Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Uninstalling Red Hat Linux

Jul 10, 2005 2:13PM PDT

k...i'm new to the forums...i've got 2 qns

1. cleanly removing rh linux 9...i jst formatted the drive tht had linux installed on it...but i cant boot into windows xp coz it says tht the grub bootloader is missing...so wht do i do to remove linux without having to format my windows partition too...

2. does linux automatically detect usb drives...cant seem to get my usb drive to work with rh linux...the system hangs whn i connect my usb drive...

some suggestions plez...thnx

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Re:uninstalling Red Hat Linux
Oct 25, 2005 4:54AM PDT

Hi! I think you can recover your boot loader running the winXP instalation CD in upgrade mode (it will repair it) Another option is to run the Red Hat install in the rescue mode and choosse the remove boot loader option. I did it with red Hat 7.1 that was my firt linux installation, dont ask me how.

Good luck ! and don't give up with linux

- Collapse -
Hello
Oct 27, 2005 11:36PM PDT

What mierr says will probably work, but this is the book answer:

Put your WinXP recovery or installation disk in the drive. When it asks you what to do, type "R" for rescue. You will get a prompt. Type "fixmbr" and hit enter. It may take a while.

When the computer reboots you should be good to go.

MAKE A BACKUP FIRST!!! Repairing your Master Boot Record can in some cases make it impossible to access the data on your drive, in which case you are screwed without a backup.

To make a backup, i suggest you use Knoppix to make a quick mirror on the drive you used to have RedHat on. You can restore your main drive easily from that later on if you need to. Depending on how much you have stored under windows, it may take a while.

As far as USB, you have to either have a hotplugging subsystem installed and running or mount and unmount it manually each time.

Good Luck!