Remove Win2000 Boot Loader

[danjam]

Hi,

Does anyone know how to get the Windows 2000 boot loader (or whatever it is
called) off of a hard drive? That is, the part when the computer is booting
and the white, text mode progress indicator runs. When I install Windows XP
on a new hard drive, that progress bar is not there, but I can't get rid of
it from any drive that has been a boot drive for Windows 2000.

Thank you,
DEJ

 

[Abhijeet Nigam [MSFT]]

Hi,

If you remove the boot loader sure machine is not going to boot
The white bar in windows 2000 does not show the boot loader sequence
it actually shows the loading of kernel mode drivers
the same white bar function is performed within the black screen of Windows
XP
ie that is Windows XP does not have white bar by design

If you more information please reply back


Abhijeet Nigam

 

[Chen]

There is a dangerous way... And that is running "fdisk /mbr", but it will
also remove ALL PARITIONS. I suggest you to remove all other harddisks
before clearing the MBR.

Another way for doing it is to use the excellent linux tool "dd"... But
that's even more dangerous ;-).

// Chen

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hi,

Does anyone know how to get the Windows 2000 boot loader (or whatever it is
called) off of a hard drive? That is, the part when the computer is booting
and the white, text mode progress indicator runs. When I install Windows XP
on a new hard drive, that progress bar is not there, but I can't get rid of
it from any drive that has been a boot drive for Windows 2000.

Thank you,
DEJ

If you get rid of it then Win2000 won't load! To make it invisible,
just set timeout=0 in the hidden file c:\boot.ini.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

This is incorrect: fdisk /mbr will restore the Windows Master Boot
Record. It will certainly not delete any partitions.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

In

There is a dangerous way... And that is running "fdisk /mbr", but it
will also remove ALL PARITIONS.

Sorry, that's not correct. It doesn't remove partitions at all.

 

[Tom]

This is incorrect: fdisk /mbr will restore the Windows Master Boot
Record. It will certainly not delete any partitions.

Well, in an case, the FDISK commands won't work in 2000 or XP, never has,
and never will!

 

[Chen]

Well, just checked it up, you're right. fdisk is not destroying the
partition table, but you should be awear of that the partition table is in
MBR too (at the end of the sector).

// Chen

 

[Chen]

Yes, true, it won't work inside 2k or XP... But you can start from a
bootdisk (www.bootdisk.com) instead!

// Chen

 

[Chen]

But... don't forget that boot.ini is a "hidden file" and
"write-protected"... ;-)

The easiest way for changing it is to use msconfig. (start->run, msconfig,
OK)

// Chen

 

[Tom]

Yes, true, it won't work inside 2k or XP... But you can start from a
bootdisk (www.bootdisk.com) instead!

Still wrong, you cannot use a bootdisk to fix XP. If you use a bootdisk, the
only thing that the FDISK utility will do is delete the non DOS partition or
if XP was FAT**, then it can remove that too. But it does not have the
ability to fix the boot configuration (especially so if the install is
NTFS). It does not have the ability to work as a setup disk for loading XP.

The only thing FDISK can do other than to delete, is to set different
partitions as "active" in the case of different OSes being loaded onto their
own Primary partitions. But there are bootloaders that are faster and more
efficient than FDISK is.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Still wrong, you cannot use a bootdisk to fix XP. If you use a bootdisk, the
only thing that the FDISK utility will do is delete the non DOS partition or
if XP was FAT**, then it can remove that too. But it does not have the
ability to fix the boot configuration (especially so if the install is
NTFS). It does not have the ability to work as a setup disk for loading XP.

The only thing FDISK can do other than to delete, is to set different
partitions as "active" in the case of different OSes being loaded onto their
own Primary partitions. But there are bootloaders that are faster and more
efficient than FDISK is.

Close but not entirely correct. Booting a WinXP PC with a Win98
boot disk lets you do this with fdisk.exe:
- Delete FAT/FAT32 partitions (as you said)
- Delete a primary NTFS partition (as you said)
- Restore the MBR (which you think it cannot do)

On the other hand, fdisk cannot delete a logical NTFS partition.

 

[Chen]

Huh? I didn't say that you could "fix XP" with it. I just said that there's
a way for running fdisk even if you use XP or 2k. The OPs question was "how
can you remove the win2k bootloader?", and fdisk can do that.

// Chen

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Huh? I didn't say that you could "fix XP" with it. I just said that there's
a way for running fdisk even if you use XP or 2k. The OPs question was "how
can you remove the win2k bootloader?", and fdisk can do that.

No, fdisk.exe cannot remove the Win2000 boot loader
(unless you decide to delete the whole partition . . .).
If you disagree then I ask you to state how you use fdisk.exe
to remove the Win2000 boot loader.

 

[Chen]

http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...pport/kb/articles/Q69/0/13.ASP&NoWebContent=1

http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2002/08/fhassel_deinstall_lilo.html (basicly,
for all bootloaders that writes themself to MBR)

"fdisk /mbr"

It clears the MBR. Well, there is, of cource, files left on the NTFS
partition... Fdisk can't handle those files though (but "the user", with
help of Windows XP/2k can ).

