Hi All,

After a while dual booting Linux/XP, I recently 'uninstalled' my Suse
10 distribution - by this, I mean I deleted and merged the linux
partitions back into my Windows XP partition using Partition Magic. Now
I think I've made a bit of a mistake...

When I reboot, it seems that GRUB is still in my MBR, but it hangs with
this error:

GRUB Loading stage1.5.

GRUB loading, please wait...
Error 22

What I want to do is remove GRUB and revert to the normal Windows
startup routine (not giving up on linux - just have a separate machine
for it now). I'm guessing this is somehow done using a Boot disk. My
problem is that I don't have a floppy drive on my laptop, and when I
try to boot with the WinXP installation disk into 'Recovery' mode it
won't accept my administrator password - i had always used a blank
login password for my machine. I know this is a schoolboy error (not
knowing the admin password) - so please don't berate me for it!

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated - thanks in advance,
Chris

chrisrodgerson wrote:
[..]
> Error 22
>
> What I want to do is remove GRUB and revert to the normal Windows
> startup routine (not giving up on linux - just have a separate machine
> for it now). I'm guessing this is somehow done using a Boot disk. My
> problem is that I don't have a floppy drive on my laptop, and when I
> try to boot with the WinXP installation disk into 'Recovery' mode it
> won't accept my administrator password - i had always used a blank
> login password for my machine. I know this is a schoolboy error (not
> knowing the admin password) - so please don't berate me for it!

Ordinarily you would use the rescue mode and use the fixmbr command to
install a new windows mbr. However, without your admin password you may
have to resort to a re-installation or some other method unknown to me :-(

Would running:
fdisk /mbr

work on a NTFS WinXP installation? That's presuming I can somehow make
a bootable CD containing fdisk.

So anyway, it was like, 10:51 CET Mar 07 2006, you know? Oh, and, yeah,
chrisrodgerson was all like, "Dude,

> What I want to do is remove GRUB and revert to the normal Windows
> startup routine

Booting from a dos floppy of some kind and running 'fdisk /mbr' should
do the trick.

So anyway, it was like, 11:09 CET Mar 07 2006, you know? Oh, and, yeah,
chrisrodgerson was all like, "Dude,

> Would running:
> fdisk /mbr
>
> work on a NTFS WinXP installation? That's presuming I can somehow
> make a bootable CD containing fdisk.

Do you only use google for email, or what?

You might try the first hit for "bootable cd containing fdisk", for
instance. Haven't tried that one myself, but it looks promising.

chrisrodgerson wrote:
> Would running:
> fdisk /mbr

Yep :-)

> work on a NTFS WinXP installation? That's presuming I can somehow make
> a bootable CD containing fdisk.

Perhaps if a friend has a win98 OEM CD version (they're bootable).

Also; I think one of the solutions here
http://mlf.linux.rulez.org/mlf/ezaz/ntfsresize.html
has the "offline NT reset password" tool available - that's definitely
found also on UltimateBootCd.com

Also from what I recall after doing this once or twice only awhile back
- If you setup XP without a password originally, usually just hitting
<Enter> when prompted for Adm passwd after RC loads -- and then
selecting '1' for \windows (up/down arrows - or hit 1 on keyboard) to
continue finally loading Recovery Console works.

Yea, I had found them - was just checking if it would solve my problem
before trying it. Thanks for the help,
Chris

Great, thanks. Ill have a go with the password reset tool and/or fdisk.
I've already tried the 'just hitting Enter' for password, to no avail
:-(

On Tue, 7 Mar 2006 11:12:07 +0100, Johan Lindquist <spam> wrote:

>> What I want to do is remove GRUB and revert to the normal Windows
>> startup routine
>
>Booting from a dos floppy of some kind and running 'fdisk /mbr' should
>do the trick.

Not for modern windoze, wrong MBR, you may need ntldr instead -->
boot install CD --> recovery console --> fixmbr, fixboot

Grant.

So anyway, it was like, 12:08 CET Mar 07 2006, you know? Oh, and, yeah,
Grant was all like, "Dude,
> On Tue, 7 Mar 2006 11:12:07 +0100, Johan Lindquist <spam> wrote:

>>> What I want to do is remove GRUB and revert to the normal Windows
>>> startup routine
>>
>>Booting from a dos floppy of some kind and running 'fdisk /mbr'
>>should do the trick.
>
> Not for modern windoze, wrong MBR, you may need ntldr instead -->
> boot install CD --> recovery console --> fixmbr, fixboot

Dunno which values of "modern" you're using, but fdisk will certainly
"fix" the MBR in a way that will make Windows XP boot, as long as the
actual system files still exist.

