Remove linux dual boot from drive - Windows croaked?

Question

Windows croaked on my dual boot machine. Linux boots and runs just fine.

The windows XP disk can't see the drive. I'm guessing that the bootloader confuses Windows.

Bootloader is Grub.

How to remove it / make drive accessible?

Problme is, XP install cd boots up and says it can't find a hard drive (using R or not). Exact words:
Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed on your computer.
And yet my Knopppix CD can access it it no problem.
I also started an old W98 boot floppy and did the fdisk/MBR thing, but it had no effect.

Answer 1

reformat the xp side and start over I think

Answer 2

Run the windows XP installer disk, and when it asks if you want to repair the installation, say yes. Go to a command prompt and run FIXMBR
Alternatively, if you have it, run the Windows boot disk and run
fdisk /mbr

The info below is similar... should work for any linux bootloader or any distro.
----
Insert an XP installation CD and enter setup mode. Choose the recovery option and boot to the DOS command line. Execute the command "FIXMBR" and reboot. The "FIXMBR" command re-initializes the MBR with NTLDR.
The LILO(select Os) screen no longer appears and the PC boots straight into windows. The linux partitions appear in XP disk manager as "unknown." Use Disk manager to reformat the linux partitions as NTFS and assign a drive letter.


Edit: Sorry, you didn't say if you still want Linux accessible. If you do, then you need to set up grub to bootstrap the window kernel. the grub documentation should have an "example" config for setting up the windows boot.... Or, read this for more info. However, in order for the info on the next page to work, you STILL need to make sure NTLDR is restored to the MBR. Follow the instructions to complete all the tasks you need to in Linux, then restore NTLDR as described above, then follow the rest of the instructions to set up the dual-boot. Good luck!

http://www.geocities.com/epark/linux/grub-w2k-HOWTO.html

Edit 2: Bleh. You oughta just google for "dual boot grub windows XP" but anyway, there's this also, which only requires setting up grub and you don't need NTLDR at all (note, antivirus programs may complain if they don't see NTLDR on the MBR):

http://www.linuxcompatible.org/GRUB_cant_boot_windows_XP._t30932.html

title Microsoft Windows XP Pro
root (hd1,0)
map (hd1) (hd0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
makeactive
chainloader +1


Read the grub documentation to get more info on what these do. The chainloader +1 line is imperative.

Answer 3

The same thing happned to me except I had two drives one with windows the other with linux. The linux drive broke down so I had to replace the GRUB Bootloader with windows.

1. Boot from your XP Disk
2. type R for the recovery console
3. then folow the insrtuctions.
4. then type in something like FIXMBR. I forgot.

you could type Help and it will give you a list of commands. then look for the one that looks closest to what I said

Hope It Works!

Answer 4

No, you have to edit the GRUB configuration file, usually located on your linux partition. I'll come back to this question to tell you exactly what to do..............