// Chen

 

[CZ]

"fdisk /mbr"

It clears the MBR. Well, there is, of course, files left on the NTFS
partition... Fdisk can't handle those files though (but "the user", with
help of Windows XP/2k can ).

Chen:

There are two "boot loaders".

One is the code in the MBR section of the hard disk.
This can be replaced by running fdisk /mbr

The other is in a partition and is called the partition boot loader.
It is not replaced by fdisk /mbr

When a computer boots, the MBR queries the partition table for the active
primary partition.
Control is then passed to the partition boot loader of that partition.

No, it cannot.
And, the code in the MBR section of the hard disk is generic. I have used
DOS to replace it for various Windows computers.

 

[Chen]

That's correct... but not for 2k/XP...

Usually, MBR is calling the code in the active partition's boot record, but
the XP/2k bootloader is placing itself in MBR for "dualboot" support (you
know, the nice bootmenu). That's not neccessary (Lilo and Grub can be placed
in other places), but it's still doing it...

see http://www.qvctc.commnet.edu/classes/csc277/boot-xp.html

and http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/LILO-3.html ("During the NT installation,
setup is not going to ask you where to place NT's boot loader, so it would
be placed into the MBR (Master Boot Record) of your hard disk"

// Chen

 

[Chen]

But, the weird part is that Windows 2k/XP seems to be both writing to MBR
and the normal bootrecord (Lilo and Grub is getting overwritten if you
install windows after linux)... The main part (NTLDR) seems to be written to
the partitions boot record...

// Chen

 

[Tom]

Huh? I didn't say that you could "fix XP" with it. I just said that there's
a way for running fdisk even if you use XP or 2k. The OPs question was "how
can you remove the win2k bootloader?", and fdisk can do that.

Still wrong, so why don't you try it with a bootdisk and make your case?



FDISK is a DOS utility that resides in 98/ME bootdisks, and not anywhere on a 2000 or XP CD install disk.



But I will cover here your reply back to pegasus with your links decribing what YOU THINK IT SAYS (you need to learn reading comprehension skills) :



http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...rticles/Q69/0/13.ASP&NoWebContent=1#appliesto



Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 69013



<skipped article to relevant Operating systems that pertain to article, listed at the bottom of the page>



The information in this article applies to (not 2000 or XP!!) :
a.. Microsoft MS-DOS operating system
b.. Microsoft Windows 95
c.. Microsoft Windows 98
d.. Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition"""
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2002/08/fhassel_deinstall_lilo.html



Uninstalling the Boot Manager LILO from the MBR
Applies to: SUSE LINUX (READ CAREFULLY!!!)
Situation
You want to remove LILO from the hard disk's MBR (Master Boot Record).
(PLEASE NOTE: if you read what the "FDISK /mbr" will do, it will remove the LILO boot config from) :
Procedure with DOS and Windows 9x/ME boot disks
Use fdisk for this purpose. Create a rescue disk under DOS or Windows 9x/ME, use it to boot the machine, and start fdisk with:

fdisk /mbr (This simply removes the LILO bootloader from 98/ME!!!)_________________________________________________________

Procedure with OS/2 boot disks
The command under OS/2 reads:

fdisk /newmbr (This simply removes the LILO bootloader from OS/2!!!)---------------------------------------------------------------(Now for 2000 and XP (AND READ IT CHRIST'S SAKE and note the addins I placed in RED !!!)Procedure with Windows XP
Under Windows XP, you can restore the original MBR (thus uninstalling Lilo) as follows:

Boot from the Windows XP CD (Do you see a bootdisk?), press the key "R" in the setup in order to start the restoration console. Select your Windows XP installation from the list, and enter the administrator password. Enter the command "FIXMBR (is this FDISK /MBR?)" at the input prompt and confirm the next question with "y". Finally, use "exit" to restore the computer.

Procedure with Windows 2000
Boot from the Windows 2000 CD (Do you see a bootdisk?), press the key "R" in the setup and the key "K" in the next menu in order to start the restoration console. Select your Windows 2000 installation from the list and enter the administrator password. Enter the command "FIXMBR (is this FDISK /MBR?)" at the input prompt and confirm the next question with "y". Finally, use "exit" to restart the computer.

 

[CZ]

That's correct... but not for 2k/XP...

Usually, MBR is calling the code in the active partition's boot record, but
the XP/2k bootloader is placing itself in MBR for "dualboot" support (you
know, the nice bootmenu).

Chen:

The bootup concept has not changed since NT 3.x, and applies to all NT based
op systems thru XP and Win2k3 server.

The boot sequence: BIOS > MBR > primary partition boot sector > ntldr >
boot.ini > ntdetect > ntldr > ntoskrnl/hal/system hive > win32 subsystem.

The MS boot code in the MBR does not know what a dual boot is.
The partition boot code calls the ntldr file which uses the boot.ini file to
display the dual boot menu. The boot.ini file is in drive C:, it is not in
the MBR sector of the hard disk. The same is true for the partition boot
code.

The MS boot code in the MBR is generic, I have used DOS fdisk /mbr on a
computer with Win XP on it without problems.
The lowest level 2k/XP specific boot code is the primary partition boot
loader, not the MBR code.