XP/Linux/Multi-boot Madness!

[Scouse]

Scenario:

A friend of a friend (honest!) has a laptop with two partitions on the hard drive.

On partition 1 he installed XP Pro.

On partition 2 he installed linux.


He removed linux on the second partition but in doing so he f*cked the boot process - so he couldn't get his XP Pro to boot - and he's got loads of stuff he needs on it....


He's re-installed linux so he can get to his stuff OK. - he's got LOADS of stuff installed aswell so doesn't want to have to re-install XP.

Question:

How can he remove linux and retain his bootable XP Pro?

Answers below in detail please!!!

 

[Will]

Remove Linux, and then repair the Windows install.

I know you want a detailed answer, but I've never done it myself. However, Windows repair will automagically repair the boot loader.

 

[Scouse]

I thought that - I presume if he tries to go ahead with a XP install it'll give him the option to repair???

 

[Will]

If he boots from the XP CD, he should get an option to repair a current install. Accept that, and let Windows work its magic. It shouldn't* format anything.

*Lack of confidence down to Will not using XP or Linux.

 

[Scouse]

Ta - that's what I thought...... Anyone else know any better?

 

[Sibanac]

boot windows
open command prompt
type fdisk /mbr

 

[Scouse]

I very rarely tell people that - there's a good chance that it'll fuck things over too badly - and it probably will in a dual-boot case.

 

[Testin da Cable]

in this case I'd go for windows repair tbh. not often I say that. don't dual-boot. just run unix dedicated

 

[evilmonkeh]

fdisk /mbr
works great
it rewrites the boot record
also try a program called "master booter"
that is nice too.