MBR removal
in [Suse]
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From: Chuck on 5 Nov 2005 03:01 I have a hard disk that would not boot and gave grub errors after installing 9.3. I thought I'd give it a go with 10.0 but I still get the same error.(see below) Grub loading 1.5 Error 17 Looks like this error has something to do with a problem in the MBR and since nothing else has worked(I did reinstall grub) I would like to remove GRUB completely and start over. Problem is a fresh install gave the same error and NOT ONE of the mbr utilities that I have tried has able to wipe the MBR out. Actually, everyone says to use windows fdisk /mbr to do this. I have also used delpart in the past to great success but I don't think I even have a win98 startup disk anymore and to tell you the truth, I'd like to know how I can manage this on Linux. So far, I am AMAZED at how hard this seems to be. What gives? dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda didn't work MBRwiz didn't work with ./mbrwiz -Wipe=1 or 2 grub>root setup didn't do it either When I boot I still get a grub error. Now it's changed to Error 5. Is this some virus from hell and won't go away? Thanks, Chuck
From: Kevin Nathan on 5 Nov 2005 03:25 On Sat, 05 Nov 2005 00:01:29 -0800 Chuck <chuck(a)spamcop.net> wrote: > dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda didn't work Try: su (enter root password) dd if=/dev/null of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1 but be aware that this will not only wipe out the MBR but also completely trash your partition table. If you want to save the partition table, do: su (enter root password) dd if=/dev/null of=/dev/hda bs=446 count=1 Or, if you want a completely wiped hard drive, do: su (enter root password) dd if=/dev/null of=/dev/hda bs=16384 and go watch a movie . . . ;-) -- Kevin Nathan (Arizona, USA) Linux Potpourri and a.o.l.s. FAQ -- http://www.project54.com/linux/ Open standards. Open source. Open minds. The command line is the front line. Linux 2.6.8-24.18-default 1:19am up 12 days 0:29, 10 users, load average: 0.12, 0.12, 0.11
From: Dik Voorthuis on 5 Nov 2005 06:34 Chuck wrote: > I have a hard disk that would not boot and gave grub errors after > installing 9.3. I thought I'd give it a go with 10.0 but I still get > the same error.(see below) > > Grub loading 1.5 > > Error 17 > > Looks like this error has something to do with a problem in the MBR > and since nothing else has worked(I did reinstall grub) I would like > to remove > GRUB completely and start over. Problem is a fresh install gave the > same error and NOT ONE of the mbr utilities that I have tried has able > to > wipe the MBR out. Actually, everyone says to use windows fdisk /mbr > to do > this. I have also used delpart in the past to great success but I > don't think I even have a win98 startup disk anymore and to tell you > the truth, > I'd like to know how I can manage this on Linux. So far, I am AMAZED > at > how hard this seems to be. What gives? > > dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda didn't work > MBRwiz didn't work with ./mbrwiz -Wipe=1 or 2 > grub>root setup didn't do it either > > When I boot I still get a grub error. Now it's changed to Error 5. > Is this some virus from hell and won't go away? > > Thanks, > Chuck Installing a boot loader can be tricky. The meaning of the Grub errors can be found in the grub documentation (info grub, or type ##grub in the url field of a konqueror window). Error 17: (cannot mount partition) means grub does not recognize the filesystem type it is trying to mount. One of the possible causes for this is that you specified the wrong partition in menu.lst. Usually it is not very difficult to recover from this. It is _not_ a problem with the MBR. Error 5 is much worse: the partition table is invalid or corrupt, this makes your system unbootable. Probably it got corrupted by your attempts to wipe the MBR. -- DV.
From: Nikolai Försterling on 5 Nov 2005 09:51 > but be aware that this will not only wipe out the MBR but also > completely trash your partition table. If you want to save the > partition table, do: > > su > (enter root password) > dd if=/dev/null of=/dev/hda bs=446 count=1 be careful! you have to switch if and of if you want to SAVE the partition table. the command above will ERASE it! -- lg niko icq:# 129022192 ________________________________ Spielen ist experimentieren mit dem Zufall (Novalis)
From: Chuck on 5 Nov 2005 12:01
On Sat, 05 Nov 2005 01:25:10 -0700, Kevin Nathan wrote: > su > (enter root password) > dd if=/dev/null of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1 The immediate output of this command is: 0+0 records in 0+0 records out I've run this many times and it looks like the disk doesn't even move. When booting I'm still get error 17 even after trying another full install. This time Ubuntu with ext3 on the primary partition. Thought I'd try a different file system completely but it was to no avail. > su > (enter root password) > dd if=/dev/null of=/dev/hda bs=446 count=1 > > > Or, if you want a completely wiped hard drive, do: > > su > (enter root password) > dd if=/dev/null of=/dev/hda bs=16384 > > and go watch a movie . . . ;-) Did do this last night > I watched episodes 4,5,6 of The Scene. Came back and got grub error 5 but was surprised as heck that the machine still attempts to load GRUB. For once I would love to see the message "Operating system not found". <g> Thanks, Chuck |