I’ve been evangelizing GNU/Linux where I work, but I was recently forced to revert my Linux/Windows dual-boot to a pure Windows installation and reclaim the Linux partitions for use by Windows.
After booting into Windows, I used the Logical Disk Manager to delete the ext3 and swap partitions and create an NTFS partition. All was well until my next reboot, when I was greeted with:
GRUB Error 17
GRUB had been installed to load its configuration files from the Linux partition. Which I’d blitzed. I now needed some way to overwrite GRUB with the Windows bootloader. Traditionally this is achieved using fdisk by running:
fdisk /mbr
With Windows XP, fdisk is available from the Recovery Console; boot from the Windows XP installation CD and follow the prompts until you are given the option to recover an existing Windows installation. Unfortunately – due perhaps to some quirk of how GRUB installed itself – the Windows Setup process blue-screened at the
Setup is starting Windows
stage. I could have booted Linux using a LiveCD and re-installed GRUB with a configuration that simply booted into Windows, but I didn’t trust GRUB to be able to install its configuration files into an NTFS parition without trashing the partition. Enter the Super GRUB Disk.
The Super GRUB Disk is a nifty boot disk that makes it easer for a novice user to recover a system or experiment with GRUB without inadvertently rendering the system unbootable. Navigating the basic menus for booting a Windows partition gave me what I needed to get my system up and running. Using Super GRUB Disk version 0.9766 (baed on GRUB 0.97-os.1) the menu sequence was:
Choose language & NO HELP<Language> Boot Disk(for me: English)WindowsBoot from 2nd partition (Laptop)
Being a Dell, the first partition on my system is the Dell Utility partition and the second is the active NTFS partition, so this option was exactly what I needed. There are also options to boot from other hard disks, and to, of course, install the Windows bootloader (the equivalent of fdisk /mbr).
More information about the various options is available from the Choose language & HELP menu option, and from Herman’s Super Grub Disk Documentation, an excellent reference.
