# Master Boot Record problem



## suraswami (Aug 10, 2007)

Hello,

I have this 200GB hard drive as my primary drive and 40GB WDC drive as a secondary drive. The 200 runs Windows XP professional. I wanted to try Ubuntu. So I booted from the secondary drive. The primary drive is also connected to the machine. Inserted the Ubuntu installation and installed on disk 2. All is well. But the installation did a annoying thing. It installed a menu (list of OSs available) on the primary HDDs boot record. It installed Ubuntu as the primary OS in the menu and this is annoying. I can't find a way to remove that.

If I format both the drives using the WD CD (that came with the retail 200G drive), will it get rid of all the things in the boot record so that I can re-install OSs separately? I have read on some other forums that people loosing their whole drive being unrecognizable. This 200G is brand new and just 1 month old.

Please help me do the right thing.

Appreciate your help on this matter.


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## niko084 (Aug 10, 2007)

Insert your xp disk and run the recovery console, login to your windows once its all loaded, and then type fixmbr.

This will completely clear and re-write your mbr and ONLY windows will boot then. If you want after that you can write your own boot loader and designate windows your primary if you like, or run it any other way you want.


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## suraswami (Aug 10, 2007)

Will this process overwrite all of XP installation files?  Do I need install all of the other software including SP2?


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## niko084 (Aug 10, 2007)

suraswami said:


> Will this process overwrite all of XP installation files?  Do I need install all of the other software including SP2?



Well it says you have a chance to lose all your data on the drive, but I have personally done it about over 500 times and never had an issue.


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## zCexVe (Aug 10, 2007)

Use test disk.Write a new MBR into the primary HDD.Then edit the boot menu in Windows.Right click computer->properties->Advanced->startup and recovery settings->edit.Remove any thing about ubutu.BUT DONT DELETE THE INDEXS ABOUT XP.


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## suraswami (Aug 10, 2007)

zCexVe said:


> Use test disk.Write a new MBR into the primary HDD.Then edit the boot menu in Windows.Right click computer->properties->Advanced->startup and recovery settings->edit.Remove any thing about ubutu.BUT DONT DELETE THE INDEXS ABOUT XP.



Should I install on a test disk and then take that boot record and copy it over to the original disk?


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## EnglishLion (Aug 10, 2007)

I made the same mistake with xp/ubuntu combo.  Fortunately for me it was a spare PC that I was testing with, so I just re-installed xp to one drive and then disconnected while I installed ubuntu to the second drive.  Now both drives are bootable seperately and all I need to do is select the one I want in the bios quick boot menu.

But then I got bored of ubuntu - good for office, internet etc but I didn't need/use it.  So I put my two drives into RAID0 XP config


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## zCexVe (Aug 11, 2007)

No there is a program called test disk.


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## psyko12 (Aug 14, 2007)

Same here tried it with my comp, it installed something called grub or what ever it was, made ubuntu primary, fixed it via xp recovery console fixmbr thing....


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