Removing lilo
 

I'm selling my laptop so I need to remove lilo so I can reinstall windows XP. I've only got a recovery cd ( one that came with laptop ), lilo -u doesn't work because it doesn't have a saved xp bootloader and I havn't got a floppy drive so cant boot from a win98 floppy.

Yes I've done search. I can renember reading that mandrake cd1 can install xp bootloader but cant find anything about it.

So how do I get rid of lilo?

Ummm...reinstalling XP should automatically get rid of the bootloader...it writes over the boot sector...

But...for future reference

Put XP CD in Drive
Let it load up...until you come to a screen that says push F3 or R or something to enter the recovery console

Inside the recovery console simply type "fixmbr" and it will ask you...warning this will replace boot sector blah blah blah...do you wish to continue...choose...yes...and it will write it over...and tell you it has successfully done so...and then...no more Lilo :(

Its not a full XP, just the recovery cd to restore the hd. Doesn't overwrite lilo.

put in any winxp cd, use the repair mode and type 'fixmbr' at the prompt. All done !

I've only got a CD to restore the HD so I cant use fixmbr.

Do you have access to a Windows 98SE install CD? You can boot to a DOS prompt and run fdisk.

fdisk /mbr

I've havn't got a win98 cd. Any other idea's?

Here is an idea... but since it doesn't look like you tried the others I doubt it will help you.

Change /etc/lilo.conf so that it expects to boot windows from the first partition and nothing else.
Install the new lilo
Now, install Xp.
Boot xp from lilo
open a command prompt and type "fdisk /mbr"

There done.

a restore CD should wipe the HDD, unless in this case theres a hidden partition which would be bad...

What about the Ultimate Boot Disk?

I thought you could only do fdisk /mbr from a recovery console?

Doesn't overwrite the mbr

You can download a DOS bootdisk from bootdisk.com that includes the fdisk utility.

As I said in the first post I aint got a floppy drive.

What I did in the end was install XP on a 18 gig partition (18.6 gig drive ) and install a small slack onto the remaining 600mb partition. I set lilo to boot straight into windows with no option for lilo. So now all you get is a message at the start saying

"lilo 2.? loading Windows"

Good enough to sell.