I'm sure doing it the proper way using the install cd is the supported
method, but since not all (any?) preinstalled computers come with a
bootable install cd, that may or may not be an option.

On Tue, 7 Mar 2006 12:41:11 +0100, Johan Lindquist <spam> wrote:

>Dunno which values of "modern" you're using, but fdisk will certainly
>"fix" the MBR in a way that will make Windows XP boot, as long as the
>actual system files still exist.

I'm getting rusty on windoze recovery ;) Didn't think a win98 startup
floppy boot fdisk /mbr would do the trick... Bootpart can fix MBR, as
can other stuff on the 'net. Not a difficult issue.
>
>I'm sure doing it the proper way using the install cd is the supported
>method, but since not all (any?) preinstalled computers come with a
>bootable install cd, that may or may not be an option.

What? New boxen pre installed legal windoze don't come with a recovery
CD/DVD? How is one supposed to recover from hard drive crash, buy
another 'puter?

Grant.

So anyway, it was like, 13:01 CET Mar 07 2006, you know? Oh, and, yeah,
Grant was all like, "Dude,
> On Tue, 7 Mar 2006 12:41:11 +0100, Johan Lindquist <spam> wrote:

>>Dunno which values of "modern" you're using, but fdisk will
>>certainly "fix" the MBR in a way that will make Windows XP boot, as
>>long as the actual system files still exist.
>
> I'm getting rusty on windoze recovery ;) Didn't think a win98
> startup floppy boot fdisk /mbr would do the trick... Bootpart can
> fix MBR, as can other stuff on the 'net. Not a difficult issue.

To clarify my previous rather sweeping statement, what the
semi-documented /mbr switch does is to rewrite the master boot record
(on the first disk only, mind you) in such a way that the active
partition will be booted. If the xp partition isn't marked active,
this probably won't do the trick, but for a computer originally
installed with xp it probably is.

Lots of conditionals there, I realise now.

>>I'm sure doing it the proper way using the install cd is the
>>supported method, but since not all (any?) preinstalled computers
>>come with a bootable install cd, that may or may not be an option.
>
> What? New boxen pre installed legal windoze don't come with a
> recovery CD/DVD?

Recovery cd yes, bootable install cd no. I haven't seen a prebuilt
box come with a real installation cd in many years, instead there's a
recovery cd which mostly installs a factory configured image complete
with the appropriate drivers and bundled software.

> How is one supposed to recover from hard drive crash, buy another
> 'puter?

I believe the word from the help-yourself-desk will be "restore the
factory configuration using the recovery cd and then restore your data
from your latest backup". You do make backups, don't you..? :)

Thanks for all the replies guys - i managed to fix the problem using a
tool (MBRTool) on the "Ultimate Boot CD"
(http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/).

Grant wrote:
> On Tue, 7 Mar 2006 12:41:11 +0100, Johan Lindquist <spam> wrote:
>
> >Dunno which values of "modern" you're using, but fdisk will certainly
> >"fix" the MBR in a way that will make Windows XP boot, as long as the
> >actual system files still exist.
>
> I'm getting rusty on windoze recovery ;) Didn't think a win98 startup
> floppy boot fdisk /mbr would do the trick... Bootpart can fix MBR, as
> can other stuff on the 'net. Not a difficult issue.

The reason 98's fdisk /mbr works is because it only overwrites the
first 440bytes of the MBR. NTFS's MBR is distinguished by, and utilizes
the next 4-6bytes (440-446), which is not touched by fdisk /mbr....the
remaining 64 for the partition tables + the last 2bytes for active/boot
signature brings the total to 512.

quick explanation;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbr

hth..
Regards

crod wrote:
> Thanks for all the replies guys - i managed to fix the problem using a
> tool (MBRTool) on the "Ultimate Boot CD"
> ([..]).

Chris;
glad to help -- but PLEASE when you post to Usenet/Newsgroups --
include some quoted text, to keep ysome "context" of who/what you're
replying to..Google groups is Broken and backwards, but can be used
correctly once you see this;

http://cfaj.freeshell.org/google/
http://www.safalra.com/special/googlegroupsreply/

Regards