Uninstall/Reformat HD

Tue Aug 20 02:55:49 CDT 2002

OK, previous ribbing aside (SOMEBODY had to say it!!!) I am willing to 
help, but I have been totally Red Hat since 5.1 and haven't installed a 
Microsoft product since 'doze 95.

You just need to put the 'doze boot record back into the MBR.
(track 0 sector 0)

I suspect that when reformatted, you blew away the area where GRUB 
stored the boot records.  When LILO or GRUB or any of the boot managers 
are installed, they put pointers to their code in the MBR (Master Boot 
Record) and copy the existing one to the Boot Track with all the other 
boot entries.  When you select a image to boot, the boot manager points 
to the correct record.  Since they no longer exist, GRUB can't do that.

If you have the recovery disks that were created during the 'doze 
install process, or the RH install process, you should be able to put it 
back, or at least boot, without much fuss.

If not, it could be a little tricky.  Just for my edification, do you 
happen to have any backups of the RH partition, boot partition or the 
data you need to save?

I know that under DOS and the early versions of 'doze, you booted from 
floppy and ran the utility "SYS C:' on the drive and that rebuilt the 
MBR.  Now I think you have to use a bootable recovery disk to rebuild 
the MBR.  Without backups or the recovery disk, I would suggest 
something like Norton's Firt Aid software.  I have not seen it in a 
while, but it used to have a recovery program that could fix problems 
like this.

I haven't worked with 'doze 2k enough to know if booting from the 
install will give you the option of creating a recovery disk without 
trashing the HD.

I am usually up late, so if you neeed some help or have questions, I 
will TRY to keep the Linux bias out of my responses!  (grin)

Tia Haenni wrote:

> OK, I need serious and quick help, please!! I reformatted the HD for
> NTFS, but as I feared, there is a problem when I boot up. I only get as
> far as the command line grub, which I am not familiar with. There's a
> 6-pack for anyone who can help me to get my windoze booted up tonight.
> This box has work stuff on it and I HAVE to get it up ASAP. Thanks,
> 
> Tia
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kurt Kessler [mailto:kessler2k at yahoo.com] 
> Sent: Monday, August 19, 2002 5:28 PM
> To: thaenni at kc.rr.com
> Subject: RE: Uninstall/Reformat HD
> 
> 
> It doesnt "recognize" it, it just knows that it's a
> NON-DOS partition. You just kill the partitions, and
> when you boot next Windoze just sees a bunch of
> garbage and will automatically kill everything, just
> like normal. lol
> 
> 
> --- Tia Haenni <thaenni at kc.rr.com> wrote:
> 
>>Ok, but how do you fdisk a drive that is formatted
>>for linux, windows
>>doesn't recognize it???????
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: owner-kclug at marauder.illiana.net 
>>[mailto:owner-kclug at marauder.illiana.net] On Behalf Of Kurt Kessler
>>Sent: Monday, August 19, 2002 3:34 PM
>>To: kclug at kclug.org
>>Subject: RE: Uninstall/Reformat HD
>>
>>
>>Ok, i see what you are saying. I just did the same
>>thing. I added a second drive to my 2k box, to only
>>put games on. I just fdisk out of habit. Anyway,
>>once
>>I booted up with the second drive after having
>>fdisk'd
>>it, Win2k will automatically tell you that it needs
>>to
>>be formatted, and ask you whether fat32 or NTFS.
>>
>>--- Tia Haenni <thaenni at kc.rr.com> wrote:
>>
>>>I don't need to install an OS, the HD will just be
>>>used for data. So
>>>then, if I fdisk the HD for NTFS, that should be
>>>
>>it?
>>
>>>If I already have a
>>>Windoze OS installed and am not installing a new
>>>
>>OS
>>
>>>on said HD, I don't
>>>want to fdisk /mbr, do I?
>>>
>>>-----Original Message-----
>>>From: owner-kclug at marauder.illiana.net
>>>[mailto:owner-kclug at marauder.illiana.net] On
>>>
>>Behalf Of Dustin Decker
>>
>>>Sent: Monday, August 19, 2002 10:41 AM
>>>To: kclug at kclug.org
>>>Subject: Re: Uninstall/Reformat HD
>>>
>>>
>>>On Mon, 19 Aug 2002, Kurt Kessler wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>I always use my handy Win98 Startup disk. I just
>>>>
>>>boot
>>>
>>>>to the floppy and fdisk the patitions. Also, be
>>>>
>>>sure
>>>
>>>>and "fdisk /mbr" too. Then Just boot the new OS
>>>>
>>>cd.
>>>
>>>>Windows is real good about destroying any info
>>>>
>>on
>>
>>>a
>>>
>>>>hard drive :p
>>>>
>>>If you boot off of the CD to do the Win2K install,
>>>you needn't go
>>>through all the "fdisk /mbr" stuff...
>>>D.
>>>
>>>--
>>>*-----------------------------------*
>>>| Dustin Decker                     |
>>>| dustind at moon-lite.com
>>>*-----------------------------------------*
>>>| http://dustin.moon-lite.com |
>>>|
>>>| Moon-Lite Computing         | Feeling amorous,
>>>
>>she
>>
>>>looked under the
>>>|
>>>| 913.579.7117                | sheets and cried,
>>>"Oh, no, it's
>>>|
>>>*-----------------------------| Microsoft!"
>>>|
>>>                              |
>>>|
>>> 
>>>*-----------------------------------------*
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>KC Linux Users Group -- to unsubscribe send mail
>>>
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>>>
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>>
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>>>
>>>
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> 
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