Getting rid of Linux?

[jpbtennisman]

I have Linux Mandrake 7.2 and I tried it out...but it seems that it just isn't for me. I tried deleting the Linux folder (lnx4win) but now whenever I start my computer up, I get this screen that says GRUB> and asks me to type something in. How do I totally get rid of all signs of this? I tried formatting and reformatting and it didn't work. HELP!

[Tyr-7BE]

lnx4win? No wonder it wasn't for you!

Hrmm...what version of windows are you running? I believe that fdisk has the option to fix your master boot record.

[RageAHolic]

For Win9X, boot from a Win9X startup disk, at the prompt:

fdisk /mbr

[jpbtennisman]

RageAHolic, why am I going to use FDISK? I would only consider it because more than one person said to do that. But would I lose my data if I did? I have a Windows 98 boot disk BTW that might help me get into DOS.

Tyr-7BE, I am using Windows 2000. Why is lnx4win worse than Linux? I had problems where it wouldn't enter a graphical mode..but that was something i could probably fix if i wanted to take time.

[ 31 March 2001: Message edited by: J.P. Balletta ]

[DMR]

RageAHolic, why am I going to use FDISK? I would only consider it because more than one person said to do that. But would I lose my data if I did?

Don't worry. When used with the /mbr switch, fdisk only rewrites/restores the master boot record (and thereby eliminates Grub). It doesn't
muck with your partitions in this case.

[ 31 March 2001: Message edited by: DMR ]

[Aikidoka]

Originally posted by DMR:
Don't worry. When used with the /mbr switch, fdisk only rewrites/restores the master boot record (and thereby eliminates Grub). It doesn't
muck with your partitions in this case.

[ 31 March 2001: Message edited by: DMR ]

That's true. Now you got 3 people telling you the same thing.

[jpbtennisman]

OK now I believe you all! Well if this formats my HD I'm going to kill you! JK

[Aikidoka]

Come on, I'll be waiting.

[Marcel2008]

Originally posted by J.P. Balletta:
OK now I believe you all! Well if this formats my HD I'm going to kill you! JK

Ever heard of backups? These people are trying to help you! Don't be so rude.
And YES only the master boot record is restored.

[DMR]

OK now I believe you all! Well if this formats my HD I'm going to kill you! JK

Shaolin Master say: "Ahh, grasshopper... your anger and frustration make you lose focus. Strong enemy will see this, and use your weakness to his advantage!"

Anyway, Marcel2008 has it: even though fdisk /mbr is a fairly harmless maneouver, always back up your system before making any low-level modifications. And by the way- fdisk doesn't format your drive, it's a partition tool. If you use it incorrectly, it may delete a partition, but to really fsck things up by formatting the drive, you need to invoke the DOS format command ;)

[jpbtennisman]

Sorry..but I am very experienced with Windows and have a little experience in DOS, but I know zilch about linux and I have never used FDISK before. I just flipped when I heard the name ;-)

[sans-hubris]

You shouldn't shudder when you hear the name fdisk. I think the problem a lot of expert Windows users have with Linux is the idea of partitioning their hard drive. They're not familiar with the topic because they never touched the DOS prompt, much less fdisk. They never touched fdisk because they were (correctly so) told that it can really screw up the hard drive if used incorrectly, but, I think that if a person can read, I don't think he/she will have a hard time understanding the general idea of fdisk when they run it (M$ fdisk is rather verbose).

Why lnx4win is a bad Linux:
Linux isn't allowed to create it's own native partition, but rather has to go through the overhead of creating a filesystem image (similar to creating a cdrom image) and this can slow the system down quite a bit. Not only that, because it's lying on top of an already unstable filesystem type (FAT), that makes the Linux file system even that much more unstable.

Here's a few suggestions if you would like to come back and try Linux:
-Learn how operating systems in general work, this will speed learning
-Learn all you can about your hardware
-Get a second hard drive that you'd be willing to format many times over (for some distros, it doesn't even have to be that big), or (the more expensive option) get another computer. This is prolly one of the most important suggestions I can make to you.
-Backup, backup, backup, you know the drill. This is generally just a good suggestion, even if you decide not to install Linux ever again.

[jpbtennisman]

Originally posted by ndogg:
You shouldn't shudder when you hear the name fdisk. I think the problem a lot of expert Windows users have with Linux is the idea of partitioning their hard drive. They're not familiar with the topic because they never touched the DOS prompt, much less fdisk. They never touched fdisk because they were (correctly so) told that it can really screw up the hard drive if used incorrectly, but, I think that if a person can read, I don't think he/she will have a hard time understanding the general idea of fdisk when they run it (M$ fdisk is rather verbose).

Why lnx4win is a bad Linux:
Linux isn't allowed to create it's own native partition, but rather has to go through the overhead of creating a filesystem image (similar to creating a cdrom image) and this can slow the system down quite a bit. Not only that, because it's lying on top of an already unstable filesystem type (FAT), that makes the Linux file system even that much more unstable.

Here's a few suggestions if you would like to come back and try Linux:
-Learn how operating systems in general work, this will speed learning
-Learn all you can about your hardware
-Get a second hard drive that you'd be willing to format many times over (for some distros, it doesn't even have to be that big), or (the more expensive option) get another computer. This is prolly one of the most important suggestions I can make to you.
-Backup, backup, backup, you know the drill. This is generally just a good suggestion, even if you decide not to install Linux ever again.

1) I have touched a command prompt, but I've screwed my computer over twice with FDISK and I didn't want to do it again.

2) FAT32 is unstable? What about NTFS?

[jpbtennisman]

Thanks, just got rid of the Pixelized Penguin in the Tux (the image appeared stretched out on my computer). Good riddance lnx4win, maybe some other day.

Although that penguin is very cute! :-)