uninstalling bootlloader?

[LinuxCrusader 0]

Anybody knows how to uninstall mandrake's bootloader? I recently installed Madrake 9.2 in a duel boot with WinXP, but now I want to try another distros without affecting the Wins partion of course and I like to start from scratch for the Linux partition and without a bootloader.

 

Your expert advise will be greatly appreciated

[outstream 0]

Quote:

Anybody knows how to uninstall mandrake's bootloader? I recently installed Madrake 9.2 in a duel boot with WinXP, but now I want to try another distros without affecting the Wins partion of course and I like to start from scratch for the Linux partition and without a bootloader

do u mean u want to remove Mandrake and install another distro without affecting windows partitions?. i have done this. i`ll tell u what i did. i first transferred all my valuable data from linux drive to windows drive. after that i installed partition magic in windows. with help of that i removed linux partition and formated it again. by doing that my Grub boot loader, which was installed on MBR was removed and automatically priority was set to windows.

after that steps were simple, i put in the cd of another distro and installed it and after installation and rebooting, the new boot loader was installed on MBR and things in win partitions were safe.

[LinuxCrusader 0]

Quote:

outstream Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2004 8:20 pm Post subject:


do u mean u want to remove Mandrake and install another distro without affecting windows partitions?.
.

Yes, that exactly what I mean. I was searching online for "partion magic" and it seems I have to pay to get it, unless you know a place where I can get it without paying...else I think of something. I appreciate the replied Outstream!

This qquestion goes to everyone, which distro is the most preffered by everyone? I had Mandrake 9.2 but last night when I was trying to comile Xime, somehow many of my options from the kicker (task bar) and the main menu were deleted...all I was trying to do is to get my DVD-rom to work, so I'm to start all over again and maybe try a different distro.
Any recommendations will be greatly appreciated.

[danleff 0]

There is no distro preferred by everyone...but there are a lot of choices, depending on your needs.

 

Look at distrowatch.com and look at their list of most visited distro pages. Follow the links and look at some of the top picks and see what may look like it fits your desires and needs.

 

PartitionMagic is the most secure and reliable. If you are not willing to pay for it (you have to have a serial number code to activate it), then you can use cfdisk, or the Mandrake partition utility. Just be aware, that I found that the mandrake utility and the format it makes may be finicky with other distros.

 

Pop in the CD, boot up and follow the install to the partitioning section. Pick custom partitioning (assuming that you know where your Mandrake partition currently is), pick your partition that you want to reformat, choose the filesystem type (ie: ext2, ext3...) allow the format to occur and back out of the install.

 

You then have the partition re-formatted for the next distro.

 

Of course, make sure the distro that you use can use the partition type that you choose, ext3 is generally compatible with all the major distros.

 

And of course...make sure you have backed up your important data, in case something does go wrong, as outstream noted.

[LinuxCrusader 0]

Thanks again Danleff...I will try the Mandrake's partition utility.

[lhm0155 0]

have dos disk 1 (setup) handy??? boot up with it and then choose not to intall dos, it will leave you a command prompt and then fdisk /mbr works beautifully

[danleff 0]

If you want to keep/re-establish the windows bootloader, then fdisk /mbr will do this.

 

If you want to immediately install another distro, then make sure that during the installation, you either choose to make a boot disk, or allow lilo or grub to be your bootloader on the mbr.

 

Making a boot floppy only will preserve the windows bootloader, but allow boot of the distro from the floppy..

 

Allowing grub or lilo to takeover the mbr will give you the linux bootloader and should add windows as a menu choice.

 

If it does not for some reason, you can add windows to the linux bootloader menu.

[LinuxCrusader 0]

Thanks guys...all these feedback is really helpful.