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Fixing the MBR
This is not really a problem or annoyance with Windows; it is an issue with the boot managers used by Linux (GRUB and LILO being the main ones) when one is trying to remove Linux and go back to Windows-only on a computer.
Twice I have setup a Linux/Windows dual boot system and twice I have needed to remove Linux and return to straight Windows. Both times, after removing Linux, I still got a boot-up prompt asking which operating system to boot.
The first time I just lived with it until I finally got irritated enough to go search the web for how to get rid of GRUB or LILO. The second time, I somehow deleted something that caused my computer, early in the boot-up procedure just before the list of boot options would normally appear, to hang at a screen which displayed "LI" and nothing else --- an indication from LILO that the boot record was fubar.
UPDATE: It has since happened again (at work) when using GRUB. The last screen displayed when the boot process abruptly halts has only the word “GRUB” displayed. This time I wasn’t trying to remove Linux, but that’s another long story.
I learned two things from that second experience:
- ALWAYS create an emergency boot disk BEFORE you will ever need it. For Win98, I went to the
MTSUTILS/FAT32EBDdirectory on the Win98 CD, and ran theFAT32EBDprogram. Then, I replaced theMSDOS.SYSon the floppy with the one fromC:so that my computer could boot from the floppy into Windows rather than the MS-DOS prompt. - To restore the MBR (Master Boot Record), which is what Linux mucks with when it installs GRUB or LILO, use an undocumented feature of
FDISK(found in yourWINDOWS\COMMANDdirectory):
fdisk /mbr
fixmbr command (see the microsoft.com fixmbr page for more details).
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H’aint we got all the fools in town on our side? And ain’t that a big enough majority in any town?
