From: lenneis@wu-wien.ac.at (Joerg Lenneis) Subject: Re: Reinstalling MS-DOS Date: 14 Feb 1993 20:11:40 GMT
Christopher S. Wilson (cwilson@Xenon.Stanford.EDU) wrote:
: In article <wier-130293235718@csci-wiermac.etsu.edu> wier@merlin.etsu.edu (Bob Wier) writes:
: >I installed Linux on one of our 386 machines here, but
: >at this point need to de-install it (moving it to a
: >bigger machine, 386 going back to student lab). Using
: >Linux fdisk I can zap the partitions just fine. Then I do a
: >fdisk from MS-DOS 4.0 (trying to get ahold of 5) and it
: >seems to low level format ok. Then I do a format c: /v/s
: >and THAT seems to work ok. I can then switch to c: and
: >store files, etc. The only thing I CAN'T do is to BOOT
: >from the hd ( Maxtor 8051A ). I reallocated the entire
: >41 meg to MS-DOS, have it marked as Active, have it first
: >in the boot up chain, but zippo...can't boot except from
: >the floppy.
:
: I would guess that you installed LILO or some other Linux loader as
: the Master Boot Program in the Master Boot Record (MBR) of that drive.
: Now that MBR tries to load the rest of the boot loader from some
: preset place on what used to be the Linux partition and fails.
:
: If you have Norton Utilities, that may be the easiest way to fix it.
: Look under ``Master Boot Program'' in the index of the Disk Explorer
: manual that comes with Norton. For version 6.0, pages 3-39 through
: 3-43 has a detailed description of how to read this record off a hard
: drive on a working computer and put it on yours.
[ .... ]
I am not sure wether that was present in DOS 4.0 already, but
in DOS 5.0 you can use fdisk with an undocumented switch, /MBR.
This replaces (renews) your master boot record.