What to do when you remove Linux to retrieve the Windows boot menu

After removing Linux, the Linux lilo is still in the system, so the first interface that the machine starts can not go back to the menu that chooses Windows.

This article will tell you how to solve the problem:

As Linux becomes more widespread, many computer enthusiasts are also starting to install Linux on their love machines. As a result, the hard drive in addition to the original Windows system, but also to add a Linux, on the boot to see the first operating System selection menu has become a Linux lilo or grub.

After a while, some people decided to remove Linux because they were not used to Linux, or because of hard disk space constraints. Although the process of removing Linux was smooth, Lilo stayed. So how do you remove Lilo and restore the Windows startup interface?

LILO (or GRUB) is the boot manager for Linux. Most current Linux distributions default to mount Lilo to the master Boot Record (MBR) of the primary hard disk. This is why the first screen of the machine startup became the Linux lilo after installing Linux. When installing Linux, we can ask the installer to install the Linux boot Manager to another hard drive or boot floppy disk to prevent the Linux initiator from overwriting the MBR. However, for a user who installs Linux for the first time, or who uses automatic installation mode, it is likely that the Linux boot Manager will not be able to overwrite the MBR problem. After the MBR is overwritten, Windows itself's boot module is still not lost, but it now needs to be accessed through the Linux boot manager lilo or GRUB.

So how can you clear lilo or grub and return to the startup interface of Windows itself? For a system with only one windows, it's simple: make a boot floppy containing the FDISK program, start the machine with a floppy disk, and then execute FDISK/MBR on the command line. This command resets the MBR to allow the system to start Windows directly. However, if the system has multiple windows before installing Linux, running the FDISK/MBR command in this manner overrides the Windows multiple boot menu, allowing the machine to start only from the default primary operating system.

The quickest and most reliable way to clear Lilo or grub back to the previous Windows startup interface is to use the Recovery Console for Windows. The Recovery Console can be accessed from the Windows CD or installed on the system. If you are running the Recovery Console from a CD, assuming that the main operating system of the machine is Windows XP, start the machine with the WinXP CD, and when prompted, select Manual recovery (press R).

Installing the Recovery Console directly onto the system can speed up processing.

First, open the Win XP command Line window (select Menu "Start" → "Run", execute cmd); then, insert the WinXP disc on the CD-ROM and run the d:i386winnt32.exe/cmdcons command on the command line, where D: Is the letter of the CD-ROM drive. After the installation is complete, the Recovery Console can be selected from the Windows startup screen the next time you start.

If more than one Win XP system is installed on the machine, the Recovery Console prompts you to fix which win XP. At this point, you should select the last installed system and enter the administrator password to log in to the WinXP. On the command line, enter fixmbr and press ENTER. The system prompts that there is already an illegal startup record exists, do not bother, just confirm continue operation. Reboot, and the Windows boot menu is back again.