[NTLUG:Discuss] OT:Fix an MBR in XP

[terry]

On Sat, Feb 21, 2009 at 1:45 AM, Dennis Myhand <dmyhand at suddenlink.net> wrote:
> Sorry for the Windows question, but I am trying to install Linux so it
> is not completely off topic.  What is the "new and improved" way to fix
> an mbr under XP?  Fdisk does not seem to exist so I can't use the tried
> and true fdisk /mbr.

fdisk /mbr should work.   But if the boot loader is still there, it
should still work, so why not use it?

>  I have an install of the boot loader used in Slack

The boot loader that Slackware uses is called Lilo

> 12.1 that just will NOT get out of the way so I can redo my Linux

You do not need the boot loader out of the way to "redo" your Linux.

> partition and play with some other things.  I have tried the fixmbr
> command from the recovery console and that does not work either.  Any
> useful help is appreciated.  Thanks, Dennis in Victoria
>


If you are wanting to lean something about Linux, you are in the right
place.  If you are trying to learn something about MS Windows XP,
well, you may or may not find the answer you are looking for on this
list.

If you simply want to remove Lilo and re-install XP's boot loader,
fdsik /mbr is the only way I  know of and as far as I know it is still
used in an  up-to-date MS Windows XP system.  If fdisk /mbr is no
longer a valid command, there may be something wrong with your MS
Windows XP install and how to fix that is beyond me.

On a Linux system, when you are missing something, you simply install it.
On an MS system, it's all bundled together and it is sometimes
difficult to find a way fix or re-acquire something like fdisk, or
something that is part of the bundled OS that just doesn't work
anymore.  You may only have an error in the registry that can cause a
loss of functionality, but tracking that down can be quite a chore.

Some say that Linux is complicated but I'm not so sure, it seems
simpler in a lot of ways - at least to me it does. Tracking down
problems in a MS Windows system is sometimes much more complicated, to
such an extent that a fresh re-install may be the easiest and best
way.
-- 
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