How to remove GRUB loader!?

[ZadrraS 0]

I deleted all linux partitions with Partition Magic and converted them to FAT32. When i restart my computer the GRUB command line thingie loads and the computer doesn't boot any startup disks or windows cd's. What to do? how do i turn that hing off?

[ZadrraS 0]

.

[AndyFair 0]

You need to go into the BIOS and set the CD to be the first device to boot, put the hard drive second.

Do you have Windows installed already? If so, boot from the CD, enter the recovery console (press R when it asks you whether you want to install windows etc.) When you're at the console, type:

 

[font:courier]fixmbr[/font]

 

and that will remove GRUB from your system.

 

If you don't have Windows installed, GRUB will be overwritten as part of the installation.

 

Rgds

AndyF

[aruwin 0]

HI, I tried what u said andy but in my case the problem remains. Please do tell me an alternate method!

 

[cybersam 0]

It is very simple to restore a DOS or Windows MBR. Just enter the MS-DOS command (available since DOS version 5.0) fdisk /MBR. These commands only write the first 446 bytes (the boot code) into the MBR and leave the partition table untouched.

[AndyFair 0]

AlecStaar - GRUB is a Linux bootloader, similar to lilo. It seems to be becoming more popular in Linux distros to use GRUB rather than lilo, I think it's because GRUB looks nicer

 

zadrras - I'm not sure why fixmbr doesn't work - it's always worked for me in the past. You could try [font:courier]fixboot[/font] instead, which will rewrite all of the Windows boot files.

 

cybersam - I suggested using the Windows install CD becuase the chances of zadrras having a DOS disk spare were slim (I don't have one either) and since he couldn't get into Windows, he couldn't run a command prompt from there either

 

Rgds

AndyF

[chriss 0]

I had both SUSE 9.1 and XP Home on my Vaio S-150. I removed the Linux partition using Windows Partition manager. I get a GRUB message popping up when I turn on my computer. How do I delete it? I dont have a backup disk because it did not come with one. I do have a disc but it is for XP Pro. I tried loading that but it wont boot the CD. I went into my BIOS to change it to boot the CD Drive before the HDD. It wouldnt let me change it. What do I do? Thank You!

[croma 0]

Hey,

 

You need a boot disk (cd or floppy) with fdisk on it, then run

fdisk /mbr.

 

This worked for me with LILO and it should work with GRUB.

 

http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/cdrom/

 

Croma

[tftan 0]

fixboot won't solve the problem. I tried already. you need to use fixmbr to remove grub. fixmbr available for XP but not in Win NT4.

 

alternatively, you can use grub to help you to boot your windows by directing the GRUB to load your NTLoader.

 

grub> rootnoverify (hd0,0)

grub> makeactive

grub> chainloader +1

grub> boot

 

Assuming your Windows is in HDD 1 and partition 1.

 

grub is a tool helping you to choose which OS you want to load if your machine loaded with multiple OSs.

 

 

[_neo_ 0]

Check that your windows partition is set to ACTIVE.

 

I tried the "fdisk /mbr" & still had Grub showing also.

After checking fdisk again, I noticed the /mbr option had removed the ACTIVE flag.

This seemed to have done the trick for me.

 

PS: check also http://www.linuxquestions.org

[_neo_ 0]

Also, here is the official Grub FAQ on uninstalling Grub...

 

http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/grub-legacy-faq.en.html#q12

[jbirkett 0]

Sorry i'm late in the game with this, but it does not appear that this has been answered successfully. You do not, i repeat, do not want to use fdisk /mbr with Windows NT or XP. That method is for dos based systems and not NT based systems. You swill most likely have success with the following:

 

fixboot c:

fixmbr

 

is you want to change the boot.ini file then execute the command:

 

bootcfg /rebuild

 

the last will put a new entry in the boot.ini file.

 

To do this successfully you should have started your system from the Windows XP CD and selected the 'repair' option.

This also assumes that you have not moved any partitions around, that is in the order or number that they exist on your HDD. If you have then you should execute bootcfg and rewrite the boot.ini file.

You also should be in the root directory, as in 'C:\' not 'C:\windows'.

 

Please don't ask me why I know this so well. As most people in our industry know so well, sometimes you lear VERY well by experience.

 

Hope this helps others.

John

[intenzity513 0]

Ok so what do you do when you want to uninstall GRUB from a SFS/NTFS Volume, and FIXMBR does not work?

