SillyDog701

[RedZL600]

I installed Mandrake 9.0 (Linux) on my machine. After trying for a while I felt that it still has a way to go. I could not get all of my hardware to work, soooooo gotta go. The only way I could figure to get it off my machine was to use Partition Magic to remove the partition and change the drive back to a Fat32. Now I have just one problem left, and that is the Boot Manager that pops up and gives you choices of Linux or Windows. I cannot seem to find this to remove it. Anyone have an idea ????? I guess I will stick with 98SE for a while.
Redzl600

UserAgent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)

[profman]

If you are referring to BootMagic, then Uninstall instructions can be found at:

http://www.powerquest.com/support/primus/id599.cfm


If you are using the older IBM Boot Manager, then it is a bit more involved. Powerquest has this to say about Boot Manager

When you install Boot Manager, PartitionMagic creates a separate primary partition and sets it active. When the computer starts, Boot Manager displays a startup menu that allows you to choose the partition to boot.

I believe to get rid of Boot Manager (failing to find an uninstall for it) you should:

1. Use PartitionMagic, or some other method to set the Boot Manager partition as inactive and set the primary partition with your desired OS as the active partition.

2. You may then delete the Boot Manager partition and merge its usable space into a neighboring partition or just leave it as inactive.

WARNING: Be careful. Failure to have an active partition with a bootable OS will result in problems!

UserAgent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows NT 5.0)

[RedZL600]

Profman......Voila!!! Your solution worked just fine...... Thanks Very Much!!! I just might have spent the rest of my sanity( whatever is left) trying to find that.

UserAgent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)

[Fulvio]

If you are referring to BootMagic, then Uninstall instructions can be found at:

http://www.powerquest.com/support/primus/id599.cfm


If you are using the older IBM Boot Manager, then it is a bit more involved. Powerquest has this to say about Boot Manager

When you install Boot Manager, PartitionMagic creates a separate primary partition and sets it active. When the computer starts, Boot Manager displays a startup menu that allows you to choose the partition to boot.

I believe to get rid of Boot Manager (failing to find an uninstall for it) you should:

1. Use PartitionMagic, or some other method to set the Boot Manager partition as inactive and set the primary partition with your desired OS as the active partition.

2. You may then delete the Boot Manager partition and merge its usable space into a neighboring partition or just leave it as inactive.

WARNING: Be careful. Failure to have an active partition with a bootable OS will result in problems!

You don't have to tell me about problems. Linux has already driven me nuts, with its propensity to take over. I,almost, like Microsoft products, after struggling for one month to get rid of the stupid thing. And, I have an active partition for my Windows.
Now, on rebooting Linux, I get nothing but :"No valid partition table found". Unfortunately, with the Caldera Linux Partition Magic, the Boot Manager remains active. I did not mind that, but I cannot even get that,now.

UserAgent: Mozilla/4.72C-CCK-MCD Caldera Systems OpenLinux [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.2.14 i586)

[DJGM]

This is one of those cases were the Linux boot manager should have put on a floppy disk!
That way, if (for whatever reason) you decide Linux is not for you, and you've installed it
in it's own seperate HDD partition, (preferably on a secondary HDD) you can just zap that
partition and no more Linux! Not even a Linux boot menu, as that would still be on the
floppy disk, which can be deleted easily by totally reformatting the floppy

So, you experienced hardware problems with Mandrake Linux 9.0, that has clearly soured
your opinion of Linux in general. To a point, I would agree that Linux still has some way to
go before absolutely everyone can be fully satisified with it. (In a way, so does Windows!)
Performance and stability wise, Linux makes an excellent alternative to Windows, or as an
extra operating system with which you can dual boot alongside the "Beast of Redmond!"

Having said that, when I first installed a Linux operating system on my PC for regular use,
about 18 months ago, (SuSE Linux 7.1) it was a bit rough around the edges, and it didn't
recognise all of my PC's hardware at first. It required some post install configuration for
my VGA card, sound card and my Ethernet card, but once I had cleared those relatively
minor hurdles, I found Linux to be a very pleasant alternative to the Beast.

Since then, in November last year, I purchased SuSE Linux 8.1 from a private seller on
an eBay UK auction. This, I found to be a huge improvement over than the SuSE 7.1
that it replaced, as the install was an absolute breeze, and it recognised ALL of my
hardware instantly! I'd say that the YaST installation program with SuSE Linux 8.1
has a plug+play hardware recognition facility that's comparable with, if not better
than that of Microsoft Windows! In addition to that, the souped up KDE3 desktop
looks so much more clean and professional looking, than the "Fisher Price" style
"in-yer-face" interface found in Windows XP! I say that even though I'm currently
writing this message while running Windows XP on my PC! The only problem I find
with Linux these days, is the lack of nice looking, anti-aliased fonts for third party
apps, and there being no easy way of getting Mozilla, Netscape7.x, Phoenix, and
other web browsers on Linux, with the Gecko engine, to display TrueType fonts!

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.3a) Gecko/20021207 Phoenix/0.5

[Fulvio]

just zap that
partition and no more Linux! Not even a Linux boot menu, as
that would still be on the floppy disk, which can be deleted
easily by totally reformatting the floppy!

But, what about my problems? I can't use the floppy drive, and that cussed MBR hangs around even after I try to remove.
Now, I cannot even get into Windows.
It may be the old version,but it never let go of its grip in one month, now I am a complete hostage, and I can't zap anything.
All this happened because I was curious about Linux, and Caldera had a built in Partition Magic. But, I did not realize how insiduous that MBR can be. Now, I am stuck in Linux, and, if I reboot it, I do not even have it..

Well. persevere, and if you do not go crazy first, you will figure out something, and I did. Now, I still have the booloader, but I boot in Windows. I tried to make changes in grub/menu_lst for the last twenty four hours, and it finally accepted what I enered.

UserAgent: Mozilla/4.72C-CCK-MCD Caldera Systems OpenLinux [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.2.14 i586)

[DJGM]

If Windows simply won't start when you switch on your PC, I think you'll
need to do what Microsoft refer to as an "in-place upgrade". Essentially,
this means inserting your Windows CD, rebooting your computer, and
re-installing Windows over the existing install. It works for me, and
has gotten me out of a few scrapes where Windows wouldn't boot.

This may be your last resort to get back into your Windows installation.
If this method does not work, you'll have to nuke your HDD, and start
again from scratch! Once you've re-installed Windows, either with the
"in-place upgrade" method, or by starting afresh with a cleaned HDD,
don't let this experience with a crappy, outdated Linux distro, sour
your overall view of Linux. In fact, as soon you've got Windows up
and running again, free up a few gigabytes, of spare unallocated
space on the end of your HDD, and get a copy of SuSE 8.1 on it!

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.0.2) Gecko/20021120 Netscape/7.01 (CK-DJGM-i.net)

[jubalj]

The solution to getn rid of GRUB or linux boot loaders, is to boot into windows or dos from your harddisk/cd/floopy and execute the following command on the command line:

fdisk /mbr

This will wipe the Master boot record. I.e now your computer will start up without a boot manager and will instead try to load the operating system from the active partion (you you'll need to ensure that you have the correct partition marked as active).

Additionally, this does not remove the '/boot' partion that you may have created if you are using GRUB (in particular). You could boot up with the latest Mandrake CD's and repartion your hardisk etc, if u didnt have a comercial program to do so.

Jubal

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030726