Fixing my Win XP Boot (recovering from a bad linux/GRUB install)

R

riffin-rich

Hello all. I need to ask for some help with another problem.
Background/history: I installed Fedora Core 6 Linux on my Win XP
system and it worked great with the dual boot (via GRUB installed to
the MBR). Unfortunately, I changed my mind over partition preferences
and decided to reinstall FC6, but, I fouled-up during the
repartitioning--I didn't install the /boot partition first and I wound
up with a corrupt install. Bottom line: even after I removed the
Linux partitions (and was left only with Win XP on my first
partition), my boot was still accomplished via GRUB, which remained in
the MBR ... a GRUB process that failed because there was no Linux /
etc/grub.conf file to run.

With some help from John John in this forum, I managed to restore my
Win XP boot using the Restore/FIXMBR process, but I'm still noticing a
remnant of GRUB's(?) process remaining. Immediately following the
BIOS screen, my system displays two lines about pre-eXecution
environment (sorry I didn't write them down) and then about four more
lines before doing the Win XP boot process:

CLIENT MAC ADDR: (my MAC address is displayed)
GUID: 8077... (lots of hex characters here ... like more than 20 or
so?)
DHCP ... (the system sits for a minute looking for a DHCP server ...
there's some
cursor automation while the system waits for about 10 more seconds)

PXE-M0F: Exiting PXE ROM.

Something else flashes on my screen for a moment before it finally
boots WinXP.

Any ideas on how to get rid of this and get back to a pristine XP
boot? Thanks so much!!! Rich
 
M

Malke

riffin-rich said:
Hello all. I need to ask for some help with another problem.
Background/history: I installed Fedora Core 6 Linux on my Win XP
system and it worked great with the dual boot (via GRUB installed to
the MBR). Unfortunately, I changed my mind over partition preferences
and decided to reinstall FC6, but, I fouled-up during the
repartitioning--I didn't install the /boot partition first and I wound
up with a corrupt install. Bottom line: even after I removed the
Linux partitions (and was left only with Win XP on my first
partition), my boot was still accomplished via GRUB, which remained in
the MBR ... a GRUB process that failed because there was no Linux /
etc/grub.conf file to run.

With some help from John John in this forum, I managed to restore my
Win XP boot using the Restore/FIXMBR process, but I'm still noticing a
remnant of GRUB's(?) process remaining. Immediately following the
BIOS screen, my system displays two lines about pre-eXecution
environment (sorry I didn't write them down) and then about four more
lines before doing the Win XP boot process:

CLIENT MAC ADDR: (my MAC address is displayed)
GUID: 8077... (lots of hex characters here ... like more than 20 or
so?)
DHCP ... (the system sits for a minute looking for a DHCP server ...
there's some
cursor automation while the system waits for about 10 more seconds)

PXE-M0F: Exiting PXE ROM.

Something else flashes on my screen for a moment before it finally
boots WinXP.

Any ideas on how to get rid of this and get back to a pristine XP
boot? Thanks so much!!! Rich

This doesn't have anything to do with the Linux install per se. You
probably changed the boot order in the BIOS and one of the places your
computer is looking for boot files is on a network - that's what the PXE
bit means. You don't have a PXE server naturally, so that times out and
finally goes to the hard drive.

So go into your BIOS and set your boot order to either an optical drive
first and then hd0 next or hd0 first/optical drive second (your choice).


Malke
 
R

riffin-rich

Thank you sir! I did change my boot order to put the cd/dvd drive
before the HDD, and the bios option to do that also included floppy
and LAN queries prior to the HDD. To think I almost formatted my hard
drive over this one. I would not have been very happy when I
discovered the "problem" was still there. ;-) Thanks so much for
your time and do have a great day! Regards, Rich
 
M

Malke

riffin-rich said:
Thank you sir! I did change my boot order to put the cd/dvd drive
before the HDD, and the bios option to do that also included floppy
and LAN queries prior to the HDD. To think I almost formatted my hard
drive over this one. I would not have been very happy when I
discovered the "problem" was still there. ;-) Thanks so much for
your time and do have a great day! Regards, Rich

Glad that solved it for you. Thanks for taking the time to let me know.


Malke
 

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