 

I have this problem on a XP volume in which GRUB was installed into the MBR/replaced the MBR, and FIXMBR will not remove it or repair the MBR. This is a SATA drive.

 

 

[intenzity513 0]

After trying to recover a MBR on a SFS/NTFS volume after uninstalling GRUB from SUSE 9.2, the only way to repair a SFS/NTFS MBR is to use FDISK v1.2.1 with the /MBR <drive#> tag. FIXBOOT & FIXMBR do not work. ALSO, once you rebuild the MBR using FDISK, FIXMBR cannot be used to repair/replace the MBR. MS FDISK will not work, it must be FDISK v1.2.1

 

l8

 

[jbirkett 0]

I do know why DOS FDISK won't work, but I was able to accomplish the fix with FIXBOOT and FIXMBR, then BOOTCFG.

It only worked if I was in the root directory for the instance that I wanted to fix:

 

example:

when selecting repair function used

C:\WINDOWS

CD ..

FIXBOOT C:

FIXMBR

BOOTCFG /rebuild

 

after all that I was able to select the new entry from the selection menu.

 

Like I said, I don't know why you could not get it to work.

Regards,

John

[intenzity513 0]

I am curious as to which version of Microslush you have installed, and having FIXMBR and FIXBOOT solve the issue. The system I encountered this issue on was a MS XP PRO box w/SP2 and all the latest hotfix's installed (including IE updates, natrualy, and hahah, of course almost impossible to avoid:) Anyway, like I stated before, if it's this combination of OS's (SUSE 9.x, and XP PRO SP2/later) I would love to see someone come forth having had FIXMBR and FIXBOOT solve the MBR corruption issue from a SUSE GRUB boot loader installation/un-installation/failed installation. Unless this test machine I encountered this issue on is "special" per say, I would go as far as saying that you have NO OTHER OPTION other than using FDISK 1.2.1 when its XP PRO SP2 and Grub from SUSE 9.x). I could be wrong, so if you have experienced this issue having meet the following above mentioned OS requirements, and were able to fix it using the MS supplied toolset, please speak up because we want to know what the deal really is with the random intermittent?ness? of such issues, although, 97% chance it will be blamed on a ?un-supported? hardware platform.

 

I do admire MS software, but one thing that I have noticed throughout the years in supporting, using, developing, and often times enjoying it, is that Windows/MS based apps are the single most intermittent POS available at times. I realize the very broad range of hardware platforms does playa major role in such intermittent"ness" in regards to software/development issues, but now-a-days, in this year of 2005, the hardware platforms we are working with, even for most clones, are almost identical in construction and somewhat regulated and ?standardized?, this obviously due to many years of developer's and engineer's trying to accomplish exactly that, a IBM PC based architecture that runs efficient, with solid performance and reliability, yet somewhat standardized even across multi-corporation/manufacture platforms. This is the #1 reason Macs have 60% less support issues with their OS/Software. Just a thought. Anyways, who likes macs anyway, 5 minutes with a one button mouse, and I will place a large wager in Vegas on the fact that you probably ripped it out of the box and destroyed it in a very understandable and most lilkly enjoyable fit of rage as I did

 

Anyway, just some thoughts....anyone else

 

l8

 

intenzity

_____________________________________________________________________________________

EliTE PEOPLE R0CK, but PUBLIC DOMAIN IS BETER, but why? LOL, EXACTLY Mate.

[Jasbo 0]

I have used FIXMBR to remove the grub loader on a windows xp sp2 system just a few days ago. I was running Windows XP and Fedora Core 3. worked just fine.

[ishmach 0]

Originally posted by intenzity513:

Quote:

Ok so what do you do when you want to uninstall GRUB from a SFS/NTFS Volume, and FIXMBR does not work?

 

I have this problem on a XP volume in which GRUB was installed into the MBR/replaced the MBR, and FIXMBR will not remove it or repair the MBR. This is a SATA drive.

 

 

I had the same problem. I have a SATA drive and an EIDE drive. XP always wants to think the EIDE drive is the first, and when in recovery mode it would think the installation was at D:\Windows -> this caused the FIXBOOT/FIXMBR/BOOTCFG combo not to work. When I disabled the EIDE drive and tried again, it worked out fine. Just simplify the process by temporarily disabling extra drives in the BIOS.

[thereisonlyone 0]

I used this method and had absolutly no troubles with removing the Grub 1.5 Loader that came with Kubuntu. I have multile hard drives but since i only have one windows installation it happened to be in c:\windows. I didnt even have to disable any of my other hard drives...

