Restoring mbr so i can boot

My question might be a bit hard to understand. Let me describe it in an example. Say i install linux to the mbr with windows xp as my dual boot. It puts LILO as the mbr and will always boot from that. Something goes wrong with linux, and i need to get back in windows, but i try to boot from it and it gives me some boot error and doesnt work. Is there anyway i can restore the original windows xp mbr boot program to the mbr? If so can you guys give me any links or anything that would help me. Thanks in advance.

Boot using a Win98/Me bootdisk, and at the command prompt type: fdisk /mbr. You could also boot to the XP Recovery Console and type: fixmbr ...both of which perform the same function.

Can i use a Windows XP Home boot disk for a Windows XP Pro install?

Just go here...

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

...and download the OEM version of the Win98 or WinMe bootdisk. The downloaded *.exe when run will create a bootdisk (containing the FDISK tool, among other things) for you.

ziggo0 said:

Can i use a Windows XP Home boot disk for a Windows XP Pro install?

Click to expand...

That should work fine.


I accually did this same thing. I had a WinXP and RedHat dual boot. I ran out of space and decided to turn the RedHat partitions into another ntfs partition. I forgot all about the mbr until the next time I rebooted.

I just booted off the WinXP disk, and typed fixmbr in the recovery console, and Windows booted fine.


RideGuy

LILO should be able to boot either.

http://www.linuxpowered.com/LDP/HOWTO/Linux+WinNT-3.html

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/install-guide/ch-x86-dualboot.html

http://www.pmg.lcs.mit.edu/~chandra/install/install_dualboot.html

Best