you want the external USB hard disk boot then you have to install a boot loader and it will nuke Lilo away.

One can use dd to put zero in the MBR but unless you know exactly where to stop this method is not recommended because the MBR contains the partition table of your external hard disk.

If you must get rid of Lilo now try boot up a Windows installation CD and use the "fixmbr" (or just a Dos floppy with "fdisk /mbr") to overwrite the MBR. MS system MBR produces no display. Some explanation is given in the Section B of the last link in my signature.

thnx for the help but the fixmbr didnt work. it said that it erased it or whatever, but i still have the same problem the lilo is still there...

Katriss,

This is a common problem.

Typically you will arranged the Bios to boot the CD first and then hard disk later.

In the hard disk booting queue you select the external USB disk to boot first, right?

When the installation CD boots, the Windows installer takes over and so the Bios instruction on the hard disk booting queue is not executed. The Windows installer then starts the hardware detection according to a prefixed sequence which most likely commences with the internal Pata hard disk, then internal Sata hard disk and finally the external hard disk. Therefore your fixmbr did work but possible gone to the wrong disk.

If you are prepared to disconnect the internal hard disks then it might just work.

I don't see a point to get rid of a boot loader in an external hard disk because unless you boot it you will never know it is there. If you have 3 hard disk you have 3 MBR but only the the one in the first bootable disk matters because the Bios reads it in any booting process.

If you do use the external hard disk to boot then any system you install must have a boot loader and that will overwrites the current Lilo.

If you have any Linux in the external hard disk which you boot as the 1st disk then the mentioned link Task B3 tells you to put Lilo into the MBR, Task B4 and B5 do the same if the Linux has Grub. Are these instructions not enough for you?

Well the reason I wanted to get rid of the boot loader is because I was going to install windows on it. Ever since i got rid of linux, the boot loader just shows L99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99

I have installed windows on it and when i boot from it it doesn't even show the boot loader, it goes into windows then it shows the blue screen saying i need to check for viruses and what not... So I don't care if lilo is there as long as i can install windows on it. So what do you think i do about that? I mean why is it Showing this error? I really appreciate all the help! Honestly!

Since when Windows supports booting from an external hard disk?

Oooohhhh... Well that is why I posted in the newbie section=)

So...
I CAN'T boot Windows from an external hard disk??

Well know i know!

Right? I can't?

Why not?


Iv'e got Windows on it but after it loads and right before it is supposed to show the user accounts menu thingy it shows the blue screen... But I DID get windows [half-way] On it

http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176
read EVERYTHING on there

AFAIK MS Windows does not support booting from an external USB hard disk. Special version, possibly stripped down or hacked, has been sold on USB pen drives.

For a standard product you can install it. It just won't boot.

Curiously I am using an external hard disk running XP and have just put Vista onto it, together with 9 Linux. It is on a 500Gb eSata disk.

I could install most of the Vista onto it but it didn't complete or boot. So I installed it onto an internal Sata, cloned the partition across, remove the internal hard disk and now it boots and operates as all the other systems.

An eSata is actually an internal hard disk but placed outside the PC connected by an eSata cable. The mobo has to have an extra special socket in order to provide the eSata support.

So far I have found most Linux can be booted from an external USB hard disk. Non-Linux systems are only FreeDos and PCBSD as showed here.

Question.

How old are you saikee?

Very old as a Windows user but an infant in Linux bevause I started using non-M$ systems only about 3 years ago..