Boot problem
 

Okay, this is rather odd, though I think I know what might of caused it...


I had Mandrake Linux 9.1 installed with Windows XP on my other machine. I realized that I wasn't using Linux enough at the time to warrant the space it was taking up, so I fired up partition magic and got rid of Linux(This might of been a mistake I realize)now, everything was fine until I shut down my machine and it tried rebooting.. As it went through its usual paces, it then did something wierd:

L 99 99 99 99 etc etc


And then it gave me a prompt:
PRESS ANY KEY TO REBOOT


I have a feeling this is because the LILO boot utility is still in the boot sector of my harddrive? How do I remove it?

Boot up with a Windows bootup disk and simply do a:

fdisk /MBR

could someone post a link to instructions on how to make a boot disk? i had checked the windows website on how to make them(windows XP) but it said i needed multiple disks, how do i make one with a single disk?

thanks!

Actually in my experience the win98 boot disk works best. You can download to create one from this link: http://hot.ee/bootdisk/WIN98.EXE

Yay! It worked perfectly, but now it's bringing up the Windows boot screen and not moving... God I hate Windows.. -.-;

Is there anything else I should of done besides fdisk /MBR ?

I tried loading again, it went by the Black loading screen with the progress bar at the bottom, and then well, blue loading screen with nothing happening.. Normally it says: Loading your personal settings.


I know this is a Linux forum, but I figured this would be the best place to ask, seeing as the problem was due to altering stuff with Linux.


EDIT: Waaaita minute. My system had set the Windows partition to be drive G:, would that effect loading somehow? Maybe it's looking for a drive C: when there isn't one? Or maybe it switched to drive C: but thinks it's still drive G?

Wow, that's not right....
 

Okay, just booted up with the boot disk again and this is what I found:
A:/>fdisk
Partions
A
--


Nothing else! No other partitions! But yet Windows XP still loads, the intro screen. @.@;

Bump.

Someone please help, or at least point me somewhere to get said help.

Windows does like to be the primary partition. I'm not that familiar with WindowsXP and installing it but perhaps it has a rescue or recovery tool when booting the WinXP cd or the such... ??

No clue, but a friend of mine(comp techie) said I'm pretty much screwed.. So I'm gunna reinstall.. Another reason why I hate Windows. XD

don't worry about the output of fdisk. It's dos disk and doesn't recognize an NTFS partition so the output is as expected. As for fixing XP.... I second trickykid's suggestion to see if the XP installation CD can help you further.