Removing dual-boot with linux

[John Grogan]

Hi,
I have a machine that had a partition with linux. Win 2k
is the primary OS. I decided to remove linux and use the
partition as a file store instead.

I re-formated the partition in NTFS format and rebooted my
machine, but it will not load win2k anymore. It loads a
very basic kernel called grub! No matter what I do to the
setup upon reboot, it just won't load win 2k from the c
drive (as it used to).

I've tried booting with 4 floppys but that only wants to
reinstall win2k on my machine and not let me access the c
drive.
Any ideas?
Many thanks,
John.

 

[Leonard Severt [MSFT]]

Hi,
I have a machine that had a partition with linux. Win 2k
is the primary OS. I decided to remove linux and use the
partition as a file store instead.

I re-formated the partition in NTFS format and rebooted my
machine, but it will not load win2k anymore. It loads a
very basic kernel called grub! No matter what I do to the
setup upon reboot, it just won't load win 2k from the c
drive (as it used to).

I've tried booting with 4 floppys but that only wants to
reinstall win2k on my machine and not let me access the c
drive.
Any ideas?
Many thanks,
John.

What you need is a Windows 2000 startup disk, not the 4 setup disk. Take
a look at this article.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;119467

Your boot.ini will probably need to read

[boot loader]
timeout=30
Default= multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\winnt

[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\winnt="Microsoft Windows 2000
Server" /fastdetect

Now you may run into a problem with the drive letter not being correct
in Windows 2000. More likely though it will just show drive letters out
of sequence in Disk Managment. Once you are booting Windows 2000 with
the floppy it is a simple process to get it booting from the hard drive.
Copy the 3 files ntldr, ntdetect.com and boot.ini from the floppy to
your first drive. Then boot from the Windows 2000 CD into recovery
console. Once there run fixboot and fixmbr. The system should boot from
the hard drive at that point.

Leonard Severt

Windows 2000 Server Setup Team

 

[philo]

Hi,
I have a machine that had a partition with linux. Win 2k
is the primary OS. I decided to remove linux and use the
partition as a file store instead.

I re-formated the partition in NTFS format and rebooted my
machine, but it will not load win2k anymore. It loads a
very basic kernel called grub! No matter what I do to the
setup upon reboot, it just won't load win 2k from the c
drive (as it used to).

I've tried booting with 4 floppys but that only wants to
reinstall win2k on my machine and not let me access the c
drive.
Any ideas?
Many thanks,
John.

Just boot with your win2k cd
and from the repair console there are two commands you can use:

fixboot

fixmbr

 

[John Grogan]

Leonard - that worked perfectly. Many thanks for your help
and happy new year.
Best,
John.

-----Original Message-----

[email protected]:

Hi,
I have a machine that had a partition with linux. Win 2k
is the primary OS. I decided to remove linux and use the
partition as a file store instead.

I re-formated the partition in NTFS format and rebooted my
machine, but it will not load win2k anymore. It loads a
very basic kernel called grub! No matter what I do to the
setup upon reboot, it just won't load win 2k from the c
drive (as it used to).

I've tried booting with 4 floppys but that only wants to
reinstall win2k on my machine and not let me access the c
drive.
Any ideas?
Many thanks,
John.

What you need is a Windows 2000 startup disk, not the 4 setup disk. Take
a look at this article.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en- us;119467

Your boot.ini will probably need to read

[boot loader]
timeout=30
Default= multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\winnt

[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\winnt="Microsoft Windows 2000
Server" /fastdetect

Now you may run into a problem with the drive letter not being correct
in Windows 2000. More likely though it will just show drive letters out
of sequence in Disk Managment. Once you are booting Windows 2000 with
the floppy it is a simple process to get it booting from the hard drive.
Copy the 3 files ntldr, ntdetect.com and boot.ini from the floppy to
your first drive. Then boot from the Windows 2000 CD into recovery
console. Once there run fixboot and fixmbr. The system should boot from
the hard drive at that point.

Leonard Severt

Windows 2000 Server Setup Team