 

 

Originally posted by jbirkett:

Quote:

C:\WINDOWS

CD ..

FIXBOOT C:

FIXMBR

BOOTCFG /rebuild

 

 

I noticed that i ended up with a second instance of "Microsoft Windows XP Professional" in the NTLoader when I start up. But that will be quickly removed when I edit the boot.ini file in Windows to remove it.

 

Thanks!!

 

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[amduser 0]

That above solution doesn't work. I have Windows 2K and it says fixboot c: is not a command.

[danleff 0]

Are you booting from the Win 2000 cd and getting into the recovery console?

 

See the Microsoft article here.

[treepour 0]

Phew, John/jbirkett's method just worked for me. Thank you, John! I'm running Windows XP Pro, SP2 with all the latest updates.

 

For what it's worth, here's a small detail that might be helpful to others doing this the first time:

 

After the bootcfg had scanned my drives (took quite awhile), it asked me if I wanted to add "D:\WINDOWS" (the recovery disk, I assume). I answered "Y", then just pressed enter on the following two prompts. When it asked the same thing about "C:\WINDOWS", I just pressed enter. I assume this counted as a "Yes", but I didn't get the two prompts I'd gotten previously.

 

When I rebooted, I was asked to choose which operating system to boot. I apparently had two options: a blank line(!), or Windows XP Professional. I chose Windows, and everything booted normally.

 

When I checked the boot.ini file, I saw two entries at the bottom, in the operating systems section. One of these had "" where the other had "Windows XP Professional . . ."

 

So I deleted the "" line from the boot.ini file, left everything else alone, saved, rebooted. Everything was back to normal.

 

Not exactly sure exactly what I should have done (No to D:\WINDOWS question, Yes on C:\WINDOWS question?) . . . but, thankfully, it doesn't really matter at this point.

[raddad51x 0]

I need help also. I am migrating machines, from an older Intel to an AMD 64 mobo and 2 new drives. I have XP loaded on the primary drive, and Fedora 4 on the slave.

 

I want Windows to control the boot sequence, not grub. The purpose is so that I can update to FC5.

 

Q1. How do I remove grub loader, and get MSFT to load the boot sequence.

Q2. My grub.config is as follows:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda

#

# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file

# NOTICE: You do not have a /boot partition. This means that

# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.

# root (hd1,1)

# kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hdb2

# initrd /boot/initrd-version.img

#boot=/dev/hda

default=0

timeout=5

splashimage=(hd1,1)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz

#hiddenmenu

title Windows XP

rootnoverify (hd0,0)

chainloader +1

title Fedora Core (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4)

root (hd1,1)

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet

initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4.img

 

How do I translate this into the boot.ini once I have successfully replaced the boot loader.

 

raddad51x

[raddad51x 0]

I forgot to include that i want to add W2000 to this new machine, making it a tri=boot. XP and W2000 are going on the first drive, and a NTFS partition and Fedora5 are going on the second, cable selected drive.

 

Your help is appreciated.

 

raddad51x@hotmail.com

[danleff 0]

Your second post clarified a little what you are trying to do.

 

In any case, you are going to lose a booloader no matter what you do in a triple boot situation.

 

Perhaps the true Windows gurus can comment on this more fully.

 

Keep in miond that each OS that you install assumes that it will be the only one on the system, so they proceed, by default, as such.

 

I believe that when you install Windows 2000, it will overwrite the MBR, so I would look at the XP boot.ini file and either back this up, or write down the values.

 

Ditto for when you install Windows 2000. Look at the boot.ini and write down the values.

 

Since I am a Linux person, why not install Windows 2000 (taking the steps to note what the boot.ini files say as a precaution), then upgrade to Fedora Core 5 and use Grub to boot all your operating systems?

 

If you insist on using the NT bootloader, you can then add the boot file (that would be placed in the root on the C drive) and add the reference to the Linuc boot file to the NT bootloader.

 

Either way, you are only using the NT bootloader to reference the grub bootloader in Fedora. So, you do not want to remove Fedora, since the Fedora Grub reference files are on that boot or root partition, depending how you set Fedora up.

 

The other quick thing that I noticed, is your use of the term "cable selected" for the Fedora drive. Is ths drive jumpered as either a primary slave, or secondary maseter or slave drive, not cable select on the hard drive's jumper? A small point, but I am just curious.